08252008 - Emergency Court Hearing Set for 09172008 - Divorce Property Settlement - CAUSE NO: 64D01-0708-DR-7804/Porter County Superior Court, Valparaiso IN

When I was at the Portage Police Department, giving my statement of the ex's threat to kill me, I told the officer that my ex had gone ballistic when I questioned the legality of the May 2008 property settlement. The officer suggested that I go to the courthouse and file an injunction.


I got a court date for an emergency hearing for September 17th: one day prior to the questionable property settlement being signed.

08252008 - Ex's Criminal Case - Ex's threat to kill me / violation of PPO - 64D06-0808-CM-8254/Porter County Superior Court, Portage IN

I was on the phone with the ex, questioning him over the May 2008 property settlement [that was not to be entered until September 19th]. In an all too calm...yet don't screw with me voice, he replied, "You better stop talking to attorneys...You won't be on the face of the earth long enough..."

When I asked my ex what he meant by that he calmly continued, "You never know when you might get run over by a truck".

My ex drove a semi truck for Dunkin Donuts. At every court hearing over the past year, he had always driven his Dunkin Donuts semi truck [bobtail] to the courthouse. How long had he thought about killing me by running me over with his semi truck?

I was on my cell phone with my ex on the other end desribing his plans to end my life. And although I was in my car, I was about ten minutes away from the Portage PD. My thought was: keep the ex on the phone and let the PD hear his threats for themselves.

The big challenge was to keep my ex engaged on the phone as I sped to the PD. "Since you are kicking me out of the house without anything, I might as well sell your motorcycle and jet ski for some money," I ventured.

He went ballistic. He obviously hadn't thought about this....as he had with running me over with his semi truck. He was screaming uncontrollably at me. He was calling me every name in the book. Then he began threatening to do all kinds of things to me. My stomach was churning, but it was keeping him on the line as I got closer and closer to the PD.

And then in the middle of his rant, he suddenly became calmer....and again issued another death threat if I selled his beloved 'toys'. The solution seemed to appease him, because he began to laugh and said that if I went ahead and questioned the court order, that he simply wouldn't show up for the court hearing. "You tell the Judge that I'm not there because I went to a ball game," he laughed and then hung up...Before I got to the PD.

Criminal charges were filed on September 4th,  against my ex for his threat to kill me.

Jim had a history of violence and threats against not only me, but against with his first ex-wife. In September 2001, Chesteron PD was called when Jim threatened to kill his ex-wife when he didn't get his way during an argument.

08202008 - News Article - Defense: Failure to ID Cantrell invalidates guilty verdicts - Prosecutor disputes claim that defendant wasn't ID'd - ROBERT CANTRELL

Defense: Failure to ID Cantrell invalidates guilty verdicts
Prosecutor disputes claim that defendant wasn't ID'd
NWI Times
Aug 20, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/defense-failure-to-id-cantrell-invalidates-guilty-verdicts/article_095633aa-2ddb-5f33-9ef2-afb4d9eb5d54.html
HAMMOND | Although at least four witnesses said Robert Cantrell was in the courtroom during the political operative's June fraud trial, none of them physically pointed to him at the defense table.

Defense attorney Kevin Milner said the failure was a fatal error that undermined prosecutors' case against Cantrell and invalidated the 11 guilty verdicts that eventually resulted.

But in a brief filed Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Orest Szewciw said Milner's claim was "preposterous" because Milner himself opened the trial by telling the jury it was his "privilege" to defend Cantrell against the charges.

Then the jury also saw Cantrell's own son, John, testify about "his dad" and look in the direction of the defense table while speaking.

And when U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano asked "Mr. Cantrell" to agree to certain facts during the trial, the court record states that the person next to Milner at the defense table gave an "affirmative nod."

"(Milner) made a strategic decision not to pursue the preposterous claim that his client -- one of the most notable Lake County political operatives during the past 30 years -- was not actually the 'Robert Cantrell' of Lake County politics," Szewciw wrote.

Lozano has held off on making the jury's verdict official until the identification issue is resolved. No sentencing hearing has been set.

Neither Cantrell nor Milner has made any comments about the case since the verdicts of guilty on all counts: four charges of mail fraud, three charges of insurance fraud and four charges of tax evasion.

The trial came after years of federal investigations into Cantrell's political machinations. Even after the case was presented to the jury, Cantrell was openly telling family members in the courtroom that jurors would acquit him in short order.

Cantrell, 66, of Schererville, is a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War and was known in his youth as a stand-out basketball player in high school and college. He led the 1960 East Chicago Washington High School team to a state championship.

Cantrell's critics described him at trial as a greedy manipulator who used his extensive contacts in the world of Lake County judicial politics to enrich himself, regardless of whether his actions would undermine public confidence in the judiciary.

Though he spent decades organizing East Chicago Republicans, Cantrell has admitted to collaborating with the city's Democratic power brokers and officially declared himself a Democrat in 2003.

08052008 - News Article - Lake commissioners want politics out of courts - ROBERT CANTRELL

Lake commissioners want politics out of courts
NWI Times
Aug 5, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/lake-commissioners-want-politics-out-of-courts/article_78f0c5c7-7b08-5bd3-8d3d-5d2ae50bb0a4.html
CROWN POINT | Lake County Commissioners are renewing their call to convert four county courts to the county's merit system.

Commissioners said removing Superior Court, County Division Judges Nicholas Shiralli, Sheila Moss, Julie Cantrell and Jesse Villalpando from the need to cater to partisan politics would save taxpayers the expense of employing larger court staffs than judges 12 county judges who don't have to win party support to run for re-election.

Lake County is one of two in the state where most Superior Court judges are nominated by a panel of lawyers and lay people and appointed to office by the governor. They face the voters every six years in non-partisan retention-rejection referendums.

Commissioner Gerry Scheub, D-Schererville, said Tuesday, "The judges hire (27) attorneys who have got to raise campaign money. We need to take the politics out of those courts."

Judge Villalpando has said in past testimony his re-election campaign in 2006 was marred by Robert Cantrell, recently convicted of federal fraud and public corruption charges, mounting challenges against him. Villalpando said Cantrell was trying to force the court to employ a counseling service that personally enriched Cantrell.

Judge Cantrell, Robert's daughter, said she was forced to raise and spend tens of thousands of dollars in her contested re-election bid in the spring primary. She won that race and is unopposed in the fall.

Scheub said commissioners have asked called on local legislators to support a bill converting the four court to merit selection before, but this time he expects a bill to be introduced in the Indiana General Assembly next year.