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Thursday, July 10, 2008

Ind. Courts - "Former Schererville judge to be sentenced today"

Joe Carlson reports today in the NWI Times:

HAMMOND | Exactly 25 months after Deborah Riga pleaded guilty to using her judicial powers to enrich herself, the former town judge is set to learn her prison sentence today.

Riga was the second person ever elected town judge of Schererville, but her second term in office was stopped short after she was indicted on multiple counts of mail fraud.

Riga is eligible for a more lenient prison sentence because she cooperated extensively in the criminal investigation of East Chicago political fixer Robert Cantrell.

Cantrell was convicted last month of 11 counts of fraud. In court filings Monday, prosecutors said Riga's testimony was essential during the trial. In particular, Riga testified that Cantrell spoke openly about receiving cash kickbacks in exchange for arranging government contracts. * * *

Riga hired Cantrell's favored firm, Addiction and Family Care, in exchange for cash payments to counsel defendants in the Schererville court. She said Cantrell talked openly about getting cash kickbacks from the deal.

Riga pleaded guilty in June 2006 to a similar but unrelated scheme in which she used her judicial powers to force youthful defendants to attend driving and counseling classes at businesses she controlled.

Here is a list of earlier ILB entries mentioning "Deborah Riga."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 10, 2008 10:55 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts