His political star faded, former Chicago Ald. Proco ‘Joe’ Moreno pleads guilty to obstructing justice
Former Chicago Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno, who once made his name as the so-called hipster alderman, pleaded guilty Friday to obstructing justice and giving a false report to authorities after he loaned his Audi to a woman he was dating and then reported it stolen.
In exchange for his plea, Moreno was given “second-chance” probation, a program for first-time offenders. If he complies with the conditions set by Cook County Judge William Hooks for the two-year probation period, the case as a whole will be dismissed.
Moreno, 39, was careful to note when asked about the court arrangement by the Tribune that the second-chance probation means that no conviction has been entered, “so I am looking forward to moving on with my and my family’s life.”
Still, the chapter is another mark on what was once a promising political career. Moreno came out of the Metropolitan Leadership Institute of the United Neighborhood Organization, the Latino educational and political group allied with former Mayor Richard M. Daley that became a force in the city.
After Daley appointed him to the City Council in 2010, Moreno made his reputation representing parts of rapidly gentrifying Northwest Side neighborhoods such as Wicker Park and Logan Square. He was reelected the following year by a wide margin.
Moreno positioned himself as a pragmatic progressive who tried to get things done and sometimes clashed with other left-leaning aldermen whom he saw as obstructionist. But brushes with the law helped change his political trajectory for the worse.
As part of the plea deal Friday, prosecutors dropped the two more serious charges against Moreno, including insurance fraud, which could have earned him up to seven years in prison.
Moreno stands in a long line of Chicago alderman who have run afoul of the law. Three members of the current City Council are under federal indictment. But compared to their high-level cases involving corruption and clout, the charges against Moreno were more small-time, involving an erstwhile girlfriend, a botched insurance scheme and lies to police.
Prosecutors said that in January 2019 Moreno falsely claimed to police and his insurance company that his 2016 Audi A6 had been stolen from his garage.
His insurance was about to pay out more than $30,000 for the stolen luxury sedan until police determined it had not been stolen at all.
In fact, authorities said, Moreno had turned the car and its keys over willingly to Liliya Hrabar, a woman he had dated off and on.
About a month later, on Feb. 4, Chicago police pulled Hrabar over as she drove Moreno’s Audi, prosecutors have said. She was surprised when officers told her the car had been stolen and “pleaded with the officers to show them text messages between herself and Mr. Moreno” that would exonerate her, Assistant State’s Attorney Tom Simpson said.
When police were unable to reach Moreno, Hrabar was arrested on a charge of criminal trespass to a vehicle.
Later that same day, Moreno told a TV news interviewer that he had given the car to someone with whom he was in a relationship but that he had a hard time getting hold of her and had reported the car stolen.
Texts and phone records uncovered as part of the investigation did not back up Moreno’s claim that he couldn’t get in touch with Hrabar, authorities said. In fact, he had texted her about not smoking in the car and had gotten in touch with her about dinner plans after she borrowed the car, prosecutors said.
The charges against Hrabar were dropped, and police opened an investigation into a possible false police report.
Moreno was represented in part by Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st, who told Judge Hooks that Moreno was a devoted public servant and family man.
In presiding over the plea, Hooks noted that Moreno “has great potential.”
“This was a bump in the road for this defendant,” he said. “Going to the penitentiary would not be in the interest of justice.”
While Moreno was released on his own recognizance after the charges came down in 2019, he spent a brief stint in Cook County Jail in January of this year, after picking up DUI and reckless driving charges that violated the terms of his pretrial release.
Those charges date to December 2020, when Moreno allegedly crashed into eight different cars on a posh stretch of the Gold Coast, then crashed into a tree. Police found him at the wheel, trying to accelerate the car through the tree, prosecutors have said.
Moreno’s lawyers have said that he had since checked himself into an intensive rehab program. Those charges still are pending in traffic court, records show.
Even before Moreno’s most recent issues, his political star had begun to dim. He began and then dropped a bid for Congress as then-Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s candidacy gained momentum and eventually was successful. Moreno also had faced a police investigation over whether he impersonated an officer during a parking dispute in Lakeview.
Moreno said he showed a motorist his City Council badge and asked her to move her car because she was parked in a bike lane but did not tell her he was an officer.
“You better pay your parking tickets! This is how we do it in Chicago,” Moreno told her, according to a police report.
Police later said that detectives closed that investigation after finding that Moreno displayed his aldermanic credentials.
Questions over the allegedly stolen Audi were raised almost immediately after Hrabar was charged, in February 2019, while Moreno was in the midst of a reelection fight.
Ultimately, he lost to newcomer Daniel La Spata, who had the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America. Moreno’s term ended just a few days after he was charged with the felonies.
Meanwhile, Hrabar sued Moreno for defamation in Cook County court shortly after Moreno was charged, claiming his false story damaged her reputation as an insurance broker. The civil proceedings were put on pause while the criminal case made its way through the courts, records show.
Chicago Tribune’s John Byrne contributed.
