Lawyers for former Teamsters union boss John Coli Sr. have asked for a sentence of probation and home incarceration for extorting a Chicago film studio boss, citing his poor health and cooperation that helped federal investigators secure a ghost-payrolling conviction against state Sen. Thomas Cullerton.

In a memo filed late Wednesday, Coli’s attorneys said the 19-month prison term requested by prosecutors doesn’t take into account Coli’s passionate stewardship of his union, his advocacy for the growth of the film industry in the city, and the fact that Coli suffered a serious heart attack just eight months ago.

The 30-page filing also details the back story behind Coli’s relationship with Cinespace Studio President Alex Pissios, who made secret recordings of Coli threatening a union strike on set if Pissios failed to pay him $25,000 in monthly extortion money.

“We’ll shut it down tomorrow,” Coli said on one recording, according to court records. “I will (expletive) have a picket line up here and everything will stop.”

Coli’s attorneys, Joseph Duffy and Robin Waters, wrote that while Coli regrets making the statement, Pissios was well aware that Coli had no authority to call a strike. In fact, they wrote, “the bargaining agreement in place explicitly prohibited the Teamsters from any such strike, picket, boycott or other similar effort to interfere with the studio.”

“Thus, while Mr. Coli certainly regrets making the statement, it was empty bluster and bravado,” the filing stated.

Coli, for years a politically connected and nationally known fixture in the Teamsters, pleaded guilty in July 2019 to one count each of receiving illegal payments and filing a false income tax return, admitting he extorted a total of $325,000 from Pissios.

He’s scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer on Wednesday.

In a sentencing memo last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu wrote that Coli’s extortion was “prolonged, calculated and deliberate,” involving regular bribe payments in “envelopes bursting with wads” of $25,000 in cash.

Coli also “milked his position as a union official” in other ways over the years, netting him more than a half a million dollars in benefits, including meals in Las Vegas, box seats at baseball and football games and the use of a yacht and two-person crew to cruise around the Italy, the prosecution filing stated.

“This was not some technical violation of the statute; Coli did not receive small knickknacks, chocolates or promotional products,” Bhachu wrote in the 19-page memo. “The picture painted here is not of a moment’s indiscretion, or one bad decision, but rather a conscious, prolonged effort by defendant Coli to exploit his position of trust for private gain.”

Federal sentencing guidelines called for up to about three years behind bars. Coli should be given a significant break, however, because of his cooperation against Cullerton, according to the government filing.

Cullerton was sentenced in June to a year in federal prison for pocketing more than a quarter of a million dollars in salary and benefits from the Teamsters with Coli’s blessing, despite doing little or no work.

The news of Coli’s cooperation in 2019 made waves in Illinois political circles since Coli had used his national position with the Teamsters to hold sway with some of the city and state’s most powerful elected officials — including former House Speaker Michael Madigan, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, ex-Gov. Pat Quinn and his successor Bruce Rauner.

It also marked an abrupt turnabout for Coli, who for years basked in an old-school image of an immovable force, thumbing his nose at investigators.

Coli once told a lawyer in sworn testimony to “Go (expletive) yourself.” He dodged controversy for years — from suspicious appointments to state boards to allegations of organized crime ties — often accusing his accusers of using overzealous investigative tactics.

His attitude was also evident in the secret conversations recorded by Pissios, including one where he was asked if he’d told anyone about the arrangement they had.

“Are you crazy? There is nobody,” Coli responded, according to a transcript filed by prosecutors. “Never. My kids, my wife. Nobody. ... You can cut my fingers off, I wouldn’t talk.”

In their filing, however, Coli’s attorneys painted the former labor leader as a driving force behind the state’s flourishing film industry, which “has generated massive spending, revenues, and job creation.”

“Mr. Coli played a key role in fostering this enormous economic growth in Chicago and Illinois,” his attorneys wrote.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com