06222008 - News Article - Cantrell's kids may face scrutiny - ROBERT CANTRELL

Cantrell's kids may face scrutiny 
NWI Times
June 22, 2008
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mark-kiesling/cantrell-s-kids-may-face-scrutiny/article_03656170-a15f-5738-bdf6-4e6271a44c27.html
While political fixer Bob Cantrell dangles in the wind awaiting sentencing, pinning his hopes of reversing his federal corruption conviction on the thinnest of legal technicalities, other members of his family may be the next ones under the legal microscope.

Three of his children are lawyers, and of those one is a Lake County Superior Court judge.

And all were mentioned in not-so-flattering terms during Bob's trial, which ended June 6 with an 11-count conviction on public corruption charges.

John Cantrell is an attorney with a Hammond law office, and was formerly a partner of Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. Jennifer Cantrell is an attorney who practices law out of the same building as her brother at 7135 Indianapolis Blvd.

One of the most costly things about being a private attorney is providing your own health insurance, and testimony was that Bob Cantrell helped his kids out with that by illegally getting them insurance from Addiction and Family Care Inc.

AFC is a counseling service for which Bob Cantrell worked as a paid consultant, getting a "finder fee" for providing clients. In return, the government proved, he also got health insurance for John and Jennifer even though they did no work for AFC.

"I am aware there was press reporting to that effect," said Don Lundberg, executive secretary of the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission.

Lundberg would neither confirm nor deny an investigation, but said the commission could begin such an investigation even without a formal complaint based on news reports.

It also came out at trial that between 2000 and 2003, Lake County Superior Court Judge Julie Cantrell sent AFC more than $588,000 in referrals, almost half of the $1.3 million profit it made between 1999 and 2005.

Although Bob Cantrell never took money coming from his daughter's court, he used it as leverage to take up to 50 percent commissions on other referrals, the government said.

Meg Babcock, supervisor for the counsel of the Indiana Judicial Qualifications Commission, echoed Lundberg. She confirmed the details of the Cantrell trial have reached her office, and said her office can open its own investigation without formal complaint.

But like Lundberg, Babcock declined to say whether that has happened -- or whether the commission already was looking into Julie Cantrell's court, as the triangle of her court, her father and AFC had already been reported on.

06132008 - News Article - The question is whether Cantrell will opt to sing - ROBERT CANTRELL

The question is whether Cantrell will opt to sing
Post-Tribune (IN)
June 13, 2008
I first saw Bobby Cantrell on the basketball court at East Chicago Washington High School in the Indiana Harbor section of East Chicago.

When they played the school song -- "Hail Noble Washington" -- the joint rocked like no place I had seen before.

Cantrell was the point guard, the guy who ran the team. He was good, very good.

When he graduated from the University of Michigan, he came back to the Harbor and got a job in the school system, eventually becoming one of a host of athletic directors who didn't do much for athletics but made sure their political benefactors stayed in power or kept getting elected.

And politics is where Cantrell found his niche.

He was very, very good at being very, very bad.

If you were running for office, you didn't necessarily need him supporting you. But you sure as heck didn't want him working against you.

Former East Chicago Mayor Bob Pastrick and former Sheriff Bob Stiglich were the two best politicians I've ever seen in Lake County.

And while they were in power, you knew Cantrell was somewhere in the background doing what he could to help or hurt.

It wasn't that Cantrell had so much power as it was that he was bright, very bright.

Cantrell had a way of convincing a politician that he needed him to get ahead or put out a fire. He bobbed and weaved and danced and usually came out on top.

That is, until last week when he was convicted in federal court on 11 counts of fraud -- involving some of the money he received for getting an addiction service locked into government offices.

Much of the money Cantrell made -- let's just say that he received -- came from Nancy Fromm's Addiction and Family Care business.

Just like Cantrell, Fromm and her business were pretty much shams -- selling services that government offices neither needed nor could afford.

While there's nothing wrong with receiving a finder's fee to secure a government contract for a business, you do have a problem when you fail to report the money -- one of the things Cantrell was convicted of doing.

When you have shameless people like Fromm and disgraced former Schererville Town Court Judge Deborah Riga testifying against you, there is almost a guilt by association.

Defense attorney Kevin Milner made that point when he asked the jury during closing arguments, "Wouldn't you like to hear from someone who isn't facing time in prison?"

Yeah, but as a former federal prosecutor once said, "You don't swim with swans in the sewer."

While Cantrell is another feather in the federal cap, you just know prosecutors are looking for more.

If Cantrell had been convicted on a count or two and been given a year or two in prison, chances are he would have quietly done his time. That's pretty much how it always has worked in East Chicago.

But he was convicted on all 11 counts and now faces the very real possibility of dying a lonely man in prison.

Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. said he doubts Cantrell will talk, even if he has the goods on someone.

"He's old school," McDermott said.

Yeah, but he's got kids and grandkids. That's plenty of reason to sing, even if it isn't "Hail Noble Washington."

06122008 - News Article - Legal 'oversight' not likely to modify Cantrell's conviction - ROBERT CANTRELL

Legal 'oversight' not likely to modify Cantrell's conviction
Post-Tribune (IN)
June 12, 2008
Robert Cantrell's last-ditch effort to block his fraud conviction likely won't go far, experts say.

On the final day of his fraud trial last week -- and after federal prosecutors had closed their case -- Cantrell's lawyer pointed out that prosecutors never asked any of their witnesses to point out Cantrell in the courtroom.

The oversight, defense attorney Kevin Milner argued, was grounds for Judge Rudy Lozano to enter a verdict of not guilty to the 11 counts of mail fraud without sending the case to the jury.

