It’s coming down on Sanchez

By Natasha Korecki Federal Courts Reporter

As the massive snowstorm blankets the area, a courtroom battle looms for the man who ironically once quarterbacked the city’s response for such weather events.

Mayor Daley’s former Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez is to be sentenced in federal court Thursday, where his lawyers will ask that the 63 year old be spared from prison.

“Al Sanchez is different from anybody else involved in this so-called scheme,” his lawyer, Tom Breen, said Tuesday. “He provided great services to the people of Chicago. He earned every dollar he was paid.”

Prosecutors, though, have a vastly different view on the man convicted of playing a role in a fraudulent hiring scheme in the city, saying he caused the city to pay $1.3 million in salaries to fraudulent hires.