Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown. A top staffer in Brown’s office has been convicted of lying to a grand jury. (cookcountyil.gov photo)

A top staffer in Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s office has been convicted of lying to a grand jury.

Members of a federal jury found Beena Patel, who had been associate clerk under Brown, guilty of three counts of false declaration before a grand jury, in a verdict returned Friday.

The FBI has been investigating allegations of a pay-to-play scheme in Brown’s office since 2014, according to an agent who testified during the case. No charges have yet to be filed against Brown.

Patel is believed to have been a main organizer and collector of ticket money for fundraisers for Brown’s campaign fund. Contributors were given positions and promotions in Brown’s office, according to federal investigators.

Joyce Martinez, who has worked in the Circuit Court Clerk’s Office for more than 30 years, testified during the trial that she bought event tickets from Patel and turned money from other employees in to Patel.

“I would contribute to fundraisers,” Martinez said during court testimony Thursday, noting that there were normally three or four fundraisers per year.

Martinez said annual fundraiser events included a fashion show, clerk’s anniversary party and day at the races at Balmoral Park.

“You would buy a ticket and attend or have someone go in your place,” Martinez said of the fundraising tickets.

Patel’s attorney, Walter Jones Jr., noted that in earlier testimony, Martinez said she didn’t think she ever collected money for Patel.

On redirect, Martinez said she was confused in that earlier testimony on whether she ever gave money directly to Patel at work, not if she ever collected money.

Brendan O’Leary, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 19 years, said his Chicago office has been investigating the Circuit Clerk’s Office since Spring 2014.

“We have been investigating whether people paid for jobs in the Clerk’s Office and if people paid to get promotions,” O’Leary said in testimony Thursday.

Another former Brown staffer, Sivasubramani Rajaram, was also convicted of lying to a federal grand jury. Rajaram was sentenced to probation in 2017 for perjury after admitting he lied during earlier grand jury testimony. He said he disguised a $15,000 bribe in 2014 as a loan to Goat Masters Corp., a goat meat supply business owned by Brown and her husband, Benton Cook III.

A month after making the “loan,” Rajaram was hired for a position in the clerk’s office, O’Leary noted.

“That seems like pay to play,” O’Leary said.

Patel lied in two separate appearances before a grand jury, federal prosecutors alleged.  In grand jury testimony she said she had no knowledge of a text prosecutors said she sent recommending an employee for promotion because she and her brother “have been good to us,” O’Leary said.

The brother, identified only as a Skokie architect, gave two $5,000 contributions to Brown’s campaign fund, according to O’Leary.

Jones argued that prosecutors never showed Patel the text message to give her a chance to review the information.

“Every witness who testified was given copies of their grand jury testimony,” Jones said. “That was something you chose not to do with Ms. Patel.”

Patel will be sentenced Nov. 19.