Operation Greylord Files

In the spring of 1978, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began a project secretly evaluating the Chicagoland court system, the Circuit Court of Cook County. Eventually uncovering a corruption gold mine, the FBI indicted 64 Cook County judges, attorneys, clerks, and police officers by 1987. 55 convictions were handed out with two acquittals on charges of bribery, defraudation, tax evasion and other misconducts. The mass of the investigations and its subsequent trials would become known as Operation Greylord. In the end, the judges John J. Devine, Reginald J. Holzer, Raymond Sodini, John McCollum, Richard F. LeFevour, John Murphy, Wayne Olson, and John Reynolds would be sentenced to extensive jail time.

During the 1970s, subsets within the Cook County court system created an extensive money making scheme based on an organized system of bribery, eventually leading to the large amount of arrests by the FBI. The system operated most frequently in the Cook County Traffic Court but also expanded through the criminal courts, the chancery court under Reginald J. Holzer, and branch courts that operated outside the central city. While many cases rigged were minor, there were select instances of trials involving armed robbery and drunk driving that were fixed through bribery.

The money making schemes depended on frequent and speedy court cases. Lawyers agreed to fix fast and more frequent cases such as criminal or traffic cases if a defendant offered them money or if they had an agreement with the judge to split the bond money. This allowed attorneys to make more on quick, courtroom cases than they would on long and uncertain office-based affairs. Attorneys fixed cases by relating a portion of the bribes to judges who would then steer the contest towards the desired verdict. Lawyers and judges cleverly hid this scheme through the use of bagmen; police officers or clerks who worked for a judge, exchanging cash and messages with lawyers in court bathrooms, hallways, or abandoned rooms.

While this type of scheme eventually expanded into a well-organized system, it began out of the practice of lawyers and judges tipping or fixing cases based on political alliances. Recently elected judges were expected to return favors to politically connected lawyers, officers, or clerks by helping route a case. In turn, lawyers might slip judges money or buy food and drinks later. This created a bonded relationship between certain communities of lawyers and judges in the court system. The exchange of money for political reasons slipped into the exchange of money for profiteering and personal gain. When such habits operated unchecked, a culture of payoffs and a scheme of money making developed widespread in sections of the Cook County courts.

The eventual highest ranking judge involved in such schemes was Judge Richard F. LeFevour. A graduate of Loyola University Chicago Law School, LeFevour became the supervising judge of the Cook County Traffic Court in 1972. There, LeFevour received money for favors through minor traffic cases with the help of his cousin, police officer James LeFevour, as bagman. He also accepted bribes from companies and individuals with high volumes of parking tickets. For example, a local car dealership who accumulated a mass of parking tickets gave a newly leased car to the judge. During the 1970s, LeFevour lead such a scheme of bribery that he was given annual Christmas gifts for favors and hosted extravagant birthday parties at a private club. This culminated in the judges appointment as Chief Judge of the Cook County First Municipal District in 1981.

As Chief Judge, LeFevour and his regular community of lawyers developed a well-organized scheme of bribery. Lawyers “rented” courtrooms where they could have cases fixed and other judges were tested for their willingness to take bribes. They were moved by LeFevour into rigged courtrooms if they passed. Attorneys who were willing to use bribes, were also given favorable assignments by the judge to Chicago Bar Association referrals, a system that paid extra to criminal defenders. With these benefits, a group of six lawyers working under LeFevour would become known as the Hustler’s Club where members paid $500 monthly for the privileges of the scheme.

In 1978, a recent graduate of the Loyola University Chicago Law School, Terrence Hake, accepted a job with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Working his way through the Chicago courts, he began to catch on to the dim reality of corruption in the court system. After complaining to higher-ups, he was approached with an offer from the FBI to go undercover. In 1980, he decided to accept and posed as a corrupt lawyer in the Narcotics court where crooked Judge Wayne Olson operated. After finding his way into the bribery system of the court and having after work drinks with lawyers and officers, such as James Costello, the FBI gave Hake a tape recorder to wear, which he taped to his chest. Once inside the corrupt court system, Hake spent the next 3 and a half years posing as a corrupt lawyer, all the while taping illegal activity. After obtaining substantial voice evidence, the FBI found probable cause to bug Judge Olson’s office, the first such bugging of its kind enacted by the organization.

Meanwhile, in 1981, the Chicago Lawyer ran an article about bribery in the traffic court, while a Peter Karl expose on channel seven investigated traffic ticket fixing. At this point, James LeFevour suggested to Judge LeFevour that they discontinue the Hustler’s Club, but the judge chose to only make the scheme tighter by having misfiled traffic cases thrown out. In 1982, the club asked for the monthly payment rate to be lowered, and a Judge who tried to invert the scheme was reassigned by Judge LeFevour to the jurisdiction that included the Cabrini Green public housing complex. Despite LeFevour’s attempts to cover-up his scheme, Terrance Hake and the FBI would eventually follow a trail to Judge LeFevour. Hake offered the judge a bribe in a case contrived by the FBI, and he accepted on tape. In 1982, one of LeFevour’s bagmen, Art Causlin, agreed to cooperate with the FBI and also began recording the judge.

In 1983, as evidence began to emerge and accumulate from the schemes of various Cook County courts including Judge LeFevour’s, the undercover project broke to the public. Adrienne Drell, a graduate school alum from Northwestern, Richard Bronelli, a Northwestern journalism school alum, and Maurice Possley, an eventual professor at the Northwestern journalism school, contributed to the local newspaper reporting on the case. By the end of the year, the first round of trials began, starting with clerk Harold Conn.

In 1985, Judge LeFevour’s trial was underway. James LeFevour and Art Causlin testified against their former boss. Special U.S. Attorney Dan Webb prosecuted LeFevour. While the defense argued that LeFevour was too in debt to be corrupt, Webb hammered back that the judge had spent money “like a drunk sailor”. LeFevour was ultimately found guilty on 75 counts and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

By the end of 1987, the FBI had finished its trials against various court officials, convicting 55 law officials over four years. Judge LeFevour would never express remorse and passed away in 1997. Ultimately, Operation Greylord became the largest conviction of judges in the history of Cook County, and a Special Commission on the Administration of Justice in Cook County was established to try to eradicate future habits of corruption in the court system.