Chicago’s Political Prisoner Partially Released and Then Gagged

Thomas Barton, Illinois Pay-to-Play Political Commentator

On October 19 last, you read here of the continuing incarceration of former Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF) employee Annabel Melongo in the Crook County Jail. There’s been a new development in her case.

After 18 months in the slammer, Ms. Melongo has been released under house arrest.  But she’s forbidden to speak to the media.  Illinois Pay-to-Play has made no effort to contact her, not wishing to endanger her semi-freedom from jail, if not her freedom under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

The website Sidebar posted a thank you note she sent to several bloggers who kept her case alive during the last 16 months.

Allegedly, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office continues to “investigate” the $853,709 state and federal dollars in grant monies received by the SALF, but not reported on their Form 990 to the state. Nor, presumably, reported to the IRS’s via the federal 990.  If you think there’s a real AG investigation underway into the matter, then check the classified ads for cheap Florida swamp land.

Hey, what’s less than a million missing government dollars in the greater scheme of the national version of Illinois’ Pay-to-Play metastasizing throughout the United States of America? Billions are slipping away in various green, GM, Fannie & Freddie, and other schemes. The redistribution of wealth is in full throttle – but not going to the poor, but to the players.  But that’s another story.

One wonders: What’s the Court afraid that Ms. Melongo might say about what she witnessed at SALF before it went belly-up in 2009? What names of prominent pols (at the state and federal levels) might she mention? And where did unaccounted for government grant monies representing nearly 10% of SALF’s receipts go over the years of its operation?

Melongo was in a position to see where the money went; now she’s gagged. After being framed for corrupting their computer system. It’s the Chicago Way.

These are questions that the relentless investigative reporters at the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times are probing even as you read this – ah...well, no they’re not.

Fact is, we’ll never know where the money went.  But, look, it’s chump change. Unfortunately, the citizens of Crook County and Illinois are the chumps.