Ex-County Commissioner Pleads Guilty To Bribery

A former Cook County commissioner pleaded guilty Monday to federal corruption charges.

Joseph Moreno was charged with accepting kickbacks to sell bandages to public hospitals alongside former Ald. Ambrosio Medrano, who was convicted last month on a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
 
Moreno and Medrano were arrested in June in the corruption case. They allegedly hatched the scheme in 2010 to accept bribes for exerting their influence to get hospitals to purchase particular bandages.
 
The two were also accused of accepting a $5,000 bribe to ensure construction of a waste transfer station in Cicero while he was on the community's economic development panel.

In that case, Moreno suggested to a confidential informant that he wanted to be paid to use his influence, but that he wanted to be careful so as not to attract the attention of the authorities.

"I don't want to be a hog; I just want to be a pig," prosecutors allege he said in a secretly recorded conversation with the informant. "Hogs get slaughtered, pigs get fat."

His attorney said in November Moreno was negotiating a possible plea deal.