Cantrell trial centers on questionable contracts for firm
NWI Times
May 31, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/cantrell-trial-centers-on-questionable-contracts-for-firm/article_592b2466-e12b-56af-ad76-3b12f2e8ca69.html
HAMMOND | In a classic courtroom betrayal by a crony-turned-government-witness, Nancy Fromm on Friday described political fixer Robert Cantrell at the height of greed and paranoia.
In 2003, with the feds on their trail and literally stacks of cash in the backroom office, Fromm said she and Cantrell would grab for themselves pocketfuls of the money that had been collected from addicts attending counseling.
"We didn't talk in the office. He would just point to the drawer, and I would give him the cash," Fromm said. "He thought (investigators) had put bugs in, and I did, too."
But why should anyone believe anything Fromm says? Defense attorney Kevin Milner got Fromm to admit in cross-examination she was a liar and a thief who often blamed others for her own misfortune.
Fromm also has great motive to lie, because she's an admitted felon who is hoping to avoid jail time by cooperating with federal prosecutors in the case against Cantrell.
Fromm, 67, is owner of Addiction and Family Care Inc., a counseling firm that paid Cantrell hundreds of thousands of dollars for using his political connections to "get business" for the firm between 1999 and 2005.
Primarily, the business consisted of court-ordered drug and alcohol therapy and anger management classes for criminal offenders who were sent to AFC by judges who were friends of Cantrell, Fromm said.
The firm also provided educational classes and counseling to public employees in North Township, which also was Cantrell's employer at the time -- between 2000 and 2005.
Cantrell admits receiving some money from AFC. But one key question for the jury will be whether Cantrell received any money that related directly to the North Township work because that would be an illegal conflict of interests. He denies it.
Fromm and Cantrell were once very tight because so much of her revenue depended on him -- revenue she was secretly skimming for herself.
She even lied to investigators to protect Cantrell, although she also was lying to him at the same time about her true income and whether she had shredded incriminating records.
On Friday, she said she decided to come clean.
She said Cantrell got business for her firm using political influence with Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez; North Township Trustee Greg Cvitkovich; County Commissioners Rudy Clay and Gerry Scheub; Lake Superior Court Judges Nicholas Schiralli, Sheila Moss and Jesse Villalpando; East Chicago Judge Eduardo Fontanez; Lake Station Judge Kris Kantar; Schererville Town Judge Deb Riga; and Kevin Pastrick, son of East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick.
Cantrell received nearly half of the money from clients referred to her through contracts approved by all of those officials, Fromm said.
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