Red-Light Camera Sales Agent Bribed Oak Lawn Trustee: Feds

OAK LAWN, IL — The Village of Oak Lawn has landed in the middle of an ongoing federal investigation into red-light camera contracts throughout the Chicago suburbs. Palos Heights-resident Patrick Doherty, chief of staff to Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski, has been charged with three counts of bribery in a federal indictment unsealed Friday.

Doherty is also a sales agent for a company that contracted with Oak Lawn to provide red-light cameras. Although the company is not named in the complaint, Oak Lawn trusteees approved a contract with SafeSpeed Co. in February 2014 to initially provide red-light cameras at four village intersections. The village board voted not to renew its contract with SafeSpeed when it expired on Dec. 31, 2019.

Mayor Sandra Bury released a written statement Friday stating that prior to reading the federal indictment on Friday, she and other village officials were unaware that an Oak Lawn village trustee was being investigated in a scheme to take bribes in exchange for voting for the installment of more red-light cameras in the village.

“We, like the rest of the residents of the Village of just now learned of the alleged involvement of an Oak Lawn trustee in SafeSpeed’s unsuccessful attempt to increase the number of red-light cameras throughout the village ... nor do we know the identity of the trustee referenced [in the indictment]," Bury said.

Bury further stated that she and other village officials were “shocked and appalled” by the developments and have launched their own internal investigation, pledging that the village would use every resource at its disposal to determine the identity of “Trustee 1.”

“We will make public any information we find or are provided with as we have it,” Bury said. “At this time, no other information is available.”

Doherty and two other unnamed individuals are alleged to have paid an Oak Lawn trustee's “immediate family member" identified as “Relative 1” in the federal indictment, $4,000 or $500 per week during the summer of 2017, to influence an Oak Lawn trustee into voting to allow the company to install additional red-light cameras in the village.

According to the indictment, “Individual A” is identified as a part-owner” of "Company A." Individual B was another sales agent for the red-light camera company. Doherty was the other sales agent, as well as the manager of an unnamed consulting company which acted as a sales agent for red-light camera contracts to some 30 municipalities, the complaint said.

In February 2014, the Oak Lawn Village Board approved a contract for SafeSpeed to install red-light cameras at four village intersections. Additional red-light cameras needed the village board’s approval. The contract was to expire in 2018. SafeSpeed periodically sent the village videos of red-light violations, which were reviewed by the Oak Lawn Police Department. The police department determined whether violating motorists would be charged and fined.

SafeSpeed received a portion of the revenue generated from the approved-and-paid-for tickets captured by the red-light cameras. In turn, the company paid a portion of its share of the revenue to its sales agents.

Between May and August 2017, Doherty, along with the unnamed individuals, allegedly agreed to pay the trustee’s relative — identified as “Relative 1” — $4,000 or $500 per week over an eight-week period. The payments to the trustee’s relative were made by Doherty’s company, identified as “Company D” in the indictment.

Doherty issued a check for $500 from his company to the trustee’s relative in pursuit of installing more red-light cameras in the village, the indictment said.

On May 25, 2017, federal investigators claim that in apparently wiretapped conversations, Doherty called “Individual B” stating that his company would be paying the relative “if it's going to get us the job,” and later added, “I’ll just pay it. Just make sure we get the [expletive] job.”

Doherty also placed another call to “Individual A” — the unnamed part-owner of the red-light company that “we can get the other ones in Oak Lawn and get [Trustee 1] on our side.”

A few days later, on May 30, 2017, Doherty placed another phone call to Individual B, stating the relative would make “$4,000 over the summer, 500 bucks a week.”

On June 15, 2017, Doherty is said to have told the relative “it’s not like I need ya,” but the relative would get “$500 a week for eight weeks.”

The indictment also details several payments in the amount of $500 in June 2017 made out to the Oak Lawn trustee’s family member in the hopes of currying the trustee’s vote to install more red-light cameras in the village. It is not known if additional payments were made.

An arraignment date for Doherty has not yet been set.