08232003 - News Article - Hunt is on for corruption - Special grand jury picked to look into vote fraud - ROBERT CANTRELL

Hunt is on for corruption
Special grand jury picked to look into vote fraud
NWI Times
Aug 23, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/local/hunt-is-on-for-corruption/article_86ac9bb9-6f79-53fa-ab94-e4527c28928d.html
CROWN POINT -- The Indiana State Police already have begun collecting information on voter fraud and public corruption in Lake County, County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said.

Carter will present the information to a special grand jury of six people and one alternate selected Friday. In his charge to the grand jury, Carter said he expects them to look into any vote fraud in the May 6 primary election, no matter for whom the votes were cast.

"We could target any (political) camps, any cities, but our three major areas are East Chicago, Hammond and Schererville," he said.

The special grand jury is scheduled to meet on Fridays for the next six months to interview witnesses and target election law violators.

Carter said the grand jury doesn't have to wait until the end of its term to issue indictments, which may happen at any time.

"Once all the evidence is collected for individual targets, it will be submitted to the grand jury and whatever they return, that is where they will go," Carter said.

The probe is likely to focus on unscrupulous campaign workers who misused the absentee ballot system to glean votes from empty lots, vacant apartments and those who had moved or died, among other violations. It also will investigate the misappropriation of public money.

Some of the evidence the grand jury is likely to hear already has been made public during two recount lawsuits involving the East Chicago mayoral race that Mayor Robert Pastrick won last week and the Schererville town judge race between incumbent Judge Deborah Riga and challenger Kenneth Anderson. A decision in that case is scheduled to be handed down as early as Sept. 5.

Special Lake Superior Court Judge Steven King chronicled hundreds of abuses in the East Chicago election. Similar allegations have been made in the Schererville race, all involving mail-in absentee ballots, which are cast in unmonitored environments where coercion and vote buying allegedly took place.