CHICAGO (WGN) — In just one day, former Democratic Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan will report to prison to begin serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence.
The longtime political figure was convicted in February on 10 of 23 counts in a remarkable corruption trial that lasted four months. The case churned through 60 witnesses and mountains of documents, photographs and taped conversations.
Madigan was sentenced to 90 months in prison, along with a $2.5 million fine, the statutory maximum. He has until 2 p.m. Monday to turn himself in.
University of Illinois Chicago political science professor Dick Simpson, who has studied Chicago politics for decades, testified as an expert witness during the trial.
“The evidence was overwhelming, the jury's decisions on 10 counts, which he was c