03202016 - News Article - EDITORIAL: Cantrell ruling dulls teeth deterring political corruption - ROBERT CANTRELL

EDITORIAL: Cantrell ruling dulls teeth deterring political corruption
NWI Times
The Times Editorial Board 
Mar 20, 2016
nwitimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/editorial-cantrell-ruling-dulls-teeth-deterring-political-corruption/article_ab6d49c0-4359-5de7-9d30-16e8b0e739ad.html

The fox will continue laying waste to the hen house as long as the farmer employs toothless guard dogs to watch over his chickens.

Such a system devoid of consequences is really no different than serving the chickens up on a table set conveniently for the hungry fox.

In a sense, that’s the table Hammond federal court Judge Rudy Lozano set earlier this month when he essentially allowed disgraced Lake County political operative Robert Cantrell to purchase an early release from his criminal punishment.

Cantrell was sentenced in 2009 to 6 1/2 years in prison for using his former job in the North Township Trustee’s office to steer contracts to a counseling firm in exchange for cash kickbacks. In other words, he committed a pay-for-play crime against taxpayers.

Cantrell completed his prison term but also was supposed to spend three years on supervised release, a system to monitor convicts after their release from federal prisons.

But earlier this month, Lozano agreed to release Cantrell after serving just 13 months of the three-year period of supervised release. Cantrell was allowed to pay the remaining $3,647.87 of the $68,000 in restitution he owed taxpayers for his crimes, and the convicted felon was released from the rest of his sentence.

According to court records, Lozano told federal prosecutors he didn’t feel requiring Cantrell to remain on supervised release would have any greater deterrent effect to committing such crimes in the future.

We couldn’t disagree more.

Lake County wears the mark of political corruption like a scarlet letter because of the more than 60 government officials convicted of crimes against taxpayers during the past few decades.

Cutting Cantrell loose early — just because he paid the monetary portion of his sentence — sends the wrong message to any public officials abusing, or thinking of abusing, the public trust.

Every tooth of the law must be brought to bear in fighting the scourge of public corruption in Northwest Indiana. In Cantrell’s case, the court system just knocked out a few of those pearly whites.