A federal jury began deliberating Monday afternoon in the trial of a suburban fencing contractor accused of bribing employees of the Cook County assessor’s office with free rounds of golf at an exclusive country club in exchange for saving him tens of thousands of dollars on commercial property taxes. Robert Mitziga, 66, of Dyer, Indiana, is charged with bribery and conspiracy in an indictment that was part of a larger investigation that so far has netted charges against seven people, including three assessor’s office employees and one former Chicago buildings inspector. Mitziga is accused of paying for food, drinks and rounds of golf at the private Lost Dunes Golf Club in Bridgman, Michigan, for three assessor’s office employees who helped steer commercial properties for Mitziga’s company, Fence Masters Inc.
, through the appeals system and ultimately saved him about $45,000 in taxes over three years — without the added expense of hiring an attorney. Attorneys delivered closing arguments at Dirksen U.S.
Courthouse in downtown Chicago, sparring over whether Mitziga knew the assessor’s office employees were acting to lower his assessments in exchange for the golf outings. Federal prosecutors referenced phone records and recorded calls and text messages to argue to the jury of Mitziga’s knowing participation. Defense attorneys, though, contended that Mitziga was longtime “golf friends” with former assessor’s office employee Basilio Clausen, and thought he was just doing his old friend a favor.
The jury began deliberating about 1 p.m. Clausen and Lavdim Memisovski, another former assessor office employee, have pleaded guilty to taking bribes and testified against Mitziga during the weeklong trial.
The third, Lumni Likovski, is scheduled to go on trial next year. On Friday, in a rare move for defendant in a federal trial, Mitziga testified in his own defense, saying he often picked up the tab for friends on golf outings and never had any sort of arrangement with anyone to lower his taxes. During closing arguments, prosecutors played phone call recordings that they said showed the assessor’s office employees glee at being able to use the exclusive Lost Dunes Golf Club, eliciting occasional soft chuckles from viewers in the gallery.
“This wasn’t putt putt. This is an exclusive golf club in Michigan,” said Assistant U.S.
Attorney Jared Jodrey. “You would think based on these calls they were going to Jurassic Park.” Jodrey argued that Clausen, Memisovski and Likovski subverted normal office protocols in order to ensure Mitziga’s appeal landed on the right desk.
He said Mitziga dropped his longtime attorney to file the tax assessment appeal pro se at the suggestion of Clausen. “He’s a sophisticated business person,” Jodrey said, questioning why Mitziga would file a complex and impactful appeal without the lawyer he generally uses. “Because he knows the outcome is predetermined.
” But Mitziga’s attorney, Gabrielle Sansonetti, showed the jury photos of Mitziga with his arm around Clausen, arguing that he allowed Clausen’s group to golf at Lost Dunes because of their friendship. Similarly, she said, he asked Clausen for input on appealing his tax assessment, looking for friendly advice. “No benefits were offered.
No benefits were sought. No benefits were given,” she said. Further, Sansonetti argued, Clausen worked to ingratiate himself with wealthy people for free luxuries and abused Mitziga’s trust.
“He accepted Bob’s love and generosity. He used his home in Florida, his beach house in Indiana,” Sansonetti said. “He tried to blame Bob for his secretive and criminal conduct.
” While the charges involve relatively low-level graft, Mitziga’s trial has included colorful wiretapped recordings and offered a glimpse into the bureaucracy of the county’s property tax appeals system, which has been described by some as a legalized racket where initial assessments are artificially inflated, forcing property owners to jump through hoops to get them lowered. Luxury home or vacant lot? Cook County assessor misclassifies hundreds of properties, missing $444M in one year alone At the time of the alleged scheme in 2017, the boss of the assessor’s office was Joseph Berrios, the then-chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party whose office was often criticized as a den of clout and patronage. Berrios, who has not been charged, lost his bid for a third term as assessor in the 2018 Democratic primary to Fritz Kaegi, who instituted a strict ethics code for all employees, “which forbids the use of the assessor’s office for personal gain.
” The investigation also has connections to another intriguing bribery case unfolding hundreds of miles away in Pennsylvania. There, Mitziga’s longtime friend, Mark Snedden, has been under scrutiny for allegedly helping arrange a slew of bribes — including trips to exotic islands, Bruno Mars tickets and a German shepherd puppy — to a corrupt Amtrak official to win millions of dollars in contract work to renovate the old 30th Street train station in Philadelphia, court records show. Snedden has not been charged in either case, and he was not expected to testify in Mitziga’s trial.
