Riverdale Mayor Sentenced Over Ties to Waste Contractor

Former Riverdale Mayor Lawrence Jackson received a six-month prison sentence Thursday for lying under oath about his financial ties to landfill owner James Bracken, whose companies did work with the village. The case brought local government and the courts into the same frame: a public office, a private business relationship and a civil lawsuit.

A public office, a private business

The dispute stemmed from a civil lawsuit filed by waste company Tri-State Disposal. The company alleged Jackson favored Riverdale Materials, owned by Bracken, including by firing the chair of the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals and installing “persons politically connected to the mayor.” Prosecutors said Jackson wanted to replace a troublesome contractor and asked Bracken to help locate a new waste company.

Bracken connected Jackson with Flood Brothers, which the village hired for a spring cleanup event in May 2018, although Tri-State already had an obligation to do the work. In a 2021 deposition, Jackson denied having a hand in hiring Flood Brothers and said village administrator Tim Williams had introduced him to the company. Prosecutors said those answers were lies. They said Bracken had introduced Jackson as part of their ongoing relationship.

Trial testimony showed Bracken also took a substantial role in Centennial Holdings, a trucking business Jackson and his wife incorporated in 2018 despite knowing nothing about running it. Texts and emails shown to jurors indicated Bracken managed nearly all the company’s day-to-day work, from payroll, insurance and timesheets to truck assignments.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirsten Moran wrote that Jackson’s part was to “pick up a paycheck once a week and pay the truck drivers,” while Bracken ran the business “for free.” Prosecutors also said Bracken arranged a job for Jackson’s wife at Morris Dirt and paid the mayor to do virtually nothing. Those remain the prosecution’s claims; Bracken hasn’t faced a charge of wrongdoing.

The cost in a village already short of money

A jury found Jackson guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice in November. He resigned as mayor and gave up his publicly funded pension. Prosecutors had separated charges alleging he failed to file federal income tax returns for three years from the trial, then dismissed them after Thursday’s sentencing.

Tri-State lost its civil case. Judge Sara Ellis found too little evidence to show the company had faced political retribution. Prosecutors argued that details of the Jackson-Bracken relationship mattered and could have changed the case’s outcome. Jackson’s lawyers said he gave inaccurate answers because of honest mistakes and poor questioning. “Mayor Jackson’s answers in that deposition were truthful,” defense attorney Gabrielle Sansonetti told the jury.

Riverdale, a village of about 13,000, has struggled with budget woes and corruption allegations. In its most recent report in April, Fitch Ratings lowered the village’s financial picture to CCC, citing “a severely weakened financial profile, including a negative balance of available general fund reserves, and very limited liquidity.” The account of Jackson’s sentencing includes no comments from Riverdale residents and no description of a community-organized response. Prosecutors, lawyers and officials supply the available voices.

The court sends its message

Jackson didn’t speak before sentencing. His attorney read a statement saying Jackson “is not able to stand before the court and admit that he violated the law.” Jackson’s lawyers also said he respected the criminal justice system and had helped the FBI with other corruption investigations involving Riverdale. They said he wouldn’t tell investigators Bracken had bribed him because that wasn’t true. Nancy DePodesta said, “He wouldn’t succumb.”

Judge Robert Gettleman said Jackson had led an otherwise exemplary life, hauling himself “literally up by his bootstraps” from Chicago’s housing projects, washing dishes to pay for college and becoming mayor on a promise to improve Riverdale’s finances. Still, Gettleman said he couldn’t justify probation. “Public officials are expected to be honest with how they approach the judicial process,” he said, adding that “a message has to be sent to elected officials” that lying has consequences. Prosecutors had asked for a longer sentence. The judge delivered his message from the bench; the sentencing account offers no broader remedy for Riverdale’s weak finances.