Ex-E.C. police chief testifies before grand jury
Corruption investigation focuses on Schererville vote fraud allegations
NWI Times
Oct 4, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/local/ex-e-c-police-chief-testifies-before-grand-jury/article_ba3430cf-6711-5cb9-a942-9463d4303b9b.html
CROWN POINT -- Gus and Roberta Flores were called Friday as witnesses, possibly targets, of a special Lake County grand jury investigating absentee vote fraud in Schererville.
But they weren't treated as objects of scorn as they sat on a wood bench in the Lake County Criminal Courthouse outside the grand jury room waiting to testify.
Gus Flores shook hands with a court security officer who recognized him, conducted a breezy conversation on county politics and visited with grandchildren, including one in a baby carriage brought up to visit him.
Gus Flores is an ex-East Chicago police chief and a top administrator in a company owned by Stephen R. Stiglich, the Lake County auditor, Democratic County chairman and a former East Chicago police chief. Roberta is Stiglich's personal secretary.
Asked what he expected to be testifying about, Gus Flores said, "I haven't got a clue."
Their names were prominent in a Schererville recount dispute in which the results of the spring municipal judicial primary was overturned on grounds of fraudulent absentee voting.
Schererville Town Judge Deborah Riga won the May 6 primary by 11 votes, but her nomination was reversed last month by a recount judge who declared challenger Kenneth Anderson the winner after disqualifying 23 absentee ballots in her name.
Anderson's attorneys allege three of the invalid ballots were improperly mailed to the Flores' home in Schererville and cast in the names of Dusanka Drljaca and her parents Lazar and Sena Drljaca of Norridge, Ill.
Anderson's lawyers said those three were ineligible to vote in Schererville because they had not lived in town for more than a year before the primary. The three testified they hadn't seen and didn't sign ballots allegedly cast from their previous address in Schererville.
Gus Flores said last month he and his wife have nothing to do with the absentee ballot fiasco. They suggested any violations might have involved Roberta's brother-in-law, Bob "Bosko" Grkinich, a political novice in the area's Serbian community.
Anderson's attorneys allege the handwriting on the allegedly forged ballot signatures matches that found on 20 other questionable ballots.
Grkinich took the Fifth Amendment on the advice of criminal defense lawyer Kevin Milner and refused to answer questions about his role in alleged vote fraud on grounds it might incriminate him.
It is a Class D felony, punishable by up to three years in prison to forge a ballot.
Mike Lakich, of Schererville, was called Friday afternoon as a witness. He testified in the Schererville recount trial he didn't vote in the election, but someone forged his signature on an absentee ballot and ballot application in his name. One of his relatives, Jovanka Lakich, said Grkinich brought a ballot that already had been filled out in advance, to her home, and she signed it in his presence and that she never mailed it to county election officials.
It is a crime for anyone other than a poll worker or a family member of the voter to assist in completing an absentee ballot.
Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter impaneled the special grand jury in August to look into allegations of vote fraud in East Chicago and Schererville as well as other forms of public corruption in the county.
The prosecutor invited Indiana Attorney General Steven Carter to join the investigation last month following allegations the prosecutor might be involved in a conflict of interest because of political contributions exchanged between him and some of the apparent targets of the probe.
Both Bernard Carter and Steven Carter appeared Friday before the grand jury. Steven Carter declined to comment on what they told the grand jury, but said afterward, "We appreciate their taking on this role. It is important to the citizens of this county and state."
The daily operation of the grand jury will be run by deputy prosecutors Robert Neumaier, Marilyn Kortenhoven and Emory Christian and assistant attorneys general Charles Todd, Cynthia Crispin and attorney Robert W. Gevers II. Three investigators from the attorney general's office will help Mark Day from the Indiana State Police Department.
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