Lozano let jurors reach their verdict -- ultimately, guilty on all counts-- but the judge will not formally enter the judgment until after he has reviewed filings on Milner's motion by the U.S. Attorney and by Cantrell later this month. Milner did not return calls from the Post-Tribune. U.S. Attorney David Capp declined comment.

Despite the apparent oversight, Valparaiso University Law School professor David Vandercoy says the verdict likely will stand.

"I don't think I've ever heard of anybody ever getting off because of failure to properly identify a defendant," the criminal law professor said.

"There's no doubt from the witnesses' identification that the jury had any question that the defendant was the guy sitting next to the defense lawyer," Vandercoy added. "Maybe they thought he was sitting at the prosecution table, but the question was whether he was the one doing the criminal acts."

Prosecutors consistently asked witnesses several routine questions: "Do you know the defendant, Robert Cantrell?" and "Is he here in the courtroom today?" Each time, the witnesses replied "Yes."

Leonard Cavise, a law professor at DePaul University in Chicago, called it "Trial Practice 101" that attorneys "always have the defendant identified in the courtroom."

While prosecutors Orest Szewciw and Wayne Ault are "kicking themselves" about the oversight, Cavise said, the error likely won't turn the case -- either in Lozano's eyes or on appeal.

06102008 - News Article - Will political operative 'flip'? U.S. attorney: Cases against unelected public servants will continue - ROBERT CANTRELL

Will political operative 'flip'?
U.S. attorney: Cases against unelected public servants will continue
NWI Times
Jun 10, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/will-political-operative-flip/article_c87240fb-e67e-5d1b-ba4c-b5c3f8d036a9.html
HAMMOND | Friday's 11 guilty verdicts against longtime Lake County political operative Robert Cantrell probably made politicians across the county issue a collective "gulp," Republican observers said Monday.

But several Democrats said Cantrell, 67, was not the kind of person who would flip and become a government witness in order to save himself some time in jail.

U.S. Attorney David Capp said he was proud of the Cantrell case because it targeted a new class of public corruption offender -- those who are not elected, but still exert influence on public dollars.

"You don't have to be an elected official to commit these kinds of offenses," Capp said. "We're focusing on all aspects of the problem."

Cantrell has been an influential behind-the-scenes political player for decades, but never has won public office.

It's not clear how much prison time Cantrell realistically faces because of the complexities of federal sentencing guidelines, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Orest Szewciw said "it's not going to be insignificant."

Cantrell was convicted of all 11 public corruption crimes he was charged with, but he still has one last chance for acquittal before he has to decide whether to file an appeal.

During the gap between the prosecution and defense phases of the trial, defense attorney Kevin Milner said prosecutors failed to have any of the dozens of witnesses in the six-day trial positively identify Cantrell in the courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano refused to reopen the trial's prosecution phase so that a government witness could identify Cantrell, and Milner did not put a witness on the stand during the defense who could be cross-examined.

Joe Hero, a St. John Republican who sparred with Cantrell before Cantrell officially became a Democrat in 2003, said Cantrell told him during a chance encounter at a restaurant Sunday that he was putting his hopes in the identity issue.

"I think there are probably a lot of Democrats that are shaken by this. Bob Cantrell has long legs that will go into every corner of Lake County politics," Hero said.

Cantrell's sentencing is four months away, on Oct. 19. Lake County Republican Chairman John Curley said that's enough time to give Cantrell a chance to decide whether to give up information on other influential figures.

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., a Democrat who was mentioned briefly in the trial as a Cantrell associate, said Cantrell would never cooperate with prosecutors.

"He's not that kind of guy," McDermott said. "Bobby Cantrell is old school. He's not going to flip."

McDermott said he is sad for the Cantrell family, who he knows personally. Although the mayor knows Cantrell is "not an altar boy," he was shocked at the conviction, attributing it to pervasive anti-government sentiment among the population at large.

"To me, it didn't seem like the government had that strong of a case," McDermott said. "It was a bad environment, with people so angry about taxes and gas prices. People are just lashing out. If you're accused of public corruption, it's a bad environment to go before a jury."

06092008 - Attorney Jeffrey Shaw wrote up May 2008 property settlement order - Deviated from oral agreement and court record/transcripts - Divorce Case - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

Copy of September order - regarding deviation of written order

My Ex's attorney - Jeffrey Shaw - wrote up the May 2008 property settlement order. It deviated from what was orally agreed to and what was put on the record.

This settlement was vacated in September 2008, due to both attorneys Rice and Shaw not adhering to Rule 2100 - Mandatory discovery / Financial Declaration forms; deviations between the oral agreement and agreement placed on record; and deviations between the written agreement and the court transcripts.

06072008 - News Article - Cantrell guilty - Political operative convicted on all 11 counts - ROBERT CANTRELL

Cantrell guilty
Political operative convicted on all 11 counts
NWI Times
Jun 7, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/cantrell-guilty/article_8f35b06b-5f58-5abc-a930-018b7ea9a443.html
HAMMOND | East Chicago political operative Robert Cantrell was convicted on all 11 of the federal fraud counts in the public corruption indictment against him.

After about five and a half hours of deliberation Friday night, the jury of seven men and five women found Cantrell guilty of illegally taking kickbacks from a public contract, hiding the profits from the Internal Revenue Service, and illegally getting health insurance for his two adult children -- John and Jennifer.

"It is a sad commentary when you think about all the money that was wasted," Prosecutor Orest Szewciw said following the verdict. "Our office has always been dedicated to prosecuting corruption in Lake County."

Szewciw said he was happy to have an "attentive jury" that paid attention to the presentation of complex financial crimes.

