A Former City Worker Whose Cooperat...

A Former City Worker Whose Cooperation Helped Bring a Significant Charge in the Scandal That Embroiled Mayor Daley's Patronage Chief, Was Sentenc to Five Month in Prison Tuesday.

Richard Coveliers, a former city sewer inspector, had privately owned Cayla Trucking Inc., a firm that did work with the city's Hired barter program, and passed bribes upon to First Deputy Water Commissioner Donald Tomczak to immovable the business.

"I'll think about the decision I made the quiet of my life," Coveliers told a arbitrator Tuesday, choking back tears.

As a city worker, Coveliers was banned from doing business with the city, in this way he put the firm in his sister's name. In 2002 Cayla Trucking had six barters in the Hired Truck Program and made $463000 the fourth largest vendor for the water department at the time.

Assistant U Attorney Patrick Collins said Coveliers initially lied to investigators about his character with the firm. But Coveliers then cooperated and told investigators about patronage abuses in the water department, where a house drain inspector position went to an unqualified trucker Collins said. Prosecutors brought that charge against former Daley patronage chief Robert Sorich and a jury convicted him of that calculate last month.

Coveliers' wife, Debra, also was charged in the Hired traffic scandal and convicted last year of witness tampering. She was sentenc to six month place of abode confinement after pleading guilty to the charge.

'THIS WAS A CRIME OF GREED'

U District arbiter Samuel Der-Yeghiayan sentenced Coveliers to five month in prison and five month abiding-place confinement, plus two years supervised release.

"This was a crime of greed" Der-Yeghiayan said. "You used the corrupt combination of parts to form a whole from the inside and gone out for your financial gain."

nkorecki@suntimes.com

CAUGHT IN SCANDAL

44people have been charged in the federal government's ongoing investigation of the city's Hired exchange Program.

41people have been convicted, including 4 who went to trial.

29have been sentenc to names ranging from probation to 7 years in prison.

1city worker who was charged will not stand trial. He died after he was thrown from a horse.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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