Rickey Hendon’s aide among 7 charged in bribery scheme
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By Larry Yellen, FOX 32 News Legal Analyst - bio | email
CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
A former aide to former state senator Rickey Hendon was arrested Tuesday on federal corruption charges.
Dean Nichols of Oak Park was charged along with two Cook County corrections officers and four other defendants in a bribery scheme.
The feds say this investigation began five years ago during a corruption and gun-trafficking case, when a Chicago police officer flipped and started providing information about Hendon's former campaign aide.
According to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday, Nichols, along with Reggi Hopkins and five other defendants plotted a bribery scheme, thinking they were dealing with a federal Health and Human Services official.
The HHS official would dish out $25,000 in federal grants, lots of them for non-profit agencies which they ran. The official would get a kickback for every deal, as would Nichols, for helping to arrange it.
The federal official was actually a phony, working undercover for the feds. Seven years ago Nichols ran for commissioner of the water reclamation district. The indictment says he was previously a campaign treasurer for a former state senator. Campaign records show "that" state senator was Rickey Hendon, the flamboyant west-side legislator who resigned without explanation in 2011, after 18 years in the legislature.
A federal grand jury had previously subpoenaed records related to some grant programs sponsored by Hendon, but he has never been charged with any wrongdoing.
Nichol's alleged schemes began in September of 2011, seven months after Hendon left office.
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