After hearing Cook County Circuit Judge Reginald Holzer described by his lawyer as a man whose finances were ”a junkyard,” the federal court jury hearing Holzer`s corruption trial deliberated for an hour Friday before recessing for the night.
U.S. District Judge Prentice Marshall declined to sequester the jurors;
they will return Saturday morning to continue deliberations.
In the second day of closing arguments by federal prosecutors and Edward Foote, Holzer`s attorney, jurors heard Holzer characterized by Foote as a man who perched on the edge of bankruptcy but who was not a corrupt jurist who committed a federal crime.
Invoking the Declaration of Independence in an emotional, fist-pounding argument, Foote implored the jury to acquit his client.
Foote leveled a scathing attack on the government for having granted immunity from prosecution to more than a dozen witnesses who testified that they arranged for loans to Holzer. But the government produced no testimony that there was a relationship between the financial benefits and any advantages the witnesses received, he said.
”How can this case be established beyond a reasonable doubt when the immunized witnesses deny the crime?” Foote asked.
Holzer, Foote said, ”is about the only one I ever heard of who had a 13- year corruption plan that ends up in bankruptcy.”
Holzer did not know of the intent of the lawyers and court-appointed receivers who lent him money, Foote said. ”You`ve got to have more than speculation, he said. ”There isn`t an ounce of evidence of what was in my client`s head.
”Each of these cases were necessary, and the fees were not excessive.
”Ladies and gentlemen, where is the federal crime?”
Foote reminded the jury of a defendant`s ”inalienable right” to be found guilty ”beyond a reasonable doubt. . . . My client`s life is in your hands. It is a thread you can hold onto.”
Julian Solotorovsky, one of three federal prosecutors, delivered a stinging rebuttal. ”Judge Holzer for many, many years took his robes, took his chambers, took the immense power of his office and turned it into a vending machine,” he said.
”It was a magical bank,” Solotorovsky said. ”All he had to do was pick up the telephone and call up receivers or lawyers and, presto, he had money.” Holzer, 58, is on trial on charges of racketeering, mail fraud and extortion. He is accused of using his position to obtain $200,000 in loans from lawyers and court receivers who appeared before him between 1974 and 1984. Most of the loans have not been repaid.
