« Environment - ELJ to set schedule for BP | Main | Ind. Courts - More on: Judicial Nominating Commission to consider St. Joseph vacancy »

Monday, June 16, 2008

Ind. Courts / Ind. Gov't. - Corruption in Lake County

Both Northwest Indiana newspapers have stories today focusing on corruption in Lake County.

Joe Carlson of the NWI Times writes under the headline "Robert Cantrell was 45th conviction in political machine." The story begins:

If the public corruption conviction against Robert Cantrell holds up, Lake County Democrats will have lost the last of the three Bobs who once held sway over large swaths of their political life.

Former county Democratic Chairman Stephen "Bob" Stiglich died three years ago, and former East Chicago Democratic Mayor Robert "Bob" Pastrick was ousted from office by voters in 2004 after the state Supreme Court ruled his 2003 re-election too fraudulent to stand.

This month, East Chicago political operative Robert "Bob" Cantrell became the 45th Democrat convicted since 2001 in the Hammond U.S. attorney's office's Operation Restore Public Integrity. Cantrell is trying to get the case overturned on a technicality in a dispute that appears likely to drag on for months.

The federal cases come in addition to 45 convictions for voting crimes in cases filed in Lake County Criminal Court by the Joint Vote Fraud Task Force, which focused mainly on East Chicago Democratic voting irregularities in 2003 and included several incidents of vote fraud perpetrated by police and firefighters.

"Is this really, really the death knell for old-time politics?" asked political commentator and academic administrator Dan Lowery. "Only time will tell."

The headline to Andy Grimm's story today in the Gary Post-Tribune is "Will new state attorney general change public corruption focus?." The story begins:
It's been a rough decade for public figures who've abused the public trust in Northwest Indiana.

Since 2001, more than 40 Northwest Indiana public figures have been convicted on corruption charges filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, another 50-plus named in a racketeering lawsuit filed by the state attorney general.

But is change in the air?

After eight years, Republican state Attorney General Steve Carter, a Lowell native who made his racketeering case against former East Chicago mayor Robert A. Pastrick's Democratic machine a top priority, will leave office. The office will go either to Carter's top deputy, Greg Zoeller, or Democratic nominee Linda Pence, an Indianapolis attorney.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 16, 2008 09:53 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts | Indiana Government