From the Sun-Times:
Hired Truck figure to join dad in prison
December 14, 2005
BY STEVE WARMBIR AND TIM NOVAK Staff Reporters
The president of a small trucking company collapsed in her brother's arms Tuesday
and began wailing outside a federal courtroom after a judge told her she'll be
joining her father in prison for their roles in Hired Truck corruption.
Commelie Peters, 38, the president of LR&C Truckline, was sentenced to 15
months in prison for lying to a grand jury investigating the Hired Truck corruption.
Her father, Leroy Peters, who founded the company more than three decades ago,
was sentenced in October to 20 months in prison.
Father takes blame
Together, the father and daughter paid more than $100,000 in bribes over several
years to keep Hired Truck business flowing to their small trucking outfit in south
suburban Blue Island. They would pay from $1,500 to $2,500 a month in bribes to
a city employee who was a bagman for Donald Tomczak, a top city official who ran
the Water Department. Tomczak has pleaded guilty.
From 1997 to 2003, the company made more than $3.8 million in Hired Truck business,
primarily from the city's Water Department. It was one of the largest black-owned
companies in the Hired Truck Program.
Commelie Peters asked the judge for mercy and no prison time, so she could keep
running her trucking company that is now struggling after it lost its Hired Truck
business. Her attorney, William Hooks, argued that if both father and daughter
were in prison, the company would fail, putting its five to seven employees out
of work.
In an unusual move, Leroy Peters took the stand at the sentencing hearing and
tried to shoulder much of the blame, asking the judge for leniency for his daughter.
"Most of all, I'm sorry I brought my daughter into this," Peters said.
"She didn't start this. I started this."
Commelie Peters began working for the company as her father's secretary and took
over as president about seven years ago as her father left because of failing
health.
"I apologize to the court and to the city," Commelie Peters told U.S.
District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan. "I'm just asking the court to give me
a second chance in life."
Brother storms out of court
She admitted that the company relied on the city for its business and since July
has had virtually nothing.
She also admitted under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick McGovern
that her trucking business had an unfair advantage over other companies that didn't
pay bribes.
The judge rejected her plea for no prison time, telling Peters that she had "participated
in a criminal scheme that has shaken the confidence of the city of Chicago in
its public officials."
After she was sentenced, Commelie Peters' brother stormed out of the courtroom
and began yelling and causing a ruckus in the hallway. His father, Leroy, consoled
him.
Calmly, Commelie Peters left the courtroom but fell apart outside. She began to
weep and wail in her brother's arms.
"I want my momma," she cried.
CAUGHT IN SCANDAL
37 people have been charged in the federal government's investigation of Chicago's
Hired Truck Program, including 21 city workers.
24 of them have pleaded guilty, including 13 city workers.
20 have been sentenced to terms from 3 years of probation to 7 years in prison.
1 former city worker will never stand trial. He died after he was thrown off
a horse.