Cantrell will face a restitution order to repay the IRS what he didn't pay in taxes and the North Township trustee's office for commission to which he was not entitled, Szewciw said. It isn't clear how much that restitution will be.

"This is a man who can go to lunch with a sitting judge and threaten him," Szewciw said. 

"This is a man who takes credit for putting judges in power, like Ed Fontanez in East Chicago and Kris Kantar in Lake Station."

Defense attorney Kevin Milner did not comment on the case Friday.

Cantrell was charged with four counts of depriving the public of honest services, three counts of insurance fraud using the U.S. mail and four counts of filing false income tax returns between 2000 and 2003.

The indictment accused him of taking secret cash kickbacks from a contract between his then-employer, the North Township trustee's office, and his political ally, Nancy Fromm. He failed to disclose financial interest in the contract as required by state law.

Cantrell, 66, did not take the stand in his own defense.

Government and defense lawyers delivered impassioned closing arguments Friday morning, each accusing the other of building legal arguments out of conjecture and lies to reach conclusions that defied common sense.

"If I understand the government, Mr. Cantrell controls Lake County. Maybe he controls America," Milner said, using his trademark hyperbole to make the allegations seem absurd.

Several minutes later, Szewciw said of Milner: "He said Miss Fromm lied to you. He said this good agent (IRS Agent Paul Drapac) lied to you.

"That's his defense. That's counsel's defense."

Essentially, prosecutors say Fromm paid Cantrell about $152,000 that he didn't pay taxes on, including commissions for the North Township contract, in addition to getting Fromm to add Cantrell's adult children to her group insurance plan illegally.

The trial comes as a result of at least four years of investigation of Cantrell by the Lake County Public Corruption Task Force. Fromm, the government's star witness, said whole swaths of county leaders were under Cantrell's political influence.

Milner said the government was attacking Cantrell with "technical" charges because of who he was, rather than what he had done: "He's on trial for being a politician. Let's be honest."

The defense attorney said Fromm had ample motive to lie because she's still awaiting sentencing on her own charges. But the government failed to present other witnesses who could have told a different story because prosecutors don't have leverage over them, he said.

"They're not facing prison. They don't have to make a deal with the devil," Milner said. "They can come in and tell the truth, which makes them useless."

In an interview outside the courthouse after he was dismissed from service, alternate juror Larry Blankman, of Crown Point, said extensive testimony on insider deals among Lake County leaders only reinforced negative assumptions about local politics.

"We all have our ideas about politics," Blankman said. "Politics makes strange bedfellows."

06062008 - News Article - Cantrell guilty - Political operative convicted on all 11 counts - ROBERT CANTRELL

Cantrell guilty
Political operative convicted on all 11 counts
NWI Times
Jun 6, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/cantrell-guilty/article_2953ef75-e6e7-5f92-8b1f-9792e3f6ce9d.html
HAMMOND | East Chicago political operative Robert Cantrell was convicted on all 11 of the federal fraud counts in the public corruption indictment against him.

After about five and a half hours of deliberation Friday night, the jury of seven men and five women found Cantrell guilty of illegally taking kickbacks from a public contract, hiding the profits from the Internal Revenue Service, and illegally getting health insurance for his two adult children -- John and Jennifer.

"It is a sad commentary when you think about all the money that was wasted," Prosecutor Orest Szewciw said following the verdict. "Our office has always been dedicated to prosecuting corruption in Lake County."

Szewciw said he was happy to have an "attentive jury" that paid attention to the presentation of complex financial crimes.

Cantrell will face a restitution order to repay the IRS what he didn't pay in taxes and the North Township trustee's office for commission to which he was not entitled, Szewciw said. It isn't clear how much that restitution will be.

"This is a man who can go to lunch with a sitting judge and threaten him," Szewciw said. "This is a man who takes credit for putting judges in power, like Ed Fontanez in East Chicago and Kris Kantar in Lake Station."

Defense attorney Kevin Milner did not comment on the case Friday.

Cantrell was charged with four counts of depriving the public of honest services, three counts of insurance fraud using the U.S. mail and four counts of filing false income tax returns between 2000 and 2003.

The indictment accused him of taking secret cash kickbacks from a contract between his then-employer, the North Township trustee's office, and his political ally, Nancy Fromm. He failed to disclose financial interest in the contract as required by state law.

Cantrell, 66, did not take the stand in his own defense.

Government and defense lawyers delivered impassioned closing arguments Friday morning, each accusing the other of building legal arguments out of conjecture and lies to reach conclusions that defied common sense.

"If I understand the government, Mr. Cantrell controls Lake County. Maybe he controls America," Milner said, using his trademark hyperbole to make the allegations seem absurd.

Several minutes later, Szewciw said of Milner: "He said Miss Fromm lied to you. He said this good agent (IRS Agent Paul Drapac) lied to you.

"That's his defense. That's counsel's defense."

Essentially, prosecutors say Fromm paid Cantrell about $152,000 that he didn't pay taxes on, including commissions for the North Township contract, in addition to getting Fromm to add Cantrell's adult children to her group insurance plan illegally.

The trial comes as a result of at least four years of investigation of Cantrell by the Lake County Public Corruption Task Force. Fromm, the government's star witness, said whole swaths of county leaders were under Cantrell's political influence.

Milner said the government was attacking Cantrell with "technical" charges because of who he was, rather than what he had done: "He's on trial for being a politician. Let's be honest."

The defense attorney said Fromm had ample motive to lie because she's still awaiting sentencing on her own charges. But the government failed to present other witnesses who could have told a different story because prosecutors don't have leverage over them, he said.

"They're not facing prison. They don't have to make a deal with the devil," Milner said. "They can come in and tell the truth, which makes them useless."

