Is the Mapes Case a Slam Dunk?
Tim Mapes, the longtime Chief of Staff to former House Speaker Michael Madigan, arrives at court for the beginning of his perjury trial Monday. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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Opening statements took place Tuesday in the federal perjury trial of Tim Mapes, the longtime Chief of Staff to former House Speaker Michael Madigan. A top legal expert says a conviction isn’t a slam dunk.
University of Illinois College of Law Criminal Law Professor Andrew Leipold says, generally, it is hard to land perjury convictions.
“It’s pretty hard, generally, to prove people deliberately lied,” Leipold said. “It requires you prove they know what they were saying was false. That means getting inside of someone’s head. Perjury prosecutions, generally, are difficult.”
Mapes repeatedly answered he couldn’t recall details about Madigan’s dealings with former lobbyist Michael McClain.
Prosecutors want to play wiretaps they believe show Mapes was lying when he testified he couldn’t recall what McClain’s role was on Madigan’s team, including that he acted as an intermediary for Madigan. Mapes has attempted to quash a number of the tapes.
Leipold says wiretap tapes could make it harder to sell hsi argument to a jury.
“If Mapes’ defense is going to be ‘I just have a bad memory,” you almost have to [put him] on the stand to say that,” Leipold said. “If you’re a juror, boy you had better have an explanation as to why that’s a truthful answer.”
Leipold says it’s a believable defense that Madigan and McClain were discussing issues like ComEd without Mapes knowing about it.
“Unless they’ve got the tapes,” Leipold said. “Then his only explanation is ‘I forgot’ or ‘I made a mistake’ because what the prosecution has to prove is that the grand jury testimony was a knowing falsehood, that he knew what he was saying was a lie.”
Mapes was given immunity to testify before the grand jury as long as he told the truth, but prosecutors say he lied to the grand jury.
Leipold says charging Mapes may be a sign he won’t be testifying against Madigan.
“If Mapes gets a perjury conviction, his value as a witness against Madigan doesn’t really increase,” Leipold said. “He becomes very, very difficult to use against Madigan because he gets up on the stand as a convicted liar.”
Per the Tribune, Prosecutors said in court they plan to call former House Majority Leader Greg Harris as a witness Wednesday morning. And unless Mapes’ defense team succeeds in their objections, prosecutors also intend to play at least two recorded phone calls: one between Harris and Madigan loyalist Michael McClain, and another in which McClain and state Rep. Bob Rita (D-Blue Island), discuss gambling legislation.