Chicago Building Inspector Gets 3 Years For Bribes

A federal judge has sentenced a veteran City of Chicago building inspector to three years in prison and fined him $10,000 on bribery charges stemming from an undercover corruption investigation dubbed Operation Crooked Code.

At the hearing Friday, U.S. District Court Judge David Coar ordered 47-year-old Jose Hernandez to begin serving his sentence Jan. 31.

Hernandez, who has been a city building inspector since 1988, was convicted in September of accepting two $1,000 cash bribes from a contractor who was cooperating with the investigation and soliciting two $2,000 bribes from two other contractors.

Evidence at Hernandez’s trial showed he’d had a corrupt relationship with a permit "expediter" since late 2005, and with a contractor since 2007, both of whom cooperated in the investigation.

They say 21 defendants, including 15 current of former city employees, have been convicted so far under Operation Crooked Code.
 

One of them, Padraig Gravin, was sentenced Monday to six months of home confinement.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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