Jury to hear about payoff money in Illinois governor’s campaign fund

Mike Robinson

Sunday, May 21, 2000 | 2:38 a.m.

CHICAGO - State workers who funneled $50,000 in bribe money into Gov. George Ryan's campaign fund are expected to testify as the first trial in the Illinois drivers license scandal gets under way this week.

The scandal involves the secretary of state's office, which Ryan headed before becoming governor last year.

Workers took bribes from immigrants who wanted to be truck drivers but spoke little or no English and had virtually no hope of passing the complex tests on safety and mechanical matters. Federal law requires the drivers of semitrailers to speak English well enough to handle safety problems.

In return for the bribe money, state workers coached the applicants or just filled in answers for them. Some workers then donated some of that money to Ryan's campaign fund - federal prosecutors estimate it was more than $170,000.

Ryan says he was unaware at the time of what U.S. Attorney Scott Lassar calls "widespread corruption." Thirty-one people have been charged, and 26 have pleaded guilty.

The only major Ryan administration official charged is former inspector general Dean Bauer, who is accused of covering up scandals in the secretary's office to spare Ryan political embarrassment. He has pleaded innocent and is awaiting trial.

The man going on trial Tuesday in federal court is Alex Mcleczynsky, a Polish driving instructor. He is charged with conspiracy and extortion.

Mcleczynsky, 37, is a little-known figure whose alleged activities are far from the heart of the case. He is accused of slipping $600 bribes to a frail-looking 76-year-old woman named Carmen Fajdich, who had retired from the secretary of state's office and found a niche delivering payoff money.

Fajdich sent applicants to Mary Ann Mastrodomenico, the manager of the suburban Melrose Park licensing center, or one of her assistants, Phyllis Volpe. Fajdich, Mastrodomenico and Volpe have pleaded guilty to racketeering; Mastrodomenico and Volpe are expected to be prosecution witnesses at this trial, as is Tammy Raynor, the whistle-blower who was crucial in breaking open the investigation.

Mcleczynsky has not denied money changed hands. Prosecutors not only have witnesses who handled the money but also secretly made tape recordings that indicate payoffs took place.

Defense attorneys have argued that Mcleczynsky was a victim of extortion on the part of secretary of state's employees and had to pay to get licenses for his driving students.

But prosecutor Patrick Collins said Mcleczynsky could not be a victim since he kept some of the cash.