Federal prosecutors charged state Sen. Emil Jones III, D-Chicago, with three felonies on Tuesday, alleging that he took a $5,000 bribe from a firm that installed red-light cameras throughout the state and lied to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.The charges against Jones were made public by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois through an information, a court document that is typically filed in cases where the defendant has indicated they plan to plead guilty.
However, after being approached by a former executive for Safe Speed, the red-light company, who was cooperating with law enforcement, Jones agreed to limit the scope of the bill to study red-light cameras only in Chicago, where the firm did not operate, prosecutors say. In return, the red-light camera executive agreed to pay Jones $5,000 and to provide a job to an unidentified associate of Jones, prosecutors say.
“SafeSpeed remains both shocked and saddened that one of its former colleagues was engaged in criminal conduct and recruited outside individuals to help further his self-serving activities,” the firm said in a statement to WTTW News. “Their actions were clearly in their own self-interest and done without SafeSpeed’s knowledge and undercut the important work SafeSpeed does.”
Senate President Don Harmon said in a statement he had asked Jones to resign from his leadership post in the party as well as his committee chairmanship.
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