When Cook County State’s Attorney Bernard Carey was approached with the grim news venality and corruption had adulterated Cook County courts, one of his first acts was to speak with Thomas P. Sullivan, who was the then-United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Recalling the exchange with Carey, Sullivan revealed decades later Carey’s appeal for assistance to contend with the fetid pool of corruption sweeping through the court system was based on Carey’s realization his office was insufficiently staffed and funded to shoulder a probe of such scale.
A notable prosecutor, Sullivan applied his calm, methodical legal mind to what would become known as Operation Greylord. Following President Jimmy Carter’s defeat in the 1980 election, Sullivan was replaced by Dan Webb, who, with a social scientist’s detachment and dispassion, embarked on a complex, lengthy, and challenging investigation. Over the next four years, Webb and FBI agents uncovered a preponderance of evidence demonstrating a massive case-fixing scheme involving judges, Cook County prosecutors, lawyers, court bailiffs, clerks, and a state lawmaker. Working undercover, federal agents posing as prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, victims of crimes, and criminals, fabricated criminal cases to ensnare — amongst others — corrupt public officials and defense attorneys involved in bribery, kickbacks, and fraud.