Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jan 2007
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2007 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Maurice Possley and Tonya Maxwell, Tribune staff reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?246 (Policing - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

QUARTER CENTURY AGO, DAD WAS IN SPOTLIGHT 	

The charges against Deputy U.S. Marshal John Ambrose of leaking
sensitive information to organized crime evoked memories going back a
quarter of a century when his father was one of 10 Chicago police
officers convicted of taking bribes to protect drug dealers.

Thomas Ambrose and nine others were indicted in 1981 on federal
charges of taking $250,000 in exchange for allowing two drug
operations to exist with impunity in the Marquette District on
Chicago's West Side.

They were quickly dubbed the "Marquette 10," and the 1982 trial in
U.S. District Court in Chicago was one of the most acrimonious of its
time.

The defendants were described by their lawyers and friends as highly
decorated officers who daily fought an overwhelming battle against the
influx of narcotics that were sold blatantly on street corners by drug
kingpins Milton Kelly and Charles "C.W." Wilson.

During the several-week trial, federal prosecutors Dan Webb, James
Schweitzer and Michael Siegel presented testimony from Kelly, Wilson
and other drug dealers who portrayed the officers as protectors of the
narcotics rings. They said the officers accepted cash, guns and
property, including cars and leather coats, as well as sexual favors
from 1976 to 1980.

Thomas Ambrose and his partner, Frank Derango, were known as "Shake"
and "Bake" by the drug dealers who ran Wilson's 24-hour-a-day curbside
operations at 16th Street and Christiana Avenue and Kelly's similar
business at Cermak Road and Avers Avenue.

During the trial, ex-heroin addict Vincent Felter testified that in
the spring of 1980, he and another man were driving through the
district when they were stopped by Ambrose and Derango.

Felter said that Ambrose frisked the other man while Derango put
Felter, who was carrying a 9 mm pistol and 4 ounces of heroin, in the
back of their unmarked police car. After taking the gun and drugs,
Derango threatened to arrest him but then saw that Felter was wearing
several gold chains.

Felter testified that he gave up the chains and in return, the gun and
drugs were returned and he was allowed to go free.

The Marquette 10 defendants also included William Guide, whom sources
Thursday identified as the man John Ambrose leaked the information to
and who allegedly provided the information to organized-crime members.

Guide, who has not been charged with a crime in connection with John
Ambrose's case, could not be reached for comment.

His son, William Jr., said government officials had talked with his
father. He said he and his father believe Ambrose is innocent of the
charges and has been unfairly caught up in a situation similar to the
Marquette 10 case.

In the Marquette 10 case, Guide and his partner, William Haas, known
as "Big Billy" and "Little Billy," were portrayed by prosecutors as
particularly ruthless in their efforts to shake down drug dealers.

The other defendants were Curtis Lowery, John De Simone, Robert
Eatman, Joseph Pena, Dennis Smentek and James Ballauer.

The case was remarkable at the time because it pitted drug dealers as
witnesses against police officers--and the officers lost.

Guide and Haas had a furniture business and were said to have kept
clocks in the trunk of their unmarked car while on patrol and forced
drug dealers to buy them. Ballauer bought a car from one dealer,
paying with a check, according to the evidence.

Once, Eatman was said to have pulled a rear seat out of a parked car,
placed it on the sidewalk near the Avers Avenue operation--disrupting
drug sales--and refused to move until he was paid a $1,200 bribe.

A bank teller testified that Pena once entered a bank with a paper
sack full of money and dumped it on the counter, saying he didn't know
how much was in it. The teller said the bag contained $10,000.

All the defendants were convicted in 1982. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake