It was all-systems-go on the renovation of a Burger King on Chicago’s Southwest Side in 2017 when the project’s field representative got a strange call from then-Ald. Ed Burke’s longtime ward assistant, who said work had to stop over a permit issue.
“I was concerned and a little bit startled,” Pam Smith, a supervisor with Tri City Foods, testified Monday in Burke’s corruption trial, saying the Oct. 24, 2017, call from 14th Ward aide Peter Andrews Jr. was the first interference from an alderman’s office she’d ever experienced.
Andrews’ warning prompted her to send an email to others on the project saying it was on hold until they could meet with Burke’s people.
“Hopefully, they do not send the health department and start messing around with us,” Smith wrote. “I know these guys are very powerful and they can make life very difficult for all of our Chicago stores.”
What Smith didn’t know at the time was that Burke and Andrews had been talking for months about getting her Texas-based boss to hire Burke’s private law firm to do property tax appeals for dozens of fast-food restaurants he owned in the Chicago area.
The testimony came as the historic trial was supposed to see its first full week starting Monday after an unexpectedly slow jury selection, followed by a COVID-19 diagnosis for one of the defense attorneys and a shortened week for the Thanksgiving holiday put the proceedings behind schedule.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall has said that despite the delays, she still expected the trial to finish by the Christmas holiday, which is now just four weeks away.
But it suffered another hiccup Monday when Todd Pugh, an attorney representing Andrews, tested positive for COVID, necessitating an early end to proceedings and a swerve into a different phase of testimony Tuesday.
After the positive test, Pugh participated in the proceedings via videoconference, with his co-counsel, Patrick Blegen, questioning Smith in person.
Since Smith had flown in from out of town to testify, Kendall announced, they would continue with her testimony Monday morning — then reconvene Tuesday to hear evidence about a different group of allegations that does not involve Andrews. It remains to be seen how the unexpected shift in the schedule could further affect the speed of the trial as witnesses are reshuffled.
What Smith did not know is that the day after work on the Burger King halted, Burke called Andrews and asked about the status of the renovation. On the call, which was secretly recorded by the FBI, Burke confirmed that the owner, Shoukat Dhanani, had not hired his firm even though he’d pitched it at lunch at the Beverly Country Club back in June.
“I took ’em to lunch,” Burke told Andrews in the call played in court last week. “I was playing nice with ’em — never got back.”
Andrews assured Burke that he’d “play as hard ball as I can” with them over the permit issue.
Smith’s testimony was a key part of the alleged Burger King scheme, one of four episodes laid out in the racketeering indictment against Burke alleging he used the powers of his elected office to shake down developers and threaten employees at the Field Museum.
On cross-examination, attorneys for Burke and Andrews aimed to show there were legitimate reasons for local officials to intervene with that particular Burger King, and that her email to colleagues about what Burke could do in retaliation was purely speculation.
“That was what I believed could happen at the time,” Smith told Burke’s attorney, Chris Gair.
“Well, anything could happen,” Gair shot back. “Did you have any basis for it other than your own personal speculation?”
“No,” Smith replied.
Burke, 79, who left the City Council in May, is charged with 14 counts, including racketeering, federal program bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion and using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity.
Andrews, 73, is charged with one count of attempted extortion, one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, two counts of using interstate commerce to facilitate an unlawful activity and one count of making a false statement to the FBI.
A third defendant, real estate developer Charles Cui, is charged with bribery-related counts over a separate scheme to hire Burke’s law firm in exchange for the alderman’s help permitting a pole sign for Cui’s real estate development in the Portage Park neighborhood.
Last week, the jury of nine women and three men heard testimony from Dhanani, the Houston-area restaurant tycoon who purchased about 150 Chicago-area Burger Kings in 2014, including the one on South Pulaski Road at the center of the indictment.
Dhanani testified about the morning of Nov. 29, 2018, when FBI agents knocked on his door in Sugar Land, Texas, and said they were investigating Burke and needed to ask him some questions about the Burger King renovation.
“What I think I may have said (to the agents) was … It was my understanding that I would have to give the alderman the property tax business in order for us to get our permit or get going,” Dhanani testified.
Attorneys for Burke and Andrews have tried to flip the script, painting Dhanani as a savvy, self-made business owner who was making an effort to ingratiate himself with Burke as he tried to expand his footprint in Chicago.
Burke’s attorney, Joseph Duffy, also repeatedly pointed out that Dhanani never actually gave Burke any legal business, and the renovation of the Burger King on South Pulaski Road eventually was completed without any more interference from Burke.
Smith, meanwhile, testified on Monday that while she participated in the initial walk-through and meeting with Burke at the Burger King in June 2017, the alderman barely spoke to her other than to say “Hello.”
At the time, she said, Burke raised concerns about big-rig trucks parking overnight on the Burger King lot, as well as complaints about prostitution. She said they had “heavy-duty” signs posted at the site warning that parking there was illegal, and considered the issue resolved.
The day after Andrews called her in October to shut the project down, she and two colleagues met with Andrews at the 14th Ward offices in the Archer Heights neighborhood, where Andrews was shown plans and permits they had obtained.
The architect, she said, “had everything on the table” and she recalled Andrews “was looking at one or two documents.”
It wasn’t until two months after that meeting, on Dec. 13, 2017, that the project manager emailed the group to let them know Burke’s office had withdrawn its objections and they were clear to resume the renovation, according to evidence in the case.
Smith was not aware, however, that the detente came a day after Burke met with Dhanani and his son at the Union League Club, where Dhanani allegedly agreed to put Burke’s law firm in touch with his property tax people in Houston.
The Burger King renovation was finally completed in March 2018, according to testimony.
On cross-examination, Blegen got Smith to acknowledge she was confused at the time over the difference between the special-use permit for the Burger King drive-thru, which they had been granted, and a permit for a driveway, which they had not.
“The driveway permit was not (the alderman’s office) messing around with you, it was something you legitimately needed to get, right?” Blegen asked. “And eventually, after some nudging from Pete, you got it.”
Smith also agreed with Gair that Burke never threatened her or said anything “untoward.”
“In fact, everybody always acted in a very matter-of-fact fashion?” Gair asked.
“Correct,” Smith said.
