Jennifer Green, D.C. cop arrested in sting pleads guilty
April 26, 2011
Jennifer Green, Police, Washington D.C.A D.C. police officer accused of being a crooked cop pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of attempted second degree burglary.
Jennifer Green, 28, was charged with burglary and receiving stolen goods.
Police say the six-year-veteran was arrested during a sting operation in Northwest early last month.Green is on paid leave.
According to the charging document, Green met with a confidential informant on March 4.
The confidential informant was known to police because the person had a pending assault with a deadly weapon charge.
At Macombo’s lounge in Washington D.C., the confidential informant told Green that he knew of a residence that had money and drugs stashed in it. The owner of the apartment would be out of town and the informant planned to “hit” it, meaning burglarize it.
Green told the informant that he could do anything with the drugs but she “could use the money” according to the document.
The next day, the informant and Green met up at Green’s apartment. She was not duty at the time. She got into the informant’s car and brought a police radio with her.
The pair drove to a Safeway parking lot about a block from Quincy Street NW. The informant parked the vehicle, grabbed a crowbar from the backseat and then went into an apartment on Quincy Street.
The informant returned to the car with $1050 in pre-recorded District police money and a zip lock bag with soap pieces packaged to look like crack cocaine.
When the informant removed the zip lock bag, Green said, “Oh my God,” according to the document. The informant then handed the money to Green.
Green eventually took $610 of the money, according to the document.
Police arrested Green in front of her apartment after the informant dropped her off.
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The corruption retrial of former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich
Rod Blagojevich Retrial Moving Quickly
Published : Thursday, 12 May 2011, 10:26 AM CDT
FOX Chicago News
Chicago - The retrial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich is moving along quickly as the prosecution’s streamlined case turned from the alleged senate seat shakedown to Children’s Memorial Hospital Wednesday.
Complete Rod Blagojevich Trial Coverage >>
Key Points :
•After Former Deputy Governor Robert Greenlee is cross-examined Thursday, John Wyma was expected to take the stand. He approached the FBI with information that launched the investigation into Blagojevich.
•Defense attorneys for former Blagojevich said they're being made to look foolish by the prosecution in Blagojevich's retrial and asked for a mistrial, but Federal Judge James Zagel denied the request. The defense complained Wednesday that when prosecutors repeatedly object and the judge doesn't let witnesses answer questions, the defense looks foolish and cross-examinations become meaningless.
•When the prosecution resumed, the jury heard an audio recording in which Blagojevich bitterly complained that Illinois voters didn't appreciate him. "I f***ing busted my ass and pissed people off and gave your grandmother a free f***ing ride on a bus. Okay? I gave your f***ing baby a chance to have health care. …And what do I get for that? Only 13 percent of you all out there think I'm doing a good job. So f*** all of you,” Blagojevich is heard saying on the recording.
•Greenlee testified Wednesday that Blagojevich delayed increases in spending for child health care because children's Memorial Hospital had not donated to his campaign. After the trial wrapped up for the day, Blagojevich blasted that testimony as a "lie".
UPDATE: 10:47 a.m.
With the jury back in the courtroom, the defense resumed questioning Greenlee about being approached by the FBI the morning of Dec. 9, 2008, the day Blagojevich was arrested.
Greenlee testified the FBI talked to him for less than 10 minutes and played audio recordings of his conversations. He said he was scared, hired a lawyer and began cooperating with the government.
Greenlee testified in a call with Blagojevich on Oct. 26, 2008, Blagojevich told him Lisa Madigan and Blagojevich himself were both potential appointees to the Senate, and Blagojevich mentioned the Health and Human Services Secretary position.
On Feb. 9, 2009, Greenlee testified he met with the FBI with his attorneys and U.S. attorneys. He said it was possible they talked about that phone call.
After an objection from the prosecution, the defense attorney showed Greenlee an FBI report of the meeting.
Greenlee said he still didn’t recall the meeting, but said it was possible it occurred even if he doesn’t remember what was specifically discussed.
The defense asked Greenlee if Blagojevich used the word “exchange” when Blagojevich told Greenlee he told Balanoff he wanted the HHS Secretary position for the senate seat. Greenlee said he wasn’t sure if that exact word was used even though he said it in his testimony Wednesday.
The defense showed Greenlee a copy of his sworn statement to the grand jury despite an overruled objection by the prosecution. In it, Greenlee said that Blagojevich had asked for the HHS position and felt he was unlikely to get it. The word “exchange” was not used in the sworn statement.
Greenlee testified in a Nov. 4, 2008 call , Blagojevich told him to research possible ambassadorships for him, which Greenlee did on Wikipedia. In another call later that day, Greenlee testified he understood Blagojevich to be talking about possibly appointing himself to the Senate.
UPDATE: 10:31 a.m.
