« Ind. Courts - "Haughee requests prison transfer" | Main | Ind. Gov't. - "Dem AG candidate questions hired gun in E.C. RICO case" »

Friday, June 06, 2008

Ind. Courts - "Riga: Cash payments hid Cantrell money trail"

Joe Carlson of the NWI Times reports again today on the Cantrell trial in Lake County federal court in a story that begins:

HAMMOND | Disgraced former Judge Deborah Riga said Thursday that Robert Cantrell was not shy about using cash payments to hide transactions.

But defense attorney Kevin Milner said because Cantrell was paid in cash, all the glossy pie charts and reconstructed financial ledgers presented by prosecutors Thursday amounted to little more than "assumptions" about Cantrell's actions.

All told, Cantrell should have received slightly more than $152,000 between 2000 and 2003 in under-the-table cash kickbacks from former associate Nancy Fromm in exchange for getting government contracts for Fromm's business.

But the only person who saw him take the cash was Nancy Fromm, a felon who has admitted to lying under oath and gambling several times a month.

The prosecution rested its case Thursday afternoon after five full days of testimony. Cantrell, a longtime Lake County political operative, is charged with 11 counts of tax evasion, honest services fraud and health insurance fraud using the U.S. mail.

Milner said he will present only brief witnesses before the jury gets the case about noon today. Cantrell, 67, who attended his mother's funeral Wednesday, appeared confident as ever after prosecutors announced they had presented their case.

Riga took the stand Thursday morning after waiting more than two years to publicly talk about her association with Cantrell.

She served one term as elected judge of Schererville Town Court but pleaded guilty to several unrelated felonies after admitting to corrupting her office to enrich herself.

Riga said Cantrell talked openly about hiring her father, Tony, as a consultant who would be paid in cash -- not by check -- in exchange for work at Fromm's firm.

Tony Riga changed his mind, and demanded checks after he got his first two payments in cash, Deborah Riga said. In a 2003 phone conversation, Cantrell later blamed Deborah Riga for giving prosecutors evidence because her father insisted on taking checks.

"I felt bad because the gist of it was, had I done it in cash the way it was proposed, there wouldn't be a trail," Riga testified Thursday morning. "This wouldn't be happening."

Defense attorney Kevin Milner hit Riga with scathing questions about whether she had "sold your robe, your judgeship, for money."

"You spent very few honest days as a judge, correct?" Milner asked.

Andy Grimm's story today in the Gary Post-Tribune may be found here.

For background, start with this ILB entry from June 5th.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 6, 2008 08:25 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts