Potential targets on donor list
Politicians with ties to vote fraud scandals gave to prosecutor's campaign
Post-Tribune (IN)
September 7, 2003
Key targets of a county voter fraud investigation have contributed thousands of dollars to the political campaign fund of Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter -- the man leading that very investigation.
A Post-Tribune investigation has found several of those tied to the voter fraud scandal are also financially tied to Carter.
Bob "Bosko" Grkinich, Robert Cantrell and Joel Markovich -- all accused of pushing fraudulent absentee votes in Schererville and East Chicago -- have contributed a combined $2,725 to Carter since 1999, according to county records.
Records also show three people who claimed victory in the May primary only because of absentee ballots also are financially tied to Carter.
Since 1999, Carter has contributed $400 to Schererville Town Judge Deborah Riga and $50 to Hammond City Council nominee Anthony Higgs, while he has also put $3,000 into the East Chicago Democratic Central Committee -- a political organization headed by East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick .
While there has been nothing shown that Riga, Higgs or Pastrick was involved in soliciting fraudulent votes, each was the beneficiary of absentee ballots now under scrutiny by a grand jury empaneled by Carter.
In addition, county voting records show Carter's own East Chicago neighborhood produced more absentee votes than anywhere else in Lake County.
In spite of those substantial ties, Carter said he will not allow politics to be involved in the grand jury proceedings.
Nor does he see a conflict in criminally investigating people who politically support him.
"I don't see any conflict because no one will be exempt," he vowed.
But Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a Republican from Munster, is publicly expressing concern about the objectivity a Lake County Democrat such as Carter can show in investigating --and possibly criminally charging --fellow Lake County Democrats.
Carter scoffs at the notion that politics could impact charges from his office.
"If everybody in Lake County made a $5 contribution to me, that would not make them exempt. That's just not going to happen," he said. "If somebody gives me $500 and their son kills somebody, I won't disqualify myself from the case.
"If the evidence is there, no matter who it is, I'm going to prosecute them."
Piling up the cash
Most of the people who contribute to Carter's campaign fund are local attorneys and politicians.
Carter said his campaign actively watches contributors, refusing donations from anyone dealing in vices such as adult entertainment and bars.
But, he admitted, he's thought nothing of taking contributions from politicians, until now, as he faces the prospect of possibly prosecuting some of them.
"But this is what I was elected for," he said.
"It is what I was sworn to do."
Campaign finance records show Carter has among the most ample campaign funds of any official in Lake County.
He takes in as much as $100,000 a year, while dishing out as little as $40,000 a year.
Riga is among the few local politicians to see money from Carter.
On Friday, a judge overturned Riga's absentee ballot driven victory, citing rampant fraud.
That fraud, testimony showed, was driven by Grkinich, the mastermind of a townwide plot to collect fraudulent absentee votes.
Records show Grkinich and Riga have combined to contribute $500 to Carter's campaign fund since 1999.
That's a paltry amount of the total Carter has raised in that time, as is the $125 donated to Carter in 2000 by longtime East Chicago Republican party chairman Robert Cantrell.
But Cantrell, who has consistently voted in East Chicago, listed Schererville as his home when he contributed to Carter.
Cantrell did the same when he donated $250 to Rokita.
But Cantrell voted in East Chicago in the May primary, voting records show, and is likely to be among those investigated as part of the grand jury inquiry into voter fraud.
Carter already has vowed to investigate other claims made about Cantrell, who was accused of paying two impoverished East Chicago residents --Woodrow Rancifer and Dorothy Johnson -- to enter the city clerk race.
Both were tossed from the ballot in March, and Carter said then he would forward all findings to a grand jury.
"He said he was going to investigate, but I haven't heard anything since," said City Clerk Mary Morris-Leonard, who brought Rancifer and Johnson forward with payment claims.
"They came forward, said Bob Cantrell paid them to get in the race, but nothing is being done about it. I see Woodrow almost every day and nothing has come of anything he did."
