As law closes in, lobbyist in UMC case takes his life

Tony Cook and Jeff German

Friday, Sept. 14, 2007 | 7:35 a.m.

On Tuesday Chicago political insider Orlando Jones was in a fighting mood when he met his attorney for lunch and discussed their response to allegations linking Jones to corruption at University Medical Center.

By Wednesday, the 52-year-old lobbyist lay dead on a beach in Michigan, where authorities say he apparently shot himself in the head.

His death is the latest twist in a Metro Police investigation into Lacy Thomas, the former chief executive of Clark County's public hospital.

It comes after the Sun reported last week that Metro had recommended the prosecution of Thomas, Jones and another Chicago businessman, Martello Pollock, for allegedly trading lucrative contracts at UMC in exchange for money deposited into the bank account of Thomas' wife, Henrene.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger is reviewing the case and will decide whether to file charges.

The apparent suicide Wednesday shocked Jones' Chicago attorney, Robert Stephenson, who said his client was eager to defend himself against the allegations. Stephenson said he got a call Sept. 7 from Metro detectives - and later that day one from Roger - seeking his client's cooperation after Jones was quoted in the Sun as saying police had never contacted him.

"They wanted our cooperation," Stephenson said. "We agreed to provide them information."

Stephenson said he and Jones spent the weekend putting together documents that they were confident would refute the allegations.

"I'm at a loss as to why this happened," Stephenson said of his client's death.

Meanwhile, the FBI sought to interview Jones on Monday as part of an ongoing investigation in Chicago.

"We approached him, but he didn't want to be interviewed," Chicago FBI spokesman Frank Bochte said. An agent left a business card with Jones. Bochte would not disclose the nature of the investigation.

Jones left a suicide note that does not say why he took his life, but outlines steps to take care of his family and personal finances, Stephenson said.

"This was planned," he said. "It was not a spur-of-the-moment thing ."

Stephenson said he received a call about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday saying Jones had not come home the night before. By noon, he said, he told Jones' wife, Cerrelda, to file a missing persons report with police, which she did.

Jones' body was found Wednesday between 6:30 and 7 p.m. at Gowdy Shores Beach in Union Pier, Mich., about an hour's drive from Chicago, Undersheriff Chuck Heit of Berrien County said.

Authorities found a handgun at the scene and Jones' Lexus on vacant land nearby that he and his wife owned , Heit said.

An autopsy Thursday found the cause of death to be a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.

Roger declined to discuss his talks with Stephenson last week. But he said: "Mr. Jones' death will have no impact on this case. We will continue reviewing the police investigation, and I'm sure the police will continue searching for more incriminating evidence."

Metro Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said police did not anticipate Jones being a witness if the case progresse d.

Still, in public corruption cases , police and prosecutors often strike deals with secondary targets of the investigation in exchange for their testimony against primary defendants.

The case Metro submitted to the district attorney's office last week is laid out in a 60-page document that alleges Thomas gave no-bid work to Crystal Communications, a company owned by Pollock that shared an office with Orlando Jones & Associates.

That work included a $132,780 contract. According to a January affidavit, no one police interviewed could point to any work that resulted from the contract.

Sources familiar with the investigation also say $5,000 went to Premier Alliance, a subsidiary of Orlando Jones & Associates. In exchange, Jones directed one of his clients, Chicago-based Family Guidance Centers Inc., to pay Thomas' wife to open a drug rehabilitation clinic in Las Vegas, the sources said.

Although the money was deposited, no clinic was opened, the sources said.

Also, Thomas and his wife flew to Aruba at Jones' expense in March 2005, sources said. The day after they returned, Thomas' wife opened a bank account where the Family Guidance Center money was deposited.

Jones faced other problems . The Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday he had received hundreds of thousands of dollars for introducing a Chicago financial firm to officials with the Illinois State Board of Investment, which invested $280 million with the firm.

Stephenson described Jones and Thomas as longtime friends who worked together years ago at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, but said the allegations against Jones were "baseless." Jones also denied the allegations to the Sun last week.

Jones and Thomas shared expenses on the trip to Aruba, Stephenson said. Jones paid for the airfare on the trip, which Stephenson described as a vacation, and Thomas paid for the lodging and food.

Stephenson also said Jones never received "a penny" of the $5,000 contract that Thomas awarded to Premier Alliance. All of the work, he said, was subcontracted out.