In an interview outside the courthouse after he was dismissed from service, alternate juror Larry Blankman, of Crown Point, said extensive testimony on insider deals among Lake County leaders only reinforced negative assumptions about local politics.

"We all have our ideas about politics," Blankman said. "Politics makes strange bedfellows."

06062008 - News Article - Bob Cantrell as the great communicator - ROBERT CANTRELL

Bob Cantrell as the great communicator
MARK KIESLING
NWI Times
Jun 6, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mark-kiesling/bob-cantrell-as-the-great-communicator/article_62053092-6d0d-5648-8ae1-a3ff568a4b51.html
Mortal political enemies who wouldn't shake hands if they were marooned together on a desert island will both shake hands with Bob Cantrell.

That's what has made Cantrell the political operative, fixer and all-around go-to guy during the past three decades.

It's also why Cantrell is currently on trial in federal court on public corruption charges.

Take fellow Democrats Lake County Clerk Tom Philpot and Sheriff Roy Dominguez as an example.

To say these two gentlemen dislike each other is an understatement. Philpot told a Times reporter Dominguez is "one of the most corrupt, conniving officials we've got," and Dominguez speaks in equally glowing terms of Philpot.

Yet both will deal with Cantrell.

Philpot enlisted Cantrell's help in his 2002 campaign for clerk against former County Council member Bernadette "Bobbi" Costa and won a solid victory, which he credited to Cantrell. In turn, Cantrell said he was Philpot's "main man."

Once in office, Philpot gave the legal contract for child support to John Cantrell, Bob's son.

Meanwhile, Dominguez contracted with Cantrell-connected counseling firm Addiction and Family Care to provide services to Lake County Community Corrections, which is administered by the sheriff.

That contact was only terminated last year when AFC owner Nancy Fromm, under federal indictment for obstruction of justice and tax evasion, withdrew her firm from consideration.

In addition, Betty Dominguez, the sheriff's wife, is the chief probation officer in the court of Lake Superior Court Judge Julie Cantrell, one of Bob's daughters.

Fromm testified last week that Bob Cantrell advised her to keep her mouth shut, accept the minor obstruction of justice conviction, and "if I served my five months, I would get a job with Tom Philpot. I would be taken care of."

Messages have been left on Philpot's cell phone, with his chief deputy and even with his mother, but he has been unavailable for comment on Fromm's allegation.

Those who wouldn't pay to play opted out at their own peril. After Superior Court Judge Jesse Villalpando pulled AFC from his list of approved counseling firms, he suddenly faced two opponents in his 2006 judicial race.

One was Ed Fontanez, a lawyer who shared office space with John Cantrell, and the other was Stan Jablonski, a lawyer who was a public defender in Julie Cantrell's court.

Villalpando got the message, although he did not change his mind.

The question now is what message the jury will send to Bob Cantrell.

06062008 - News Article - Riga: Cash payments hid Cantrell money trail - Kickback estimates are 'assumptions,' defense lawyer says - ROBERT CANTRELL

Riga: Cash payments hid Cantrell money trail
Kickback estimates are 'assumptions,' defense lawyer says
NWI Times
Jun 6, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/riga-cash-payments-hid-cantrell-money-trail/article_3780c195-6708-5da1-b1da-846cef77d0e4.html
HAMMOND | Disgraced former Judge Deborah Riga said Thursday that Robert Cantrell was not shy about using cash payments to hide transactions.

But defense attorney Kevin Milner said because Cantrell was paid in cash, all the glossy pie charts and reconstructed financial ledgers presented by prosecutors Thursday amounted to little more than "assumptions" about Cantrell's actions.

All told, Cantrell should have received slightly more than $152,000 between 2000 and 2003 in under-the-table cash kickbacks from former associate Nancy Fromm in exchange for getting government contracts for Fromm's business.

But the only person who saw him take the cash was Nancy Fromm, a felon who has admitted to lying under oath and gambling several times a month.

The prosecution rested its case Thursday afternoon after five full days of testimony. Cantrell, a longtime Lake County political operative, is charged with 11 counts of tax evasion, honest services fraud and health insurance fraud using the U.S. mail.

Milner said he will present only brief witnesses before the jury gets the case about noon today. Cantrell, 67, who attended his mother's funeral Wednesday, appeared confident as ever after prosecutors announced they had presented their case.

Riga took the stand Thursday morning after waiting more than two years to publicly talk about her association with Cantrell.

She served one term as elected judge of Schererville Town Court but pleaded guilty to several unrelated felonies after admitting to corrupting her office to enrich herself.

Riga said Cantrell talked openly about hiring her father, Tony, as a consultant who would be paid in cash -- not by check -- in exchange for work at Fromm's firm.

Tony Riga changed his mind, and demanded checks after he got his first two payments in cash, Deborah Riga said. In a 2003 phone conversation, Cantrell later blamed Deborah Riga for giving prosecutors evidence because her father insisted on taking checks.

"I felt bad because the gist of it was, had I done it in cash the way it was proposed, there wouldn't be a trail," Riga testified Thursday morning. "This wouldn't be happening."

Defense attorney Kevin Milner hit Riga with scathing questions about whether she had "sold your robe, your judgeship, for money."

"You spent very few honest days as a judge, correct?" Milner asked.

"The things you are looking at happened over various days. I'd have to answer 'no' to your question," Riga said.

Later in the day, Milner fired broadsides against Internal Revenue Service Agent Paul Drapac, the author of financial statements on how much cash Cantrell "should have" received based on unwritten arrangements that were described by Fromm.

Fromm said Cantrell literally divvied up profits from her cash-based counseling business, and Cantrell always advised her never to deposit her share in the bank because it could be traced.

On Thursday, Drapac admitted he could not say Cantrell had physically received the cash that the ledgers said he should have received, because he did not see it with his own eyes, and the money was apparently not deposited into Cantrell's bank.

06062008 - News Article - Jury to weigh Cantrell case - Testimony near end in fraud case linked to political insider - ROBERT CANTRELL

Jury to weigh Cantrell case
Testimony near end in fraud case linked to political insider
Post-Tribune (IN)
June 6, 2008
Prosecutors Thursday closed their case against Lake County political insider Robert Cantrell.

With defense attorney Kevin Milner promising an "extremely" brief list of witnesses when court resumes at noon today, jurors should begin deliberations on the 11 fraud counts against Cantrell this afternoon.

They will weigh little more than five days of testimony entered in the case, which opened last week and was extended two days when Judge Rudy Lozano granted a recess so Cantrell could attend the funeral of his 96-year-old mother, who died Sunday.

Trial testimony
Continuing a lengthy list of political figures who have either testified or been mentioned in the case, prosecutors questioned former Schererville town judge Deb Riga and North Township Trustee Frank Mrvan Jr.

Prosecutors did not call former trustee Greg Cvitkovich, who hired Cantrell in 2000 and allegedly signed several lucrative contracts with the Cantrell-connected counseling firm Addiction & Family Care.

Asked if Cvitkovich, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges and served five months in prison in 2006, would testify for the defense, Milner declined comment.

Prosecutors closed out their case with three hours of testimony from IRS agent Paul Drapac outlining AFC's finances and all-egedly unreported cash payouts made to Cantrell, and fraudulent paychecks and insurance coverage the company provided to Cantrell's son, John, and daughter, Jennifer, while the pair were in law school.

The allegations
Prosecutors allege Cantrell failed to report nearly $200,000 in income from AFC from 2000 to 2004, much of it in undocumented cash payments Cantrell took directly from a file cabinet where Fromm stored payments from court defendants.

Drapac estimated AFC had enough cash on hand to cover the $72,000 or so Cantrell allegedly pocketed, as well as thousands AFC owner Nancy Fromm kept for herself.

"It was primarily a cash business," Drapac said.

On cross examination, Milner noted that Fromm admitted to hiding and destroying records, and the government had no accurate estimate as to how much cash AFC ever had on hand.

Drapac, Milner said, was relying on estimates of how much Cantrell had pocketed in off-the-books transactions, based on assumptions of how much Cantrell was due under his reported 50-50 split arrangement with Fromm and how much of the company's estimated revenue never turned up in bank accounts or tax records.

"What I want you to tell me is how you can attribute cash to Mr. Cantrell when you can't even tell me how much cash was taken in?" Milner asked.

More details emerge
In other testimony, Riga said Cantrell had arranged for her to send business to AFC, and that Cantrell had wanted to pay her father in cash for work he did for AFC as a consultant.

When Milner asked Riga if it seemed strange to her that Cantrell would discuss fraudulent business arrangements with her father, whom he had met only a few times, she replied, "it wasn't anything ominous, like (they) were hiding something.

"It was very candid, like that was just the way it was done."

Mrvan, who succeeded Cvitkovich as trustee, said Cvitkovich cautioned him about crossing Cantrell and Fromm after Mrvan, then a township board member, had railed against the AFC contract at a public meeting. When Mrvan announced he would run for trustee in 2005, he said Cantrell suggested that Mrvan might hire AFC to work with poor relief clients instead of employees.

06052008 - News Article - Riga takes the stand against Cantrell - ROBERT CANTRELL

Riga takes the stand against Cantrell
NWI Times
Jun 5, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/riga-takes-the-stand-against-cantrell/article_74a46f08-8e23-501b-b929-8339709e517e.html
HAMMOND | Disgraced former judge Deb Riga said Robert Cantrell was not shy about using cash payments to hide transactions.

Riga served one term as elected judge of Schererville Town Court, but pleaded guilty to several unrelated felonies involving her corrupting her office to enrich herself. She has been awaiting sentencing for two years, as Cantrell's trial date slowly drew near.

In 2003, when the Indiana State Police raided the offices of Addiction and Family Care Inc. (AFC) in search of evidence, Riga said Cantrell made her feel guilty because her father, AFC consultant Tony Riga, had insisted on being paid by check and not cash.

"I felt bad because the gist of it (her conversation with Cantrell after the raid) was, had I done it in cash the way it was proposed, there wouldn't be a trail," Riga testified Thursday morning. "This wouldn't be happening."

Defense attorney Kevin Milner hit Riga with scathing questions about whether she had "sold your robe, your judgeship, for money."

"You spent very few honest days as a judge, correct?" Milner asked.

"The things you are looking at happened over various days. I'd have to answer 'No' to your question," Riga said.

Milner implied that Riga had been repeatedly requesting delays of her sentencing date so that she could give the feds dirt and decrease her sentence. She denied it.

06052008 - Cantrell's trial now focusing on daughter's court - CANTRELL --Attorneys say father never profited from her courtroom - ROBERT CANTRELL

Cantrell's trial now focusing on daughter's court
CANTRELL --Attorneys say father never profited from her courtroom
NWI Times
Jun 5, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/cantrell-s-trial-now-focusing-on-daughter-s-court/article_085e0efa-4611-5efe-be15-f51fbb92563f.html
HAMMOND | When Nancy Fromm and colleague George Safana started an addiction counseling service in 1997, Lake Superior Judge Julie Cantrell was one of the first to send a few court-ordered rehabilitation clients to the firm.

