State Rep. Rita headed back to stand as Madigan corruption trial enters 4th week

Illinois state Rep. Bob Rita will be back on the witness stand Monday in the corruption trial of former House Speaker Michael Madigan, where he is expected to give jurors a first-hand account of Madigan’s far-reaching power in the General Assembly.

Rita, a Blue Island Democrat, is making his third turn as a prosecution witness, having already testified in last year’s ComEd Four bribery trial as well as in the perjury trial of Madigan’s former chief of staff, Tim Mapes.

Rita, a 21-year veteran of the House whose district encompasses parts of Chicago’s South Side and south suburbs, is the first sitting elected official to take the witness stand in the trial, which began Oct. 8 at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

He has not been accused of wrongdoing, and told the jury before the trial recessed for the week on Thursday that he had been provided a “non-target letter” from the U.S. attorneys office that assures him he’s not currently being investigated.

Rita is important to the prosecution’s case because he was on Madigan’s House leadership team and a co-sponsor of ComEd’s massive 2016 legislation at the heart of the indictment. He is also expected to testify how he was made a sponsor of the state’s massive gambling overhaul in 2013 after a meeting in Madigan’s office.

Rita provided some early fireworks in the ComEd case when asked how Madigan typically exercised his power. He paused for a second before saying in his flat South Side accent, “Through fear and intimidation.”

Madigan, 82, of Chicago, who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House and the head of the state Democratic Party, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise, scheming with utility giants ComEd and AT&T to put his cronies on contracts requiring little or no work and using his public position to drum up business for his private law firm.

Both Madigan and McClain, 77, a former ComEd contract lobbyist from downstate Quincy, have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.

The trial, which began Oct. 8, started slowly but ramped up considerably Thursday with the playing of a series of wiretapped phone calls from McClain’s phone that painted Madigan as hands-on to the extreme, ingrained in the day-to-day political minutia and particularly concerned about the negative optics the actions of others potentially posed for him.

Through tapes, emails and letters, jurors on Thursday also got a clear window into the relationship between Madigan and McClain, who served together in the legislature in the 1970s and formed a friendship that put McClain in the extremely rare position of having the speaker’s ear.

Rita is the sixth witness called by the prosecution so far. The trial is expected to last until at least mid-December.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com