State
Rep. Luis Arroyo, D-Chicago, arrested and charged with attempting to pay a $2,500 bribe to
a state senator, has been in trouble before.
Chicago
Police Department records show that Arroyo was arrested twice during the 1970s
and once in 1997. In 1974, a police report shows, he was arrested on suspicion of
auto theft. On New Year’s Eve in 1975, he was arrested after police found two
pounds of marijuana in a car over which he had control. In 1997, Chicago police
arrested Arroyo after someone complained that he’d shown a badge and made a
threat. “I’m a police officer,” Arroyo allegedly said. “You’d better hurry up
or I’ll brick you down.” According to the 1997 report, he was booked for simple
assault and unlawful representation of himself as a police officer. At the
time, according to a police report, he was a foreman for the Chicago Department
of Water. The victim’s name is redacted from a report obtained by Illinois Times.
No
further details of the incidents were available from a Freedom of Information
Act request made to the Chicago Police Department made in 2015, when the Cook
County State’s Attorney’s office said that
it had no information on the incidents. Arroyo, apparently, was never charged
with a crime. He has been a state legislator since 2006.
Steve
Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, did not immediately respond
to a phone inquiry asking whether Madigan had been aware of Arroyo’s arrest
history prior to today, when the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago announced
that the representative has been indicted for allegedly offering a state
senator a $2,500 bribe to help pass gambling legislation.
Arroyo
was featured in a 2016 Illinois Times story about how politicians spend campaign contributions. According to Arroyo’s
campaign disclosure reports, the representative in 2010 spent $183 on clothing,
despite a state law that specifically bans elected officials from spending
money on clothes. Arroyo’s disclosure reports also showed expenditures, often
in round numbers, with little detail provided other than “expenses for services
rendered” or “campaign work.”
Contact Bruce
Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Oct 24-30, 2019.
