09302007 - News Article - Fight against corruption continues - At least 42 guilty in ongoing government corruption probe in Lake County - ROBERT CANTRELL

Fight against corruption continues
At least 42 guilty in ongoing government corruption probe in Lake County
NWI Times
Sep 30, 2007
nwitimes.com/news/local/fight-against-corruption-continues/article_decbcc06-e795-5b8c-a43b-0036497fa9cd.html
What a difference five years makes.

In 2002, Will Smith Jr. was working as an influential member of the Lake County Council, Dozier Allen was preparing to leave the Calumet Township trustee's office after 32 years, and Robert Cantrell was running the East Chicago Republican Party in cooperation with Democratic Mayor Robert Pastrick.

Gary Urban Enterprise Association Director Jojuana Meeks was buying buildings hand-picked for her by county tax collector Roosevelt Powell. Gary businessman Jewell Harris Sr. was enjoying his close relationship with Gary City Hall, and Peggy Holinga Katona was busy running the county treasurer's office that her family had controlled for decades.

Five years later, every one of those officials -- save former Mayor Pastrick -- has since been touched by the U.S. attorney's ongoing Operation Restore Public Integrity investigation. Pastrick is the target of a racketeering lawsuit from Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter.

The effort to fight Lake County corruption has extended into Porter County, where the U.S. attorney's office brought charges of bribery against Pastrick's youngest son, Kevin Pastrick.

In May 2004, Kevin Pastrick was convicted of bribing a carpenter's union official in a scandal over Coffee Creek, a residential and commercial development south of Chesterton.

The impact the federal corruption probe has made on political corruption is vast:
-- Smith was convicted Thursday of filing a false tax return and faces a lifetime ban from holding public office.

-- Allen was indicted last week for allegedly skimming from a township contract.

-- Cantrell was indicted last year on tax evasion charges.

-- Meeks pleaded guilty in March to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the GUEA.

-- Powell was convicted of conspiracy and tax fraud Thursday.

-- Harris is scheduled for trial Dec. 3 on allegations he double-billed the city of Gary.

-- Katona revealed last week an ongoing federal investigation is targeting her.

In all, Operation Restore Public Integrity has secured convictions or guilty pleas of at least 42 public officials and/or municipal contractors, mainly in East Chicago, Gary and Lake County government. A similar initiative, Operation Lights Out, brought nearly 20 convictions in 10 years during the 1980s and '90s.

Attorney General Carter, whose office also has prosecuted several dozen cases of Lake County vote fraud since 2002, said the work of fighting Lake County's infamous public corruption is ongoing, despite all the recent activity.

"Yes, progress is being made," Carter said. "But when you have a history of decades of corruption, I don't think it's going to go away in five years. My hope is that the next generation of political leaders will say, 'We can achieve things in public offices, but we're not going to do things in the way of the past.'"

The targets of corruption investigations have always questioned the motives of their accusers.

Cantrell once said the press needs corruption to exist to sell more papers. Critics say Carter is going after Robert Pastrick to get some ink ahead of his 2008 re-election campaign. North county Democrats long grumbled about Republican Joseph Van Bokkelen's selection of targets while he was the region's federal prosecutor.

Acting U.S. Attorney David Capp, who took over the office in July, said corrupt Democrats should not expect a pass just because he has voted as a Democrat in the past.

"I don't consider myself ever affiliated with a political party," Capp said. "I've been a career prosecutor over here for 22 years. I could care less about the politics of these investigations. If the evidence is there, we're going to pursue these cases wherever they lead."

One message remains clear from state and federal prosecutors: The probe and ensuing indictments for public corruption in the region are not over.

09292007 - News Article - Friends, relatives want answers in E.C. slaying - Mom, girlfriend claim Rene Alonzo was never transported to hospital

Friends, relatives want answers in E.C. slaying
Mom, girlfriend claim Rene Alonzo was never transported to hospital

Post-Tribune (IN)
September 29, 2007

http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.portagelibrary.info/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_product=AWNB&p_theme=aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=11C0C046F592B4D8&p_docnum=20&p_queryname=7

Friends and relatives of a Griffith man gunned down in East Chicago want answers -- and some communication -- from the East Chicago police department. 

The girlfriend and mother of Rene Alonzo , 33, say he was never transported to a hospital after he was shot Sept. 16 outside U.S. Sports Bar, 3948 Alder St. in East Chicago. 

