NOTORIOUSLY CROOKED COP SENTENCED TODAY

Listen to Joseph Miedzianowski, the man called Chicago's most crooked
cop, and you hear a terrifying talent for talking.

It's a talent that helped him nab criminals, seduce informants and
perpetuate his own tough-guy legend.

It's a talent that also helped turn his informants into partners in
crime and inspire equal parts fear and loyalty among his cronies in
the cocaine ring he ran.

And in the end, it's a talent that trapped him, as federal prosecutors
wiretapped his phones to record his secret life as a drug dealer and
as a close friend to gang-bangers.

Today, in federal court, Miedzianowski, 49, will learn whether he gets
life behind bars, or could possibly get out an 80-year-old man if he
receives the lower sentence requested by his defense attorneys.

Miedzianowski, as solid as a gravel truck with a voice to match, has
long insisted on his innocence and in prison has talked about killing
the federal prosecutor most responsible for putting him behind bars,
Brian Netols.

Miedzianowski also has allegedly plotted to have associates get guns
and missile launchers in an attempt to spring him during a court
hearing, sources said.

He was convicted in April 2001 along with a cast of gang-bangers, drug
dealers and his mistress for running a Chicago-to-Miami drug ring.

Prosecutors have said in court that the world of Joseph Miedzianowski
was upside down, where cops were thieves, where bad guys got police
help to beat criminal charges.

And it was a world underscored by brutality.

In one conversation with a gang member, Miedzianowski says: "Because I
tell you, if somebody f---- me over, I would not only f--- them, I
would f--- their brothers, their sisters, their aunts, their uncles. .
. . If they had a parakeet, I'd f--- the parakeet."

In his upside down world, Miedzianowski arrested punks to get guns off
the streets, but then secretly put weapons in the hands of his gang-
banger buddies.

And what are guns without bullets? Taxpayer-paid ammunition was stolen
from the Cook County Sheriff with the help of a Miedzianowski friend
and passed on to gang-bangers, prosecutors argue.

Miedzianowski had three words for his friend when the time was ripe to
swipe ammo.

"Steal, steal, steal," Miedzianowski said.

His criminal life infected families, including his own, which has
supported him throughout the case. Miedzianowski had his photograph
taken with a drug dealer's child. And Miedzianowski had his own son
photographed with a gang member.