And when Fromm's firm was hurting for business two years later, Fromm recruited the help of Judge Cantrell's father, Robert Cantrell, in squeezing even more clients out of her court, Fromm testified.

But it could not have been known then that Robert Cantrell, an East Chicago political operative, would eventually be criminally charged in Hammond federal court for allegedly profiting from the very kinds of deals he helped set up in his daughter's court.

A federal fraud trial for Robert Cantrell resumes today following a two-day break in testimony.

"Robert Cantrell never took one dime from any case that went through that court," defense attorney Kevin Milner said last week during Robert Cantrell's fraud trial. "Even though that was most of the money, he never took one dime of it."

Between 2000 and 2003, Julie Cantrell's court sent more than $588,000 worth of business to Fromm's firm, Addiction and Family Care Inc.

It was almost half of the $1.3 million in profits that Cantrell is alleged to have helped Fromm's business earn between June 1999 and late 2005. All told, 75 percent of Fromm's business in those years came from contracts secured by Robert Cantrell.

Robert Cantrell has admitted using his political influence to generate the contracts and then taking as much as 50 percent of the profits as a consulting fee, arguing it was a legal arrangement.

"The evidence will show there was complete transparency in all these transactions," Milner said in the trial's opening statements last week.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Orest Szewciw agreed with Milner that Robert Cantrell did not get paid for any of the work referred from Julie Cantrell's court.

But that doesn't mean he didn't use it to his advantage, Szewciw said. Rather, the business from Cantrell's court comprised part of the leverage that Robert Cantrell held over Fromm, Szewciw said.

"This was business that was brought in by him, and it could be stopped by him," Szewciw told jurors in opening statements.

Julie Cantrell could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Milner said last week the judge is likely to be called as a witness in the case.

Julie Cantrell's magistrate, Michael Pagano, declined to comment on the trial Wednesday because it is a pending case.

Fromm told Milner during cross-examination that Julie Cantrell always had asked her father to make sure he was not profiting personally from the business from her court.

"He said from the very beginning he did not want to hurt his daughter, and he loved his family," Fromm testified. "He did not want to tarnish her court in any way."

06042008 - News Article - Death in family delays Cantrell trial - Fraud case to resume Thursday - ROBERT CANTRELL

Death in family delays Cantrell trial
Fraud case to resume Thursday
NWI Times
Jun 4, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/death-in-family-delays-cantrell-trial/article_68713da3-821f-56a4-b1af-6fd913d19dfd.html
HAMMOND | Robert Cantrell's federal fraud trial has been postponed until Thursday morning because of a death in the family.

Cantrell's mother, Nellie Cantrell, of East Chicago, died Sunday at the age of 96.

She was perhaps best known by the community as the owner of the Hoosier Flower Shop in Whiting for 50 years.

"She was a very fine woman, and I feel terrible for Mr. Cantrell and his family for their loss, and also for the timing of the loss," said Cantrell defense attorney Kevin Milner.

Services are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. today at Oleska-Pastrick Funeral Home. She is survived by a sister, two sons, seven grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

She died two days after some of the most negative testimony about her son was aired in the courtroom by government witnesses.

U.S. District Court Judge Rudy Lozano put the trial on hold while the family attends to the burial, but he did not tell the jury exactly what had happened.

"One of the participants had a very close family member pass away," Lozano told the jury Monday morning, before resuming the trial. "Please do not hold it (the two-day delay) against any of the participants. It occurred naturally."

Court proceeded normally on Monday.

Cantrell is charged with 11 felonies, and prosecutors have said they plan to present more than 30 witnesses and more than 100 exhibits. The trial was expected to last up to three weeks, but Lozano has said the case is proceeding ahead of schedule.

At least two high-profile witnesses have yet to take the stand -- former Schererville Town Court Judge Deb Riga and former North Township Trustee Greg Cvitkovich.

06032008 - News Article - Witnesses tell of Cantrell's political clout - Insider was man to see at several government levels across Lake County - ROBERT CANTRELL

Witnesses tell of Cantrell's political clout
Insider was man to see at several government levels across Lake County
Post-Tribune (IN)
June 3, 2008
Witnesses called by federal prosecutors expanded the list of services available in the alleged influence-peddling case against Robert Cantrell.

A former North Township worker explained how Cantrell contacted Trustee Greg Cvitkovich to get her a job.

An East Chicago engineering contractor told of how he reached out to Cantrell to help collect a bill the city had ignored for two years, and received payment in full only days after offering to pay Cantrell $2,000 to help him collect.

Lake County Judge Jesse Villalpando took the stand and eagerly discussed how Cantrell threatened to enter candidates to run against him in the 2006 election if Villalpando didn't steer more court business to a drug counseling company Cantrell allegedly controlled.

Concluding her second day of testimony, former Cantrell business partner Nancy Fromm mentioned Cantrell's "enforcer," Gilbert Gutierrez, and Gutierrez's alleged ties to a 1992 killing in Hammond.

"(Cantrell) always told me Gil was a killer. I was about half scared of him," Fromm said in a rambling reply to a question from defense attorney Kevin Milner. "Now he's a person of interest in a murder."

"I'm not charged with anything, am I?" Milner quipped.

Gutierrez, a close friend of Cantrell's, has been named as a possible conspirator in the investigation of the death of his girlfriend, Guadalupe Hernandez.

The case against Cantrell, whose decades as a Lake County political operative have tied him to nearly every local elected official, grew more lurid Monday.

Former Schererville Town Council President Mike Troxell testified that Cantrell, former Lake County Democratic Party Chairman Stephen Stiglich and former Schererville Judge Deb Riga lobbied him to increase the court budget in exchange for letting him control court hiring. Riga was convicted of corruption charges in 2005.