Additionally, his girlfriend, Erica Badillo, and mother, Patricia Alonzo Barrientos, claim the shooting took place around 10:30 p.m., but the coroner didn't pronounce him dead until early the next morning. 

His father, Richard Alonzo , is also upset with East Chicago police, saying he's called them multiple times this week and they have yet to get back to him. 

But Nick Devorsac, assistant chief for the East Chicago Fire Department, said an ambulance arrived at the scene at 10:40 p.m., about four minutes after paramedics were notified of the shooting. Devorsac said paramedics checked for every possible sign of life and to see if Alonzo could be resuscitated. Based on Alonzo 's wounds, and his lack of response, he was dead before the ambulance arrived there, Devorsac said. 

"This was not a survivable event," Devorsac said, stressing that the paramedics did everything they could. 

The Lake County Coroner's office was notified of the shooting at 11:25 p.m. Sept. 16, and pronounced Alonzo dead at the scene at 12:10 a.m. Sept. 17, a spokesman at the office said. 

Devorsac didn't know why it took so long for the coroner's office to get the call, saying that would fall under police jurisdiction. 

East Chicago Police Chief Angelo Machuca couldn't be reached Friday for comment. 

"This was not a survivable event." 

-- Nick Devorsac,  Assistant chief, East Chicago Fire Department 

09242007 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN - Attorney's misled me to believe I would receive settlement in October 2007

When I arrived for the divorce hearing, I found my attorney Donald Rice in a conference room with my ex and his attorney Jeffrey Shaw. Rice sat me down outside the conference room and told me that if I agreed to accept $100 a week in maintenance that in return my ex was willing to offer an immediate settlement. Rice assured me that at the next hearing in October,  my ex would turn over $50,000 cash from his retirement account.

Wow, I thought did I have a great divorce attorney or what?

Although my ex grossed approximately $100,000 a year, I agreed to the $100 a week in maintenance because I thought I was receiving my settlement and would be back home in Michigan within a month. I made the mistake of trusting my attorney.

During the hearing, I noticed that neither attorney put on the record this agreed upon property settlement offer.

A few weeks after this hearing, I received my ex's 401k statement in the mail from his company, Dunkin Donuts. Enclosed in the statement was information reminding employees that their 401k accounts would remain frozen from August through January, as the company transferred their accounts to another investment company.

When I contacted Attorney Rice about this, he did not question it. He simply asked me, "How did you find out?"

In other words, my ex and attorneys Shaw and Rice knew at the September hearing that my ex could not make any type of settlement via his 401k until after January 2008. I had been tricked into believing I was immediately receiving a settlement in order to get me to accept $100 a week in maintenance instead of the $400 a week I was entitled to.

Of course, I wanted to fire Attorney Donald Rice and hire another attorney, but here was the problem: I had no access to the marital assets. I could not afford to pay for an attorney. You see, my ex was paying Attorney Rice's fees. So in essence, Rice was working for my ex.

09242007-08192010 - Divorce Court Hearings - Transcripts - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

09242007 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN - Attorney's misled me to believe I would receive settlement in October 2007

11192007 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

05192008 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

09172008 - Divorce Court Hearing Transcripts - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

11052008 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

11242008 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

05042009 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

06242009 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

09212009 - Ex's DV Criminal Conviction - Violation of PPO / Threat to kill me - 64D06-0808-CM-8254/Porter County Superior Court, Portage IN

11232009 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

01122010 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

04192010 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

08102010 - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

08192010  - Court Hearing Transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

Default hearing for immediate distribution of properrty settlement.

At this hearing, I requested that the court order my ex to pay me my property settlement in full before he was allowed to take possession of the house. Magistrate Johnson ignored this request. This would have put a halt to the October 7th unlawful police entry into my home.

"...If, you know, the court require that before he takes possession of the house, he buys out my interest..."

EXHIBIT NUMBER 1

[ EMAIL FROM ATTORNEY JEFFREY SHAW TO ATTORNEY JOHN RHAME]

"Mr. Thomas is a very violent man. He's a very controlling man..."

"...If, you know, the court require that before he takes possession of the house, he buys out my interest..."

This is a default hearing, thus the court should have honored this request in an order that my ex could not take possession of the marital home until after he paid me my property settlement. This puts more question on the unlawful police entry into my home on October 7th.

"Your Honor...It's not going to be safe for me around here..."

Magistrate Johnson's comment about wanting ex-parte' communication with my ex's attorney : "I'm disappointed that Mr. Shaw chose not to attend. I would be interested in his response..."