Carter doesn't comment on ongoing grand jury investigations.
Absentee haven
In the Indiana Harbor neighborhood where Carter lives, there were more absentee votes cast than in any other precinct.
Of the 404 votes cast in the 6-2 precinct where he lives, 96 were by absentee ballot. At 24 percent, that is more than three times the state average.
Levones Tolbert, the precinct committeeman who lives a block away from Carter, was accused of intimidating witnesses in the recount case challenging Pastrick 's May victory.
More of Carter's East Chicago supporters also could be questioned as part of this grand jury investigation.
Among them is state Rep. John Aguilera, D-East Chicago.
In the last four years, he has donated $200 to Carter.
Aguilera got caught up in the absentee voting scandal when the Post-Tribune questioned his parents' residency.
John and Judith Aguilera, records show, have always voted in East Chicago.
But neighbors say they haven't lived there in years.
Aguilera refused to defend his parents' actions, but his own residency also was questioned.
He listed his home address as Munster when he registered his daughter for school there and when he filed for a property tax exemption on a house he owns there.
Still, like his parents, Aguilera voted in East Chicago.
And many members of the East Chicago Democratic Central Committee, a powerful group of precinct committeemen ruled by Pastrick , are longtime Carter allies.
The group has given Carter $3,000 since 1999, records show, while Carter has put $600 of his money back into that group.
Members of that group --including Ray Guillen, Joel Markovich, Ignacio Segura, Joe Valdez, Consuelo Pantoja and Tolbert -- were heavily involved in soliciting absentee ballots on behalf of Pastrick .
It was an effort, the mayoral recount case showed, laden with fraudulent ballots.
When Markovich was asked, during that recount case, about his role in the absentee voting scandal, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment because his comments could be self-incriminating.
Records show since 1999, Markovich has been one of Carter's biggest contributors, giving at total of $2,500.
The voting record of Mickey Lopez, yet another Carter ally from East Chicago, also is under heavy scrutiny.
When Lopez donated $200 to Carter in March 2001, he listed East Chicago as his home, but five months later, when Lopez gave $250, he listed his home address in Munster.
Lopez also listed Munster as his home address when he made a $250 donation in 2000.
But Lopez told the Post-Tribune in July that he hadn't lived in Munster for years.
Instead, he and his sons are registered to vote from a drivable motor home parked in an industrial area of the city.
Competing interests
Carter admits his elected position is a precarious one.
Because he is elected, he must raise money for a political campaign every four years.
But because he is a prosecutor, he is bound to criminally charge those who commit crimes in Lake County.
Steve Johnson, head of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, said the appearance of conflict isn't unique to Carter.
"Whenever there is an investigation into anyone involved in politics, there will be claims that the local prosecuting attorney can't be fair," Johnson said.
"If he's a Republican, people say he's trying to embarrass Democrats. If he's a Democrat, they say he's just going to cover up Democratic violations."
Anyone who feels Carter is in a position of conflict, Johnson said, can petition any Lake County circuit or superior court, asking that he remove himself from an investigation.
"But I don't see any conflicts now," Johnson said. "Just because someone made a contribution to him doesn't mean there's a conflict."
But Julia Vaughn, policy director for the Indianapolis-based watchdog group Common Cause, said Carter and other prosecutors are in these positions because of the private money that is allowed to dominate political campaign funds.
"It is curious, though, that we elect people to enforce the laws," she said. "You have them in this campaign finance system and that doesn't look good.
"It never passes the smell test."
Rokita is asking Carter to balance his prosecution effort with a Republican attorney from the secretary of state's office, admitting he'd like greater oversight into what it is Carter is handling.
While Carter said he won't deputize any of Rokita's staff to play a prosecutorial role, he also said he is willing to put his reputation as a prosecutor on the line.
"Every elected prosecutor in this state is crippled with this dual function," Carter said of being a prosecutor and a politician. "It's like walking a tightrope."
