Ex-County Commissioner Sentenced to 6 Months in Prison

The former Cook County commissioner who proudly dubbed himself "The Hog with the Big Nuts" was clipped by a federal judge Wednesday who sentenced him to six months in prison for tax evasion.

William Beavers, 79, also must pay a $10,000 fine and more than $30,000 in restitution. Federal prosecutors said Beavers would dip into his campaign fund for hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses — including big gambling losses at Indiana casinos and a boost to his retirement.

Beavers, who said he should only have received probation, claimed the withdrawals were loans and he always paid the money back. The government said the cash was "unreported income" and Beavers didn't pay taxes on it. The former South Side county commissioner and onetime Chicago alderman said he only was prosecuted when he refused the FBI's demands that he wear a wire against his friends in county government.

Even after losing at trial — a jury took just 45 minutes to convict — and sentencing, Beavers remained defiant, reports NBC News: "I will win this," he said. "I ain't begging for nothing. I don't beg my woman, I am not begging for this." 

ABC 7 reported that Beavers decision not to make a statement to the Judge Thomas Zagel may have paid off: "In the end, Zagel said this was a common tax offense, there was no corruption and he was not selling his vote."