NATION : Ex-Illinois Governor Freed After 18 Months of 7-Year Fraud Term

Former Gov. Daniel Walker, who pleaded guilty to taking $1.45 million in fraudulent loans, was free today on a federal judge’s order reducing his sentence to the nearly 18 months he served in a federal prison.

Walker, 66, whose fraudulent deals included one with his own savings and loan association, was freed Wednesday from the federal prison camp in Duluth, Minn., hours after his lawyer filed a motion seeking early release.

Walker, a Democrat, had served nearly 18 months after pleading guilty to fraud charges on Oct. 9, 1987. He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for bank fraud, perjury and misapplication of funds.

Walker was a longtime adversary of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley and first attracted national attention when he compiled a report on the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, infuriating Daley by calling the clash a “police riot.”