Cantrell sentence delivered today
Post-Tribune (IN)
March 5, 2009
HAMMOND -- Political insider Robert J. Cantrell, friend, confidante and adviser to Lake County politicians for decades, will be sentenced to prison time today.
Cantrell, who made his name as the sharpshooting star of East Chicago Washington High School's 1960 state championship team, has spent four decades as one of the most influential political players in Northwest Indiana.
His downfall came last spring, when he was convicted on seven counts of fraud and four counts of tax evasion for reportedly collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from a counseling company that he helped win lucrative contracts with government agencies.
Cantrell, 66, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years on each fraud count and up to three years on each tax count.
The potential for a lengthy jail term, and the long delay between Cantrell's trial and his sentencing date, have led some to speculate that the master deal maker was trying to cut a bargain with prosecutors.
Prosecutors have protested Cantrell's requests for new sentencing dates, meaning he likely is not cooperating with other investigations. And those who know Cantrell well say he is a product of a rougher era of politics, a time in which, paradoxically, the players were both more deceitful and more honorable.
"Bobby won't talk. That's not how he is," said Byron "Duke" Florence, a longtime political operative who worked with, and sometimes against, Cantrell.
What Cantrell might have to talk about, Florence and other politicians can only guess.
"He touched every elected official in the county in one way or another, negative or positive," Florence said. "He knows everyone."
Cantrell's reputation was laid out during his trial, with former-business-partner-turned-prosecution-witness Nancy Fromm testifying that Cantrell provided her Addiction and Family Care counseling service with numerous contracts in exchange for half the company's income. Prosecutors alleged Cantrell did not report more than $100,000 in income he earned from AFC.
Fromm and Cantrell also committed insurance fraud by putting Cantrell's daughter and son on the insurance plan for full-time employees of AFC.
By the time Fromm was indicted for fraud, AFC had contracts with courts in East Chicago, Schererville, Hammond and even the Lake County court run by Cantrell's daughter, Judge Julie Cantrell. Prosecutors made no allegations of impropriety regarding those contracts and Cantrell claimed he was neither paid nor lobbied for his daughter's business.
Fromm's contract with the North Township trustee, where Robert Cantrell worked as manager of the trustee's Indiana Harbor office, formed the heart of the prosecution's case. Under state law, Cantrell should have disclosed his financial stake in AFC to township officials.
Cantrell said he never lobbied former Trustee Greg Cvitkovich for business while he was an employee, but AFC offered a series of classes to township employees on such topics as "How to Stop Procrastinating."
None of Cantrell's political allies have mailed letters to Judge Rudy Lozano asking for leniency or testifying to the decorated Army veteran's good works. And it is unclear if Cantrell's attorneys will call character witnesses.
"That's a shame," said Florence. "I doubt if Bobby is surprised by it, because he knows the game. But I'd be surprised if he wasn't hurt."
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