More than 15 years ago, Chicago cop Glenn Lewellen arrested a young drug dealer on the Southwest Side, took him to a warehouse and made him an offer to switch sides and become a paid informant.
It was a lucrative offer — Saul Rodriguez would go on to earn more than $800,000 from the Chicago Police Department as he steered Lewellen toward large drug seizures.
But behind the scenes, Lewellen had hatched a secret, unauthorized deal with Rodriguez, authorities said. The drug trafficker would keep breaking the law and the cop would help him, joining Rodriguez's drug organization — which prosecutors contend was behind multiple violent kidnappings and robberies. Lewellen, they argued, also tipped them off when the feds got too close.
On Tuesday, following a two-month trial, a federal jury convicted Lewellen, a former narcotics officer, of joining Rodriguez's massive drug conspiracy, but it was unable to reach a verdict on a racketeering conspiracy charge despite deliberating over the course of two weeks.
As the verdict was read, Lewellen stared into the distance with a grave look on his face, and later gazed at his family in the gallery, at one point mouthing, "I love you."
His fate sealed, Lewellen slowly pulled his striped tie loose and slid it from around his neck. He then took off his suit coat and neatly folded it, handing it to his attorney. Moments later, he was taken into federal custody. Anxious family members leaned forward, waved and gave Lewellen a thumbs-up sign.
Lewellen, 55, who was a Chicago police officer from 1986 to 2002, faces a minimum 10-year prison term to up to life imprisonment. No sentencing date was set. Lewellen had been free on bond since the charges in 2010.
The charges linked Lewellen to some eight kidnappings and two robberies. According to the drug conspiracy charges against him, Lewellen also tipped Rodriguez off about a federal wiretap and testified in federal court against of one of Rodriguez's rivals, helping to secure a conviction.
With the split verdict, Lewellen's attorney, Andrea Gambino, said the jury did not necessarily find her client participated in any of the kidnappings, robberies or obstruction of justice allegations. She vowed to appeal the conviction.
"We are happy" that there wasn't a guilty verdict on the racketeering charge, Gambino said. "We are, of course, going to continue fighting. He is not guilty of the charges."
Four others were convicted of federal charges for their roles in the scheme. A sixth defendant was found not guilty on two counts, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on a racketeering count against him.
Rodriguez's crew was taken down in dramatic fashion in 2009 after the Drug Enforcement Agency set up a movielike sting. Rodriguez thought he and the crew were about to rob a Mexican cartel of $16 million in drugs, but federal agents had planted fake drugs in a van as part of a ruse.
A year later, Lewellen, by then owner of Lewellen Home Builders, a construction company that did developments in New Lenox and Mokena, was charged in the scheme. From there, federal agents backtracked to investigate the multiple kidnappings and robberies, locating victims.
Lewellen's conviction largely turned on the testimony of Rodriguez, who cooperated with the government and provided key testimony at trial. As a result, Rodriguez faces 40 years in prison.
The defense attacked Rodriguez as a serial liar of questionable credibility, saying he sneaked a cellphone into a federal jail and consorted with other high-ranking drug traffickers behind the government's back.
But prosecutors contended that Lewellen and the others on trial with him were involved in robbery, kidnapping and murder plots far too intricate for Rodriguez to have made it all up. There were simply too many victims and crimes for Rodriguez to "sit down and bang out a script," Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Block said in his closing arguments.
"Saul Rodriguez did not direct a play and cast six individuals into roles," Block told the jury. "The great frame-up doesn't work."
The jury also heard testimony from Fares Umar, another co-defendant who cooperated with the government. Umar described how he first teamed up with Lewellen, by coincidence on the day of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said they stopped a car and forced the men inside to drive to a home where Lewellen and Umar — joined by Rodriguez — found $60,000 in cash and two duffel bags stuffed with cocaine.
Lewellen wore his police star, protective vest and identified himself as a police officer, Umar testified.
"Glenn did the police thing," he told the jury.
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