EDITORIALS: Villalpando's allegations must be properly investigated
NWI Times
Mar 13, 2006
nwitimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/villalpando-s-allegations-must-be-properly-investigated/article_69ea58b0-9fe5-5a2e-b375-2ae17ed4feda.html
The issue: Ethics in government - Our opinion: Lake Superior Court Judge Jesse Villalpando's complaints about the Cantrell family's interconnections need to be taken seriously by the Indiana Commission
Lake Superior Court Judge Jesse Villalpando believes his real opponent is neither judicial candidates Eduardo Fontanez nor Stanley Jablonski but political powerbroker Robert Cantrell.
Villalpando says he believes Cantrell persuaded both Fontanez and Jablonski to run against him in the Democratic primary.
Fontanez, a Hammond lawyer, is a former legal intern for Judge Cantrell. Jablonski, a Merrillville lawyer, is chief public defender in Judge Julie Cantrell's court. The judge is Robert Cantrell's daughter.
That, however, is the least of Villalpando's accusations about the Cantrells.
Villalpando said he has repeatedly complained about that family's dealing with the courts to the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications.
As the Rev. John Coughlin points out, "Judges are held to a higher standard of ethical conduct than lawyers or ordinary people."
Coughlin is well qualified to offer that observation. He's a legal ethics professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School.
Judges need to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, he said.
By that standard, some of the actions by Judge Cantrell certainly appear to be unethical.
Why would she refer defendants to a treatment program in which her father has had a financial interest?
That program, the Hammond-based Addiction and Family Care Clinic, is run by Nancy Fromm, who helped run Judge Cantrell's political campaign.
Fromm's qualifications for running the clinic are beside the point. Her connections to the judge and her father are exactly the point.
Villalpando said Robert Cantrell got Fontanez and Jablonski to run against Villalpando after the judge refused to increase the number of referrals to Fromm's counseling service.
State Examiner Bruce Hartman said that because of Villalpando's accusations, the State Board of Accounts might conduct an audit focusing on Cantrell's mandate of services performed by Fromm's clinic.
And why would Judge Cantrell allow her brother to practice law in her courtroom? He has since stopped that practice, but it never should have been allowed in the first place.
There's nothing like a good court fight to stir the blood -- especially when the fight is about how the courts are administered.
The people of Lake County should demand that their courts be administered fairly. Politics should not taint the administration of justice.
The Commission on Judicial Qualification, the State Board of Accounts and U.S. Attorney Joe Van Bokkelen should take Villalpando's complaints about the Cantrells seriously.
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