A Cook County Judge sentenced Ald. Bernard Stone's former ward superintendent and another man to jail Wednesday for attempting to improperly steer votes toward Stone in the hotly contested 50th Ward aldermanic race in 2007.
Anish Eapen, 40, and Armando Ramos, 36, "attempted to steal democracy," Judge Marcus Salone said before sentencing Eapen to 364 days in jail and Ramos to 270 days in jail.
Arguing for probation, attorneys Rohit Sahgal and Tom Breen said the men were not well-versed in election law and were taking orders from Stone and other 50th Ward officials.
"To this day, he has no idea what he did wrong," Sahgal said of Ramos.
Assistant State's Attorney Lynn McCarthy said the sentence would "send a message."
Eapen, who was handpicked by Stone to serve as a ward superintendent, and Ramos targeted primarily Indian and Pakistani voters and coaxed them to take absentee ballots, prosecutors said. They watched as voters filled out the absentee ballot applications and forms for the February election and the April runoff in 2007, when Stone edged out challenger Naisy Dolar.
Salone said Wednesday that the misdemeanor convictions were a like a "kiss" -- essentially a slap on the wrist. Still, he said, what they did was wrong.
"They attempted to steal democracy, and they did it in a vicious way," Salone said.
Stone on Wednesday called Ramos and Eapen "political prisoners" and lashed out at former city Inspector General David Hoffman. Stone said Hoffman singled him out in the ballot fraud investigation while failing to probe other aldermen.
"They are not the ones who attempted to steal democracy. The one who attempted to steal democracy was David Hoffman," an infuriated Stone said. "This is a miscarriage of justice."
Stone said he never "instructed" Ramos and Eapen to do anything and they were only trying to help voters.
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