Hours after the mayor announced the list of applicants vying to replace convicted Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, his lawyers filed a motion for a new trial Tuesday arguing in part that prosecutors made “highly improper and prejudicial remarks” in closing arguments and misled the jury by trying to tie his elected office to the charges.
The 27-page motion comes a month after a federal jury convicted Thompson of two counts of lying to federal regulators about loans he’d received from a failed Bridgeport bank and five counts of filing false tax returns that illegally claimed mortgage interest deductions that he never paid.
Thompson resigned as alderman of the 11th Ward the day after the Feb. 14 verdict, as required by state law. U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama set a sentencing hearing for July 6.
