03022016 - News Article - Federal prosecutors fight Cantrell's bid to end court supervision - ROBERT CANTRELL

Federal prosecutors fight Cantrell's bid to end court supervision
NWI Times
Mar 2, 2016
nwitimes.com/news/crime-and-court/federal-prosecutors-fight-cantrell-s-bid-to-end-court-supervision/article_86a75be5-eaaf-5150-99b1-ee2e60f8a0d3.html

HAMMOND — Federal prosecutors said in a court filing Monday that Robert Cantrell's criminal conviction was but "one more sordid chapter" in Lake County's history of public corruption and the former North Township supervisor should serve his full sentence of supervised release.

Denying Cantrell's motion for early termination of supervised release "would have the greatest deterrent effect," Assistant U.S. Attorney Orest Szewciw wrote.

In addition, Cantrell still owes about $4,200 of the $68,000 in restitution he was ordered to pay after he was found guilty of four counts of honest services mail fraud, three counts of insurance mail fraud and four counts of tax fraud, court records say.

Cantrell's attorney, Kevin Milner, dismissed the government's objections in a reply filed Tuesday.

"There are some things that one can rely on with certainty," Milner wrote. "Every Chicago winter it snows. Republicans and Democrats will always bicker. And the government will always, in its patented robotic fashion, oppose any motion made by a defendant that seeks even an iota of compassion."

Cantrell served five years and two months in a federal prison and rewarding him for his good behavior and compliance "hurts no one," Milner wrote.

Cantrell was sentenced in 2009 to 6.5 years in prison for using his position in public office to steer contracts to a substance abuse counseling company in exchange for cash kickbacks. 

He also was found guilty of insurance fraud for “deceptively procuring” township-funded health insurance coverage for two of his children and filing false income tax returns.

Cantrell was sentenced to three years of supervised release and began that term Jan. 9, 2015, according to court records.

The U.S. attorney's office urged Judge Rudy Lozano to deny Cantrell's motion, in part, because his "criminal conduct was substantial and extensive" and "the victims of his crime were the poor who relied on the North Township trustee's office for assistance."