Last month, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia filed a criminal information against a top executive with Snedden’s firm, Dolton-based MARK 1 Restoration, alleging the scheme to bribe the Amtrak official. Attorneys for Snedden’s company have previously told the Tribune that Snedden is cooperating with the U.S.
attorney’s office there. Among the key evidence at Mitziga’s trial is his August 2022 interview with two FBI agents who confronted him with evidence from the investigation after Mitziga wrapped up a round of golf at a club in south suburban Flossmoor. “How’d you shoot today?” one of the agents asked.
“You know, good,” Mitziga allegedly replied. “I three-putted the last two holes.” During the three-hour interview, Mitziga was shown receipts from Lost Dunes and played recordings made during the investigation.
He said he was just doing a favor for some friends when he set up the rounds of golf and had no expectation that his taxes would be lowered because of it, according to the transcript. “My only point is it wasn’t uh, uh, God how do you call that when you see it on TV ..
. like, pay-for-play or whatever,” Mitziga said in the interview, according to a transcript in court records. “It wasn’t a deal setup.
” “You didn’t think it would help with your taxes at all?” one of the agents asked. “No. I didn’t know that,” Mitziga replied.
“I didn’t know anything about Lost Dunes was, was, uh, gonna help with my taxes at all. I can honestly tell you that.” The transcript also showed that Snedden was a main focus of the agents, who repeatedly asked Mitziga if he knew anything about Snedden’s project in Philadelphia and whether he’d gotten into any legal trouble there.
Mitziga said he “wasn’t privy to what was going on, but I knew they were having discussions over a job that was not going right or there were problems,” according to the transcript. “Do you know, uh, Mark Snedden to ever have done anything illegal or unethical?” FBI Special Agent Brian Etchell asked. “No,” Mitziga replied, according to the transcript.
The discussion grew testy at times, with Mitziga seeming to take exception to how the agents were characterizing his actions and at one point saying they’d “kinda lied” to him about the reason for the interview in the first place. Near the end, Mitziga appeared to be struggling to find the right words as he said he was not trying to “disrupt or inhibit” the investigation going forward. “I’ll answer the questions to the best of what I can,” he said, according to the transcript.
“And I can’t remember every single thing, but a $520 bill (from Lost Dunes) is the only thing that I know of, and it’s ’cause you just showed it to me, or I would’ve never even known that.” Mitziga testified Friday that he now remembered he’d agreed to split the bill with Snedden after a golf pro told him that was the best way to ensure their guests could get on the course. He also said the FBI agents had confused him during their interview, which they had said was to focus on a former employee of his company, not him and his golf buddies.
“I was confused about everything,” Mitziga said. “I had no idea about any of this. .
.. Five minutes before this, they were telling me it was about a work employee, and all of a sudden they threw this at me.
” Mitziga told the jury that while he got some things wrong in the interview, he wasn’t deliberately trying to deceive the agents. On cross examination by Assistant U.S.
Attorney Richard Rothblatt, however, Mitziga eventually admitted to lying. “I lied. I did say some lies, yes,” he said.
Clausen, who was a residential field inspector for the assessor’s office, testified he was good friends with Mitziga and had been golfing with him for years when Mitziga first asked about reducing property tax assessments for Fence Masters as well as Snedden’s company, MARK 1. While the appeals were pending, Clausen and his colleagues were treated to several rounds of golf at Lost Dunes in fall 2017, with Mitziga and Snedden splitting the tab, according to trial evidence. Clausen testified last week that he and his co-workers knew that Mitziga and Snedden were paying for the golf in exchange for their help with the tax assessments.
On Nov. 9, 2017, the FBI recorded a call between Clausen and Memisovski regarding the Snedden’s appeals, which had just been significantly lowered. “Well, sir.
Absolutely awesome,” Clausen said on the call, which was played for the jury. Later that month, the two had another call to discuss Mitziga’s appeal. “He got a nice one too,” Memisovski told Clausen.
“I think he’s actually gonna be happier than the other buddy.” “That’s exactly what we want,” Clausen allegedly responded. “Yeah.
That’s awesome, that’s awesome.” On cross-examination, Clausen acknowledged that he was nervous when he was confronted by the FBI in 2022 and that trying to recall conversations he’d had years earlier was difficult. He also said he made the decision to cooperate in the hopes of getting a break on his sentence.
“You had a lot on the line, is that fair to say?” asked Mitziga’s attorney, Sansonetti. “Yes,” Clausen replied..
