Former Worth Township Supervisor John O’Sullivan was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months probation for his involvement in an attempt to put red-light cameras in Oak Lawn.
U.S. District Court Judge LaShonda Hunt handed down the sentence saying “this pay-to-play mentality really does have to end.”
Before being sentenced, O’Sullivan read a two-page statement apologizing for what he had done.
O’Sullivan, of Oak Lawn, cooperated with federal investigators looking into a conspiracy involving a job for the son of an unnamed and unindicted Oak Lawn trustee in exchange for letting SafeSpeed LLC install red-light cameras in the village. The teen worked for Doherty for a short time and was paid $500, according to the 2020 indictment. SafeSpeed did not receive any work from the village.
That cooperation was instrumental in his receiving probation and no prison time. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Ardam said probation was appropriate as O’Sullivan had a minor role in the conspiracy.
O’Sullivan’s testimony helped convict Patrick Doherty, who pleaded guilty in 2022 and was sentenced in 2023 to more than five years in prison. Doherty was former chief of staff for Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski, also the former mayor of McCook, who will be sentenced next month on unrelated federal corruption charges.
O’Sullivan was working with Doherty and SafeSpeed executive Omar Maani trying to get more villages to install the red-light cameras. Maani has also been cooperating with federal investigators and was granted a deferred prosecution deal.
In 2020, Maani’s cooperation led to charges against former state Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Southwest Side Democrat who pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe from Maani in return for protecting SafeSpeed’s interests in the Illinois Senate. Sandoval was also cooperating with federal investigators when he died in December 2020 of a COVID-19-related illness.
SafeSpeed has denied any wrongdoing and said Doherty and Maani were working without their knowledge.
O’Sullivan has held several political jobs. He served for a few months as a state representative from August 2010 to January 2011. He was Worth Township supervisor until resigning in 2021 after pleading guilty. He also served as Worth Township Democratic committeeman.
Lewandowski also gets probation
O’Sullivan was the second former Worth Township official to be sentenced to probation this year.
In February, former township trustee Richard Lewandowski, 65, of Palos Heights, was sentenced to one year of probation for failing to file income tax returns for 2017 and 2018.
Lewandowski pleaded guilty in 2021 and said he failed to pay the IRS $52,365 and the Illinois Department of Revenue $10,350.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez also fined him $4,000 and ordered him to pay $500 in court costs.