American Notes Chicago

Convicted on more than 50 counts of fraud and racketeering, Cook County Circuit Judge Richard F. LeFevour, 54, faced a possible 300 years in prison and fines of $103,000 when he appeared last week, gaunt and obviously unwell, for sentencing by U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle. "The man is dying," Defense Lawyer Patrick Tuite asserted, and Norgle announced that because the defendant suffers from a rare liver disease, he was setting the penalty at only twelve years in prison. LeFevour had been charged with taking some $400,000 in bribes to fix drunken-driving cases and parking tickets in Cook County traffic court. Declared Norgle: "Richard LeFevour had to decide whether to remain an honest judge. Again and again and again, he made a personal, informed, voluntary decision to accept unlawful compensation."

LeFevour became the fourth Chicago-area judge convicted as a result of a federal probe called Greylord. Last week was bad all over for the judiciary: in Mississippi, U.S. District Judge Walter L. Nixon Jr., charged with taking oil-well royalties as a bribe and with perjury, became the third sitting U.S. judge ever indicted for activity related to judicial duty.