A Schererville court worker testified Cantrell offered to help her find work in the courtroom of his daughter, Judge Julie Cantrell, to steer business to AFC. A former AFC employee said she saw Cantrell sitting at Fromm's desk after business hours, counting stacks of cash.

Most of the statements will do little to prove the 11 fraud and tax evasion counts against Cantrell, whom prosecutors allege violated state ethics laws by not formally disclosing his financial ties to AFC while he was working for North Township, an AFC client.

Milner tried to show that Cantrell's influence over political figures was not as great as it seemed, and that Fromm-- who faces her own charges of tax fraud and obstruction of justice -- tried to swindle and hide money from Cantrell as well as the IRS.

Death delays trial
The trial of Robert Cantrell was suspended through Thursday to allow the corruption defendant to prepare for the funeral of his mother. Nell Cantrell, 96, died Sunday at Hammond-Whiting Convalescent Home. A prayer service is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Pastrick-Oleska Funeral Home in East Chicago, with funeral services set for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. An obituary is on Page A12.

06022008 - News Article - Closer look reveals life and times of NWI political power broker - Robert Cantrell stays confident throughout his public corruption trial - ROBERT CANTRELL

Closer look reveals life and times of NWI political power broker 
Robert Cantrell stays confident throughout his public corruption trial
Hide Details
Post-Tribune (IN)
June 2, 2008
Monday, the trial of Lake County power broker Robert Cantrell enters its second week in U.S. District Court, with the longtime political operative facing charges of honest services fraud and insurance fraud and tax evasion.The Post-Tribune offers a primer. Who is Robert J. Cantrell and why should I care?

Political beginnings
If you're over 60, you might know Bobby Cantrell only as the sweet-shooting star of the 1960 East Chicago Washington state championship basketball team. Otherwise, if you know Cantrell at all, it might be as a coach and administrator in the East Chicago schools.

A little help from friends
And if you travel in Lake County political circles, you know him as one of a handful of men to see if you need a government job, friends to help your campaign, and maybe a few dirty tricks to put you over the top. Cantrell's political alliances have shifted (quite deftly) for decades.

Now a close adviser to East Chicago Mayor George Pabey and County Clerk (and soon-to-be Coroner) Tom Philpot -- Cantrell had once been close with Pabey's hated rival Robert Pastrick and Philpot's nemesis, Sheriff Roy Dominguez.

His daughter, Julie, just won re-election as a Lake County judge, and his son, John, was once law partners with Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. He also had close ties to former North Township Trustee Greg Cvitkovich, who was convicted on corruption charges.

So what did he do?
Federal charges filed
After a three-year-long investigation, federal prosecutors have charged Cantrell with 11 counts.

He faces four counts of honest services fraud for allegedly accepting money from Addiction & Family Care (AFC), a company that did business with North Township while he was also on the township payroll; the payments were allegedly disguised as checks to his son, John, who was a law student in Indianapolis at the time.

Then there are three counts of insurance fraud for allegedly having his son, John, and daughter, Jennifer, put on AFC's group insurance plan though neither of them worked for the company.

Finally, there are three counts of tax fraud for allegedly keeping the money paid to John and not reporting it, as well as hundreds of thousands in off-the-books cash he allegedly split with AFC owner Nancy Fromm.

Link to counseling service
What did AFC do?
Nancy Fromm, an old hand in Hammond-area politics, said she approached Cantrell about getting work from local government in exchange for helping with Julie Cantrell's campaign for judge in 1996.

Once Julie was sworn in in 1997, she formed a forerunner to AFC and Cantrell's court became the first client, paying out nearly $600,000 in fees for providing counseling to defendants going through pre-trial diversion programs.

Bobby Cantrell, she said, was insistent that he never see a dime of the money AFC made from his daughter's court, but he took as much as half of every cent AFC raked in from deals he brokered with the East Chicago City Hall, the East Chicago Court, various Lake County Courts and, more problematically for Cantrell's case, North Township.

Financial ties that bind
Under state ethics laws, Cantrell was supposed to disclose his financial ties to AFC once he started working for the township in 2000.

Fromm said Cantrell used his ties to Cvitkovich to get AFC a contract in 1999, then negotiated renewals that ran through 2006 -- though she was fired after Cvitkovich was indicted and replaced in 2005.

What does Cantrell have to say about all this?
Defense attorney Kevin Milner, the lawyer who has defended most of the high-profile clients indicted since the U.S. Attorney's office began their Operation Restore Public Integrity probe in 2001, began by reminding jurors of that 1960 championship, as well as Cantrell's 1964 Big Ten title when a senior at University of Michigan, his long career in the East Chicago schools and even his decorated service in Desert Storm.

Filling the void
Testifying last week, John Cantrell said he was working in the Lake County courts in 1999 when he noticed that indigent drug defendants and petty criminals had scant resources for counseling services, and suggested his father use his political influence to find companies to fill the void -- and charge those companies fees as a sort-of lobbyist.

His proud father did just that, and sent a portion of those profits to his son during his three years of law school, then stopped the payments when John passed the bar exam.

Milner has attempted to describe it as a similar deal to when an attorney refers a case to a peer and collects a share of the resulting fees, though he does no work on the case.

"It was like I invented something, and he sold it," said John Cantrell, repeatedly, during his testimony.

The influence-peddling business was wholly legal -- though taxpayers may question whether it was worth $2,500 a month for a dozen Township employees to attend classes such as "How to Stop Procrastinating -- so long as Cantrell refused money from North Township contracts.

The insurance forms were forged by Fromm, who also improperly listed her daughter in-law and grandchildren on the AFC plan. Defense handwriting experts may also weigh in on handwritten notes on drafts of North Township's contracts with AFC attributed to Cantrell.

