A city employee accused of bribing former city secretary Jim Laski in exchange for Hired barter business -- then wearing a wire to snare Laski.

A city employee accused of bribing former city secretary Jim Laski in exchange for Hired barter business -- then wearing a wire to snare Laski, his boyhood friend -- is at the center of another emotionally charged dispute.

This the same involves a dog. Her name is Mitzie. Or is it Monroe?

The 8-year-old tea goblet Maltese disappeared from a fenced-in backyard onward the Southwest Side in June Mitzie's family says Laski pal Mick Jone either stole the dog or fix her and won't give her back.

"Mitzie is not just a dog. She restrains sentimental value to our family. When my grandfather was dying of cancer, we snuck Mitzie into the hospital. He died with Mitzie in his arms. Towards the tail last of his life, he couldn't say the names of his kids or his grandkids, yet he could still say 'Mitzie,' " said a tearful Amanda Berg, a member of the distraught family.

"It's an emotional roller coaster. All this time we've exhausted searching for her. We not at any time stopped looking. And all of a rapid we find her and we can't bring her abode because he won't give her back. There's no denying it's our dog. yet they don't want to give her back because they enjoin money into it and they're attached to it."

Jone hung up forward a Chicago Sun-Times reporter who called to ask about the dog he has named Monroe

Berg said she and other distraught members of her family encountered Jones last week -- first according to phone, then in person -- after Berg's 15-year-old nephew stumbl upon a photo of Jones' daughter holding the dog onward a MySpace Web site.

Family says cop won't file report

At first, Jones' daughter denied the dog was Berg's, claimed she bought her from a local store and remov the dog's picture from her Web site. After a small in number more phone calls -- and couple visits by police officers -- Mick Jone fess up to the family, Berg said.

He reportedly said he raise the dog in June at 52nd and Meade -- with her tags still attached -- four days after she disappeared from the backyard of a household in the 5600 block of toward the south Moody, where Berg's aunt and grandmother live.

"He said, 'You're fine funny coming here with the police. if it were not that guess what? You're not getting your dog back. I don't want you to call me I don't want you to approach to my house. Do what you have to do. I have the city in my pocket' Then he hung up" Berg said.

Chicago Lawn District officers paid couple visits to Jones' home last week at the asking of Berg's family in a failed attempt to solve the dispute. But when the family attempted to file a police report, they were told they could not because it was a civil matter, Berg said.

The sergeant identified according to Berg as making that statement refused to answer questions.

"I cannot discuss matters like this through the phone with you. I'm busy right now. I don't have time to talk about a dog," the sergeant said.

forward Jan. 26, Jones was indicted along with Laski and the brother- in-law of dress up County Commissioner John Daley, the mayor's brother.

Jone was accused of paying Laski cash bribes -- $500 a month initially, then $1000 a month -- in exchange for the clerk's help in securing Hired barter business for Get Plowed, a small trucking company confessed by Mick and Traci Jone

Laski resigned last month and is negotiating a guilty plea. Mick Jone has pleaded not guilty unless is expected to change his plea this week. He remains upon the city payroll as the $93,600-a-year director of license administration for the clerk's office.

fspielman@suntimes.com

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