Former Illinois state senator and gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann’s criminal misuse of more than $630,000 in campaign funds justified a 3½-year prison sentence and contradicted his stated dedication to serving the public, a federal judge said July 9.
“You knew exactly what you were doing, all the while holding yourself out as a God-fearing man of the people,” Judge Colleen Lawless told McCann before imposing a 42-month sentence and two years of court supervision after his release.
McCann, 54, of Plainview, wearing the gray-striped clothing from the Macon County Jail, where he has been held since February, said during the sentencing hearing in Springfield’s U.S. District Court that he was proud of being a “voice for the voiceless” as a Republican senator.
But Lawless told him, “Just because you say something over and over doesn’t make it true.”
Lawless said McCann, who served three terms over an eight-year period, abused his power and took from some of those voiceless people between 2015 and mid-2020. During that time, he was a state senator living in Macoupin County and represented parts of the Springfield and Carlinville areas. He ran unsuccessfully as the Conservative Party candidate for governor in 2018.
Lawless said McCann’s actions contributed to the public’s lack of trust in elected officials. She said she hoped the sentence – near the top of the range recommended in federal guidelines for defendants such as McCann – would deter future illegal conduct among public officials.
McCann pleaded guilty Feb. 15 to seven counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering and one count of tax evasion. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2021.
His plea came on the third day of his bench trial and as he considered taking the stand in his defense.
McCann previously told Illinois Times his prosecution was politically motivated and that his Christian faith eased his worries about potentially going to prison because “God’s got this. … Whatever happens, God’s got it.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass asked Lawless to sentence McCann to 46 months in prison, the maximum recommended under nonbinding federal sentencing guidelines. Bass said he was pleased with the sentence Lawless handed down, calling it “reasonable.”
The minimum recommended under the guidelines was 37 months. McCann’s court-appointed attorney, Jason Vincent, asked that McCann be sentenced to 12 months.
Federal inmates generally can be released after serving 85% of a prison term for good behavior.
It appears unlikely that the campaign contributions McCann illegally spent will be repaid in full. The money went toward personal vehicles, a mobile home, a trailer, personal debts associated with his former construction businesses, family vacations and other personal expenses.
But Lawless ordered that McCann pay $683,816 in restitution to his biggest campaign donors, with 91% designated for Operating Engineers Local 150 in suburban Chicago and the rest to the Illinois Education Association.
The judge noted that McCann’s illegal campaign activity continued even after federal agents spoke with him in July 2018. That was when agents told him he was the target of a federal investigation and that he was improperly spending campaign funds.
McCann apologized for his conduct during the sentencing hearing, but Lawless told him, “It certainly took you a long time to get there.”
The judge said McCann “didn’t take personal responsibility” for his actions until the third day of his trial, following several attempts to fool her that he was physically and mentally impaired and unable to continue.
Bass said McCann’s disregard for campaign finance laws was “severe and ongoing over a significant period of time.”
McCann “held himself out as a servant of the public” but was “exactly the opposite,” Bass said. “He chose while he was a senator to defraud the very people who contributed to his campaigns.”
Even after McCann lost the 2018 election, placing behind Republican incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner and the eventual winner, Democrat JB Pritzker, McCann used more than $100,000 in campaign funds “as his own personal junket,” Bass said.
Many family members, including McCann’s wife of 30 years, Vicki, a traveling nurse who wasn’t present at the trial or sentencing, wrote letters to the judge requesting leniency for McCann.
But Bass said Vicki McCann, who was never charged, personally benefited from some of McCann’s fraud, and other relatives apparently were unaware of McCann’s financial schemes.
“The person these people wrote about is not Sam McCann,” Bass said. “It’s someone else.”
Vincent, however, said McCann was a hard-working family man and “a lot more than a fraud.” Vincent said McCann has been “disgraced by his own actions” and went from being a “lofty senator to someone sitting in a county jail.”
McCann, who had no prior criminal record, was born in West Virginia and grew up there and in Florida before moving to Illinois at age 19. His attorney said McCann as a youth was passed around by family members in different states, and “it didn’t appear he was wanted by anyone.”
Lawless said a report from probation officials indicated McCann had a “troubled childhood,” lost his parents before he was an adolescent and frequently received corporal punishment.
McCann, whose goal is to become a minister, according to his attorney, didn’t explain or try to justify his criminal behavior. He thanked friends and family members during the sentencing hearing – including his two children – and said, “I have the American dream as well as the American nightmare.”
McCann said he didn’t relish being in jail and going to prison but was “thankful for the blessings it has brought me.”
McCann said the people he met in jail erased some of his “preconceived notions” and made him regret some of his votes as a senator, though he didn’t specify which votes.
He said elected officials should boost funding for mental-health services and “stop using the penal system as a dumping ground.”
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at 217-679-7810 or x.com/DeanOlsenIT.
