from the county organization. His power bloc included the growing Hispanic community, through a "powerful and feared patronage army" known as the Hispanic Democratic Organization. Unlike his father, the younger Daley also reached out to those who initially opposed him, and primarily through negotiated apportionment of city funds for aldermen's local projects, was able to gain control of the City Council to a degree that only the elder Daley ever enjoyed. In July 2005, the federal court-appointed Shakman monitor reported widespread abuses of a previous court decree against patronage hiring. On July 5, 2006, Robert Sorich, formally, Daley's director of the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and, informally, Daley's patronage chief, and Timothy McCarthy, Sorich's aide, were each convicted on two counts of mail fraud connected to rigging blue-collar city jobs and promotions. In 1995, Mel Reynolds, Democratic congressman from Illinois's 2nd congressional district, which includes parts of the south side of Chicago and south suburbs in Cook County and parts of Will and Kankakee Counties, was convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography, and while serving his sentence, was convicted on 16 unrelated counts of bank fraud, misusing campaign funds for personal use and lying to FEC investigators. Lyons died in 2007. Shortly after Lyons death, 13th Ward committeeman Michael Madigan said, "The party's been going through transition for a long time. This is a completely different Democratic Party than the one I joined in 1969." Richard M. Daley retired in 2011. Under Joseph Berrios On February 1, 2007, Joseph Berrios was unanimously elected Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party and headed the organization until April 18, 2018. Berrios is the first Hispanic to serve as Party chairman. In 2010 Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, a Berrios political ally, said, "When Joe came in, for the first time, African-Americans, Latinos, women had a real opportunity for leadership in the party and had a real opportunity to be slated by the party." The party has recently won several notable elections in suburban Cook County. At the county level, the Democratic committeeman of Wheeling Township, Patrick Botterman, engineered Brendan Houlihan's successful campaign for Commissioner of Cook County Board of Review in 2006. Berrios has been the subject of numerous investigations and legal proceedings involving ethical violations, corruption, fraud and nepotism. He has defended his right in the press and in courts