Early-2024 Trial Date Seen for ex-AT&T Executive Accused of Bribery

Lawyers for defendant Paul La Schiazza, including Tinos Diamantatos of Morgan Lewis, have continued to “comb through” the discovery documents tendered by the government in its prosecution of the former AT&T Illinois president on bribery and racketeering charges, Diamantatos told U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman for Northern Illinois in Chicago in a telephone status conference Thursday. The volume of discovery materials “is very, very large,” he said. “We have gone through enough of it to have a good sense of what, if anything, we would file in terms of pretrial motions at this stage,” he said. La Schiazza’s defense team has no intentions of filing a bill of particulars motion or a motion to dismiss, said Diamantatos. Gettleman scheduled the next telephone status conference for April 4 at 8:45 a.m. CDT, and instructed Diamantatos and DOJ attorney Julia Schwartz to be prepared then to discuss setting an early-2024 jury trial date. The judge also gave Diamantatos a March 27 deadline for filing any pretrial motions. La Schiazza pleaded not guilty Oct. 21 to charges in an Oct. 12 grand jury indictment that he authorized a series of nine $2,500 monthly payments, totaling $22,500, to a close ally of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D) for a no-show job. Madigan in return successfully pushed through legislation making it easier for AT&T to terminate its costly carrier of last resort obligation to continue providing landline services to Illinois residents, said the indictment.