'Entrapment' cited by co-defendant in Medrano trial

June 14, 2013|By Annie Sweeney | Tribune reporter
  • Former Ald. Ambrosio Medrano enters the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse to attend his trial on bribery charges.
Former Ald. Ambrosio Medrano enters the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse to attend his trial on bribery charges. (John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune)

In closing arguments at the bribery trial of former Chicago Alderman Ambrosio Medrano, an attorney for another defendant summed up the government’s case against his client with one word.

“Entrapment,” said Joseph J. Duffy, who represents James Barta, a wealthy Nebraska cattle rancher and owner of a pharmaceutical company. “From Day 1, James Barta was not predisposed to engage in criminal conduct.”

Barta is charged along with his longtime friend Gustavo Buenrostro and Medrano with passing a bribe to an undercover FBI agent in order to secure a contract for Barta’s company with Los Angeles County.

Prosecutors earlier argued that Barta freely joined the scheme, agreeing to allow Medrano and Buenrostro to set up a minority pass-through company as a way for Barta’s company to secure the contract. Barta was secretly recorded in meetings by the undercover agent, who was posing as a crooked medical purchasing agent for Los Angeles County.

But Duffy cast his client as an “American success story” who built a business from scratch and wound up a reluctant partner who had to be “chased” and “harassed” by the undercover agent. Duffy pointed out that the agent called and emailed Barta numerous times without getting a response.

Barta, who was heard on secret recordings saying he was trying to help out his pal Buenrostro, eventually agreed to meet with the agent in June 2012 and wrote out a $6,500 check, providing the first alleged payoff for the contract, prosecutors contend.

Duffy questioned why a man paying a bribe would write a check that could be so easily traced, and suggested that Barta could have thought the agent was a legitimate broker who was helping his company compete for a contract.

But none of it would have happened if the government did not insist that Buenrostro bring Barta to a meeting, Duffy said.

“He wrote a check,” Duffy said. “He presumably succumbed, but it was (after) an amazing, relentless pursuit of a law-abiding citizen.”