Wednesday, June 1, 2011

06012011 - News Article - E.C. pols have been frequent fliers in 'Club Fed' program - ROBERT CANTRELL



E.C. pols have been frequent fliers in 'Club Fed' program
NWI Times
June 01, 2011
nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/east-chicago/e-c-pols-have-been-frequent-fliers-in-club-fed/article_51d0a74d-3e31-5ebb-8d48-b1455be7eec0.html


EAST CHICAGO | If misery loves company, former Mayor George Pabey is feeling the love.

Pabey is set to report today to the Oxford Federal Correctional Institution in Wisconsin to begin a five-year sentence for stealing city funds. He bought a home in Gary's Miller Beach neighborhood, remodeled it with governments funds and flipped it back on the market for twice the price.

He is among scores of East Chicago pols, city employees and merchants who have been convicted of public corruptions in the past four decades. Seven of them did their time at Oxford, too.

Pabey wouldn't need reminding that 46 of this ethically challenged multitude were caught manipulating absentee-ballot voting to cheat Pabey of victory in the 2003 mayoral primary. The Indiana Supreme Court overturned that fraudulent election, and Pabey won the next round in 2004 to become mayor.

Lavones Tolbert, a former city councilman, was the highest-ranking official to pay for the vote fraud, earning 30 days on probation. The rest were city cops, firefighters, school employees, city vendors and other assorted small fry, few of whom did time in prison.

But this East Chicago heritage goes further back in time and up the ladder.

Dr. John B. Nicosia, who served as East Chicago mayor from 1963 to 1971, was convicted in 1979 of a cover-up of $1 million in kickbacks delivered in connection with a city sewer project.

Nicosia, who maintained his innocence, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the sentence later was suspended because of his failing health. He died soon after.

Glenn Kuipers, a former executive director of East Chicago's Tri-City Mental Health Center, and Noah Atterson Spann, a former county commissioner from the city, were indicted in the late 1980s for bribery and bilking taxpayers in connection with publicly buying an East Chicago nursing home at an exorbitant price.

Kuipers and his wife entered the federal witness protection program after he pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Spann, who went to prison in 1988. He finished his sentence 11 years later, was hired by former Mayor Robert Pastrick to run his 1999 re-election campaign and later was named director of community services.

Vincent Kirrin, a longtime East Chicago power broker who boasted of his ability to "make and break" Lake County politicians, was convicted and sentenced in 1991 to three years for mail fraud in connection with providing janitorial services at the County Government Complex.

Sidewalk scandal scored big
A quiet spell was broken by a super-outbreak of corruption during the 1999 municipal election when Pastrick and the City Council spent $24 million to pave new sidewalks, curbs, private driveways and parking lots and, in at least one case, an entire backyard, as well as trim trees for residents, in return for votes for their re-election.

The concrete-for-votes convictions between 2004 and 2005 laid low the following:

Frank Kollintzas, former city councilman, fled to exile in Greece days before he was sentenced to 11 years.

Joe De La Cruz, former city councilman, six years.

Edwardo Maldonado, former city controller, is still serving a 130-month sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth, Minn.

Adrian Santos, a former city councilman, 33 months.

Jose Valdez Jr., a former city parks superintendent, 33 months.

Pedro Porras, former city engineer, 27 months.

Joel Markovich, former county councilman and city vendor, 18 months.

Randall Artis, former city councilman, 27 months.

Terrance Artis, a brother to Randall, five months.

Four city vendors received probation in return for their cooperation against Kollintzas, De La Cruz, Maldonado, Santos, Valdez and Porras, who collectively were called the Sidewalk Six.

Pastrick never was convicted of criminal wrongdoing, but he was ordered last year by a federal judge to pay $108 million in damages after he and 15 former city officials and contractors were named in a civil racketeering suit that declared his administration to be a corrupt enterprise.

Kevin Pastrick, a son of the former mayor, and his childhood friend, Peter Manous, a former chairman of the state Democratic Party, were convicted and imprisoned about the same time for bribing a union official to buy land in the Coffee Creek development near Chesterton.

James Fife III, a former special assistant to former mayor Pastrick, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the concrete-for-votes case, but went to prison in an unrelated tax fraud case that also dragged down former North Township Trustee G. Greg Cvitkovich between 2005 and 2006.

Edward Samuels, a former deputy city police chief, and Miguel "Mike" Arredondo, a former city building commissioner, were placed on probation for a ghost-employment scheme in which they were paid for security guard duty they didn't perform.

Robert Cantrell, a former East Chicago Republican city chairman, is still serving a 78-month fraud sentence in Ashland, Ky.

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