Palos Heights sales agent indicted on bribery conspiracy charges

Patrick J. Doherty, a 64-year-old Palos Heights man, has been indicted on the charges of being involved in a bribery conspiracy. He is a sales agent for a Chicago-area red-light camera company. According to the indictment, Doherty was involved in paying bribes to get approval for the installation of additional cameras in suburban Oak Lawn.

According to the court documents, two counts of using an interstate facility to facilitate bribery have been filed against him. Moreover, one count of conspiracy to use an interstate facility to facilitate bribery has also been filed against him. The US District Court in Chicago received the returned indictment on Thursday.

The indictment stated that Doherty was a sales agent for a red-light camera company that had a contract to install cameras at several of Oak Lawn. The company needed to get approval from the Board of Trustees of Oak Lawn in order to renew its contracts and install more cameras, according to the indictment.

According to the indictment, Doherty conspired with an individual to pay a bribe to a relative of the Oak Lawn Trustee in 2017. The purpose of the bribe was to get approval for the installation of an additional camera in Oak Lawn. A phone call revealed that Doherty talked to another sales agent about the deal. He said, “I will pay the relative of Trustee if he is going to get us the job.” Doherty told the conspirator that he would make the payment from a separate company. The purpose of the payment would be concealed in this way, Doherty allegedly said.

John R. Lausch, Jr., the US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Emmerson Buie, Jr., the special agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Chicago office, and Kathy A. Enstrom, the special agent-in-charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Chicago Division, announced the indictment. An indictment is not proof of guilt. It is the responsibility of the government to prove the charges against the defendant beyond any doubt.