Will federal corruption criminal defendants DONALD DONAGHER, JR. and PENN CREDIT CORP. provide evidence against St. Johns County Administrator HUNTER SINCLAIR CONRAD, "CLERK E" in the March 14, 2021 indictment, alleging then-candidate for Clerk of Courts took $8000 in tainted campaign contributions, intended as as bribe?
CONRAD was hired as County Administrator on November 19, 2019, without prior notice or any agenda item, eschewing any sort of search or background checks, which would have revealed that he is "Clerk E" in a federal corruption indictment involving alleged influence peddling to get valuable government contracts to collect debts.
Will DONAGHER testify against CONRAD and other past and present State of Florida and Illinois court clerks and other political candidates?
Watch this space.
Case now reset for September 23, 2021, at which time a plea bargain may be tinted. Here is Judge Lee's minute entry:
08/31/202190 MINUTE entry before the Honorable John Z. Lee: As to Donald Donagher, Jr., Penn Credit Corporation. Status hearing held on 8/31/21. The parties request additional time to continue their plea discussions. Status hearing set for 9/23/21 at 9:30 a.m. The call-in number is 888-273-3658 and the access code is 1637578. Counsel of record will receive a separate email at least 12 hours prior to the start of the telephonic hearing with instructions on how to join the call. All persons granted remote access to proceedings are reminded of the general prohibition against photographing, recording, and rebroadcasting of court proceedings. Violation of these prohibitions may result in court-imposed sanctions, including removal of court issued media credentials, restricted entry to future hearings, denial of entry to future hearings, or any other sanctions deemed necessary by the Court. All participants should review the Court's standing order regarding telephone conferences that is on Judge Lee's website, which can be found at: https://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/judge-info.aspx?4Qf5zc8loCI5U7rfMP9DHw==. Time is excluded through 9/23/21 without objection in the interest of justice pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 3161(h)(7)(A) -(B) to allow additional time for plea discussions. (ca, ) (Entered: 08/31/2021)
A "complex" plea bargain is near with DONALD DONAGHER, JR., the owner of PENN CREDIT CORP., who allegedly bribed Illinois and Florida officials and candidates to get government contracts.
DONAGHER allegedly paid $8000 to HUNTER SINCLAIR CONRAD ("Clerk E" in the indictment), which was allegedly intended as a bribe.
A change of plea hearing is expected to be set in some 30 days.
Controversial young Republican HUNTER SINCLAIR CONRAD, who has an accounting degree from a Bible college and a law degree from for-profit Florida Coastal Sch9ol of Law -- was appointed irregularly as Clerk by Governor RICHARD LYNN SCOTT over the career deputy, who had been appointed by the Chief Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit to replace Cheryl Strickland,
Governor SCOTT and then endorsed CONRAD, 29, who was then elected St. Johns County Clerk of Court and Comptroller in 2016.
After the DONAGHER indictment but before any local news stories about it here, HUNTEr CONRAD resigned November 19, 2019 and did not seek re-election.
CONRAD was rewarded for his omertà with an even higher paying job (+$225,000/year) created specially for him by St. Johns County Commission, when they abruptly fired County Administrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK (2007-2019), possibly violating Florida legal requirements. (WANCHICK never challenged his firing and fled like a thief in the night, never to be heard from again),
More here:
Here's the July 19, 2021 status report from the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, and counsel for DONALD DONAGHER, JR.:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
v.
DONALD DONAGHER, et al.
No. 19 CR 240 Judge John Z. Lee
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
JOINT STATUS REPORT1
The parties jointly submit the following status report:
1. Status of Discovery: Understanding its ongoing discovery obligations, the government has complied with Rule 16 and tendered discovery.
2. Status of Briefing on Unresolved Motions: There are no unresolved motions pending.
3. Plea Negotiations: The parties are engaged in plea negotiations, which are more complex than in the ordinary case. The parties have made significant progress since the filing of the previous status report, but several issues remain to be resolved. The parties anticipate that, within the next 30 days, they will be in a position to file a status report or to contact the courtroom deputy with proposed change of plea dates.
4. Proposed Schedule: There are no scheduled court dates, but the parties respectfully request another 30 days to resolve outstanding issues in their plea negotiations.
1 The Court ordered the parties to file a joint status report by July 16, 2021. Dkt. 87. Through an oversight, this filing is one business day late, and the parties apologize for its late filing.
Case: 1:19-cr-00240 Document #: 88 Filed: 07/19/21 Page 2 of 2 PageID #:597
Agreed Action by Court: None.
Need for Telephonic or In-Person Hearing: There is no need for a hearing
at this time. The parties expect that within the next 30 days, they will be able to request a date for a change of plea hearing.
7. Exclusion of Time: The defendants agree, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 3161(h)(1)(d) and (h)(7)(A), to the exclusion of time until and including the next court appearance scheduled by the Court. In the event that the Court is simply setting a date for the parties to submit a follow-up status report, defendants agree to the exclusion of time through August 31, 2021. The parties ask the Court to find that the exclusion of time is without objection and in the interests of justice, to allow the parties to continue ongoing plea negotiations.
July 18, 2021
Respectfully submitted,
JOHN R. LAUSCH, JR. United States Attorney
ANKUR SRIVASTAVA CHRISTOPHER PARENTE Assistant United States Attorneys 219 South Dearborn Street, 5th Floor Chicago, Illinois 60604
(312) 353-3148
All too complicated to follow, but I'm glad others are watching!
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