Former Ford Heights Mayor Charles Griffin was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $50,000 for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the taxpayers he served, a Cook County judge declared Friday.
Griffin, 69, was convicted in September of embezzling between $10,000 and $100,000 of public funds for personal use both during and after his first term as mayor of the small, impoverished village of Ford Heights.
The federal indictment came after Griffin’s successor, Annie Coulter, who served from 2017 until Griffin was elected to a second term in 2021, found secret bank accounts tied to Griffin holding $147,000 in public funds. Prosecutors said Griffin used those accounts to pay for goods and services that benefited himself and those close to him, spending thousands at such places as Walmart, Home Depot, Menards, L.A. Fitness and various restaurants.
Griffin was forced to resign due to the felony conviction, leading to the appointment of Freddie Wilson as interim mayor. Wilson is seeking to keep the mayoral seat in this spring’s election, with Coulter one of his four challengers.
Griffin’s lawyer, Phillip Turner, pleaded Friday with Judge James Obbish to reconsider the evidence in the case and allow for a new trial, and then for a jail-free sentence.
“Probation — that is more than enough,” Turner said. “There was a lot of publicity on this. Certainly he has been shamed and embarrassed.”
Turner said letters of support from community members and others close to Griffin show the former mayor’s good character and that he never intended to steal money from taxpayers. He said despite the felony conviction, as mayor Griffin worked to boost economic development and otherwise help residents.
Obbish acknowledged Griffin was as an “atypical” case in his court, as someone with high educational attainment and no prior criminal record. Still, he sided with state’s attorneys, ruling Griffin should serve time in prison for betraying the trust of his former constituents.
“To place Mr. Griffin on probation would deprecate the seriousness (of the crime),” Obbish said, adding he hopes Griffin’s sentence acts as a deterrent, preventing others “from dipping into public funds, taking more than their salary.”
On hearing he would be sentenced to four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, Griffin dropped his hands from his face to the table in front of him and looked out to the seated friends and family members, shaking their heads despairingly.
Turner said he will file a request for Obbish to reconsider the sentence, which will be heard at 10 a.m. on Feb. 21 at the courthouse, 2650 South California Ave., Chicago. Griffin is expected to be taken into custody at that time, prosecutors said.
Turner maintains Griffin’s innocence, saying “he didn’t do anything wrong,” and evidence presented by prosecutors at trial was insufficient to convict Griffin of the Class 2 felony. He said he will continue to represent Griffin as he seeks an appeal.
“I know there’s a lot of things floating around about public officials, especially mayors in the south suburbs,” Turner said. “But he is not one of those people.”
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
