Plainfield Woman on Blago Jury Says Former Governor Rightly Convicted

Rod Blagojevich is a charming guy, and when he tries to explain that what he did was not illegal, you want to believe him, Tracy Courtney-Johnson said.

But then you listen to the taped recordings of the former Illinois governor wheeling and dealing, and a different Rod Blagojevich emerges, said Courtney-Johnson, a Plainfield resident and a member of the federal jury that convicted the Chicago Democrat of 17 of 20 public corruption charges this week.

“(Deciding) some of the counts were easier than others,” she said. “Selling the Senate seat, for example, that was a little easier.

“There were times when you felt bad for him. But a lot of people put their trust in him to make the right decisions, and he hurt a lot of people.”

Courtney-Johnson, one of 18 people chosen for the jury in April, said she suspected she would be selected when she acknowledged she hadn’t paid much attention to Blagojevich’s first trial and that she hadn’t lived in Illinois for all of his first term and part of his second, she said.

She admits her first reaction to being picked was something along the lines of “oh, no,” but that it was also exciting to be involved in a historic case in which the fate of a governor would be decided.

“It was actually quite interesting, being part of such a high-profile case,” said Courtney-Johnson, the married mother of three sons, ages 18, 16 and 13, who has lived in Plainfield for seven years. “It’s not every day that Rahm Emanuel walks past you and Jesse Jackson Jr. sits within a few feet of you.”

Then again, there was also lots of “hurry up and wait,” which grew tedious, she said.

She was allowed to tell her friends and family she was a member of the Blagojevich trial jury, but could not discuss the case with anyone or read or watch anything pertaining to it. People respected that responsibility, she said, and there were no slip-ups despite the trial going for more than two months.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the case was Blagojevich’s “Jekyll and Hyde” persona – the engaging politician in the witness box vs. the hardened politician on the tapes, she said. That you would have to be the latter to get things done was not surprising, but listening to him cross the line into things that were clearly illegal was, she said.

Interestingly, the jury was not told what counts Blagojevich was facing until after closing arguments, and they were given a book of jury instructions to help them decide if the prosecution had sufficiently provided enough evidence for each, Courtney-Johnson said.

Unlike the dramatic scenes of jurors locked in battle behind closed doors, she said the process was actually quite civilized and jury members took their duty seriously.

“We actually got along very well,” she said. “We went into it with the attitude that we’re going to respect everybody’s opinion. … We didn’t have any shouting matches.”

Ultimately, they convicted Blagojevich on all of the counts involving wire fraud and some of the charges involving bribery and extortion and acquitted him on one count of bribery. They could not reach verdicts on two counts of attempted extortion.

No sentencing date has yet been set. Each count carries a 20-year maximum sentence, but it’s extremely unlikely he will be given anything near the maximum, legal experts say.

As for Courtney-Johnson, there’s relief that the long case is finally over and that she no longer has to make the trip into Chicago every day. And while it did take her away from her regular life, in which she runs a home-based catering company called Gobbles, she likes that her sons got to see her participate in the legal process.

Besides, she said with a laugh, it’s given them bragging rights.

“Overall, it was a very good experience,” she said.