Fromm herself has no records that prove she gave cash to Cantrell, and the checks paid to John Cantrell all paid their federal withholding taxes.

Confidence reigns at trial
So how is it looking for Bobby?
Cantrell has seemed confident during the first four days of the trial, chatting amiably with his wife and daughters and the steady stream of politically connected observers who have dropped in on the trial.

He seemed especially nervous when John was on the stand, and his son's answers often seemed overly lawyer-like-- asked by prosecutors if he thought his "consulting" for AFC was work, he said, "I consider it employment"-- and perhaps too eager to help his father.

In the jury's hands
Fromm's testimony would seem especially damaging, but jurors will have to weigh the credibility of a woman who admitted on the stand she lied to investigators from the State Police and FBI, burned some records and hid others from federal investigators, and even altered her records to swindle Cantrell out of his share of AFC's profits.

And of course, her decision to cooperate with prosecutors came after she entered a plea deal to her own set of tax fraud and obstruction of justice charges. Defense attorneys in public corruption trials seldom win and often complain that "honest services fraud" charges give juries room to enter guilty verdicts that reflect their disgust with distasteful, but legal, political dealing. And the U.S. Attorney has run up a record of more than 40 consecutive convictions since the start of Operation Restore Public Integrity began. But no one expected EC Washington to win the big game back in '60, either.

So what happens next?
The trial is scheduled to continue another two weeks, with the prosecution expected to put a long list of Lake County politicians on the stand.

If convicted, Cantrell could face prison time and would have to pay restitution to the IRS and possibly others.

But, upon release, he would probably have no trouble finding a job in Lake County.

Julie Cantrell, who handily won re-election this spring, is well-liked even by some of the many local pols who despise her father, and would appear to face no repercussions.

Her younger brother, John, had an immunity agreement with prosecutors, but some who watched his testimony wonder if the state Bar Association would have to consider disciplinary action based on his AFC income and fraudulent insurance coverage.

06022008 - News Article - Fromm names Cantrell's "enforcer" in federal court - ROBERT CANTRELL

Fromm names Cantrell's "enforcer" in federal court
NWI Times
Jun 2, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/fromm-names-cantrell-s-enforcer-in-federal-court/article_c7eb760c-32f7-5c1c-896a-2a60ff8e7b79.html
HAMMOND | No matter how much clout they have, it can be difficult for fearsome political figures to intimidate without a little muscle on their side.

On Monday, Nancy Fromm revealed in Hammond federal court whom she thought Robert Cantrell relied on -- Gil Gutierrez.

Gutierrez was a name already woven into Cantrell's federal fraud trial in several ways, including being on the list of possible government witnesses.

Fromm testified that she once lost a government contract with Sheriff John Buncich for employing Gutierrez's wife, Margaret.

Gutierrez once worked as an employee in the court of Lake Superior Judge Julie Cantrell, who is Robert Cantrell's daughter, witnesses have said.

On Monday morning, Fromm and her former employee Rose Plesha said they were separately confronted by Gutierrez regarding Cantrell's suspicion that Fromm was "cheating" Cantrell out of his cut of her business' earnings.

"He was Bobby's enforcer," Fromm said of Gutierrez. "Bobby always said Gil was a killer. And now he's a person of interest in a murder."

Fromm was referring in her testimony to the 1992 waterfront killing of Guadalupe Castaneda. Gutierrez allegedly was the father of Castaneda's unborn child.

Lake County police named Gutierrez as a person of interest in the case in December 2007. The case is being investigated as a murder-for-hire based on statements from witnesses, Lake County police have said.

Court records indicate Gutierrez possesses signed hotel receipts proving he was out of town at the time of the slaying. But court affidavits state that the killing took place just three days before Gutierrez and Castaneda were supposed to have blood tests to establish paternity of their two children.

As the federal courtroom crowd gasped at Fromm's statement abut Gutierrez, defense attorney Kevin Milner redirected the questioning to what he has called Fromm's "gambling problem."

06022008 - News Article - Fromm confronts her own lies - ROBERT CANTRELL

Fromm confronts her own lies
NWI Times
Jun 2, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/fromm-confronts-her-own-lies/article_2c8b68cb-0a96-55c3-b2be-edf9e94c7140.html
HAMMOND | Nancy Fromm has told a lot of stories, and many don't square with one another.

Most of the incriminating testimony Fromm offered about Robert Cantrell this morning and on Friday has apparently been contradicted, at one point or another, during the 10 meetings she had with investigators since 2003.

She once told investigators her friend "Bobby" never got any cut of the profits from the contract her business had with North Township. She now testifies in Hammond federal court that he did.

She once told grand jurors that she filled out certain key boxes in a form that investigators say constitutes insurance fraud. She now testifies that Cantrell completed some boxes.

She once told a friend Cantrell never did anything wrong -- that it was all "on the up-and-up." She now testifies that she and Cantrell were partners in crime.

"How would someone know when you're lying?" Defense attorney Kevin Milner asked in open court during Cantrell's federal fraud trial.

"I suppose it's hard. Once you've lied to them, they don't trust you anymore," said Fromm, 67, a certified therapist.

"But you've been lying to just about everyone for several years, isn't that correct?" Milner responded.

Instead of directly answering, Fromm went into a digression - as she often does on the stand - saying that her past lies were part of an overall effort to protect Cantrell from prosecution.

But as it turned out, she was the one who was indicted, first for federal tax fraud and later for obstruction of justice.

Fromm said she eventually decided to tell what she calls the whole truth when investigators seized the last of her business records that showed how much cash had disappeared into her and Cantrell's pockets.