Stroger Office Was Not Raided, Spokesman Says
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Was it a raid or a TV shoot?
There are conflicting reports about what was happening inside Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's office last night.
A spokesman for Stroger says there was no raid on his boss' office last night.
The late-night activity in the county building was for a TV shoot.
LISTEN: Newsradio 780's Nancy Harty Reports
Podcast
James Ramos says reports of boxes of computers and electronic devices being removed from President Stroger's office are false. Rather, he says, the office was used in a shooting for an upcoming Fox television series about a Chicago police officer. He shared photographs of the film shoot with CBS 2.
But frequent Stroger critic and County Commissioner Tony Peraica is still suspicious, saying he had heard there was something going on apart from the filming. He said he heard officials from the Cook County State's Attorney's office and Office of the Inspector General were there taking away boxes of documents and computers.
The Republican believes it's connected to an expanding probe into the misuse of county contracts.
"I believe that there's an ongoing investigation here," Peraica insisted to CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker.
"Commissioner Peraica is going to believe whatever he so desires to believe," Ramos fired back. "If he would have been here he would have seen for himself -- maybe he could have made a cameo appearance."
The Chicago Film office confirmed 20th Century Fox was at the County Building Thursday night filming a pilot called "Ride Along," a story about Chicago politics and Chicago police.
Earlier this month, Stroger's former chief of staff, Carla Oglesby, was arrested on charges of theft of government services for allegedly steering contracts to her own private companies.
The local FBI office and the Cook County Sheriff's office say they didn't participate in any kind of seizure in Stroger's office. A spokesman for the Cook County State's Attorney's office would not comment.
CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker contributed to this report.