The judge sent the jury out of the room to discuss cross-examination questions regarding the FBI. Defense attorney Aaron Goldstein asked Greenlee about talking to the FBI.
Greenlee said he had his first conversation with the FBI the morning of Dec. 9, 2008, and he began cooperating with them. The FBI came to his home the next day and played him snippets of some audio recordings. Greenlee testified he then hired an attorney.
Greenlee said at first he was worried about being prosecuted and sent to jail, but after talking to his attorneys, he decided to cooperate. He testified he spoke with the FBI about 10 times in 2010 and a few times before his testimony.
The defense wanted to pursue this line of questioning in front of the jury, but the prosecution argued it was not relevant. The defense kept asking Greenlee if he was afraid of being prosecuted.
Judge James Zagel said he was concerned the questions were too broad, inviting information that had no relevance to the case, and said Goldstein’s questions should be more precise. Zagel said he didn’t blame Goldstein for fishing, but the questions need to be specific.
The jury was allowed back into the court room.
UPDATE: 10:09 a.m.
Court was called into session for the day. The prosecution finished questioning Greenlee on the alleged Tollway shakedown, and defense attorney Aaron Goldstein began cross-examining the witness.
Goldstein asked Greenlee about a conversation between him and Blagojevich in which Blagojevich was upset with Greenlee for disagreeing with him about what he could get for the senate seat while on the phone with Fred Yang.
Greenlee testified when he said to Blagojevich in the call “I understand your play,” he was telling Blagojevich why he wanted to make the Madigan play for the senate seat, but he testified he was lying to Blagojevich when he said he believed it and when he said he liked the plan.
Greenlee testified he believed Blagojevich when he said supporters of Jesse Jackson Jr. would come through with money for the senate seat appointment.
At the time, Greenlee testified, he had been working for Blagojevich about six months, and he didn’t understand how Yang was connected to “Washington people.”
Greenlee testified he did not believe Blagojevich in a call from 2:09 p.m. on Dec. 4, 2008 because he had a prior conversation with him in which Blagojevich told Greenlee he was naïve to think people in Washington would want to help with state issues in Illinois.
Greenlee testified he did not know Blagojevich was in contact with Harry Reid about a Madigan deal or with N.J. Senator Robert Menendez, and that he knew John Harris was in contact with Rahm Emanuel but not necessarily about the Madigan deal.
Greenlee testified that a previous call with Blagojevich “rattled” him and that influenced him to lie to Blagojevich in the Dec. 4 call. Greenlee testified he did not quit working for Blagojevich before the governor was arrested but did have conversations with the FBI.
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Blagojevich on wiretap: Obama aides 'pigs,' won't cut deal
He talks of giving Senate seat to Jesse Jackson Jr., cites campaign 'help'
May 05, 2011|By Bob Secter and Jeff Coen, Tribune reporters
Nancy Stone, Chicago TribuneRod Blagojevich thought he held a critical bargaining chip to muscle a lucrative job for himself out of the incoming Obama administration, and he was furious in late 2008 when it finally sunk in that he was wrong, according to tapes played at the former governor's corruption retrial on Thursday.
"The Obama … people are pigs," Blagojevich barked at John Harris, his chief of staff. "Ain't giving us anything."
That conversation, secretly recorded on a government wiretap, was played for jurors as prosecutors underscored charges that Blagojevich illegally tried to profit from his power to select a replacement for Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.
The phone call was placed midday on Dec. 4, 2008, one month after Obama's election to the presidency and just hours before Blagojevich would learn that government agents had been eavesdropping on him as part of an intensifying corruption probe.
By then, according to testimony from Harris, Blagojevich had given up trying to get anything out of Obama and had become fixated on exploring alternative ways to cash in on the Senate seat.
Blagojevich appeared to be warming to the idea of naming Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to the Senate, a notion that the governor acknowledged to Harris seemed at first blush like a flip-flop.
Harris, on the call, reminded Blagojevich that he so loathed Jackson that just days before, the governor had snapped "no (expletive) way" when Jackson's name had been floated in connection with the Senate.
But Blagojevich had a reason for the change of heart. "Well, he's come to me with, through third parties, you know, with offers of campaign contributions and help," Blagojevich told Harris on the tape. "You know what I mean? 1.5 million they've, they're throwin' numbers around."
The former governor is charged with plotting to turn the seat over to Jackson in exchange for promises of $1.5 million in campaign cash for Blagojevich from Jackson supporters. Blagojevich denies the allegations, and Jackson has not been charged.
On the call, Blagojevich mentions in passing to Harris that he had also been kicking around the idea of filling the Senate seat with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan — another in a long line of Illinois politicians that the former governor despised.
If he was willing to swallow hard and consider Madigan, then why not take a fresh look at Jackson as well, Blagojevich told Harris.
