Dorothy Rivers

Dorothy Rivers, a once prominent Chicago democrat, has never held a political office. Mrs. Rivers was a former lead official in Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the former executive director of the Chicago Mental Health Foundation. As an important actor in Chicago’s private charitable sector, she was responsible for the distribution of funds (state and federal tax dollars) to those in need: the homeless, the impoverished, and the disabled.

In 1997 Dorothy Rivers was charged and pled guilty to stealing 1.2 million tax dollars in federal grant money. She used it to buy, among other things, a $35,000 fur coat and a Mercedes-Benz for her son. Other examples of Rivers' decadence and misuse of the American taxpayers' money was reported in her hiring of a limousine to escort a man dressed in a Santa Claus costume to hand-deliver invitations to invite her personal friends to her Christmas party, in which the "Santa" would deliver the invitation along with a glass of champagne. Rivers' Christmas party was held in an upscale hotel where guests were treated to champagne served in a gigantic wine glass.

Mrs. Rivers was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison but was pardoned by former President Bill Clinton. Her sentence was commuted at the personal request of Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush, who said she was a loyal and hardworking member of Chicago politics. Jesse Jackson had also requested the commutation for Rivers when he was in the Oval Office on January 20, 2001 (Bill Clinton's final day as President), when Clinton had also granted pardons and commutations for 140 other individuals. Jackson rationalized his request and defended Rivers by stating "She ain't shot nobody. She ain't running a house of prostitution. She's a good person who overspent a grant or two." Jackson, however, had failed to point out that Dorothy Rivers used taxpayer money on lavish personal items; while overspending a federal grant is overbudgeting on an authorized program the grant was intended for. Rivers had never applied for presidential clemency while imprisoned, which is usually the first step taken to be considered for a pardon or commutation. Her commutation was largely seen as a "quid pro quo" deal with Jesse Jackson, as she later joined Jackson's Rainbow-PUSH coalition.