Pennsylvania businessman gets three months in prison for trying to influence former court Clerk Dorothy Brown

The former owner of a Pennsylvania debt collection company was sentenced to three months in federal prison Friday for paying for plaques and catering for then-Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s 2014 Women’s History Month program to reward Brown for what he believed was her role in helping land contracts with her office.

Donald Donagher Jr., 70, former chief executive officer of the Penn Credit Corp., pleaded guilty last year to one count of corruptly giving something of value to a public official.

In denying a defense request for probation, U.S. District Judge John Lee said it was important to send a message that the public’s interest comes first, especially in a city like Chicago where “citizens have suffered through a long and sordid history of public corruption convictions.”

“Cynics might say it’s just how things are done, but the law demands more and frankly the public deserves more,” Lee said near the end of the hourlong hearing, which Donagher participated in via videoconference from Philadelphia.

The case against Donagher was one of several federal investigations swirling around Brown, who left office in 2020 after 20 years at the helm of the county’s sprawling court clerk system.

Two of Brown’s underlings were convicted of lying to a federal grand jury investigating a separate pay-to-play scheme involving the clerk’s office. Brown, meanwhile, repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and was never charged.

Donagher’s case was closely watched in the Chicago legal community because his attorneys alleged that prosecutors overstepped the language of the federal bribery statute in bringing the indictment.

Last year, Lee issued a rare setback for the U.S. attorney’s office in dismissing the more serious bribery charges in the case, saying prosecutors had failed to allege there was an “explicit” quid pro quo tied to Donagher’s campaign contributions to Brown.

In a 17-page plea agreement with prosecutors, Donagher admitted that he was attempting to reward Brown for “her perceived role” in steering business to his company when he agreed to help fund Brown’s Women’s History event, which honored female justices and judges in Cook County and across the state. Penn Credit Corp. had previously been awarded about half of the county’s contracts to collect unpaid parking ticket debt, according to the plea.

In March 2014, Donagher paid $869 to a Morton Grove trophy company for commemorative plaques for Brown’s event, as well as another $1,000 to a food company for catering services, the plea stated. After agreeing to cover the expenses, Donagher forwarded an email from a member of Brown’s staff to other Penn Credit employees and lobbyists asking if they could represent the company at the event, according to the plea.

“I told her we are fans of (Brown),” Donagher wrote, adding, “we gotta stay ahead of” competing companies.

The original indictment filed against Donagher in 2019 accused him of sending an email in 2011 to a company lobbyist in Illinois indicating he had promised Brown “10K of ‘early’ money” in exchange for a lucrative contract with the county. The next month, he donated $10,000 to her campaign fund, prosecutors said.

Donagher’s attorneys have criticized the government for accusing someone of paying bribes without indicting the elected official who allegedly took them.

His lead attorney, Theodore Poulos, told the judge on Friday that the case against Donagher offered a “cautionary tale” for businessmen seeking government contracts about the nebulous federal bribery statute.

“It shows the perils that are in play with the statute as worded,” Poulos said, adding, “Like any businessman, (Donagher) wanted to remain in the good graces of the politician” who may or may not have control in awarding more business to his company.

Poulos also said there was “no evidence ever put her thumb on the scale.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual, however, argued that even though the rewards Donagher bestowed upon Brown were small, it “breeds public cynicism and fosters disrespect for the rule of law” when a businessman seeks to tilt the playing field in his favor.

“This was not a crime that was born of need, it was a crime that was born of greed,” Pasqual said.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com