FBI looking for evidence of Lake towing bribery
NWI Times
November 14, 2016
CROWN POINT — State and federal agents are looking for evidence of bribery, extortion and fraudulent denial of honest government services in connection with car towing ordered by the Lake County Sheriff's Department.
The Times has obtained a copy of a federal search warrant served Thursday on the Lake County E-911 offices demanding telephone, radio and email data as well as paper documents, including a list of towing firms authorized by county government to tow cars and documents tracking their activity.
State police and FBI agents raided the Lake County Sheriff's Department and descended on Sheriff John Buncich's Crown Point home Thursday before leaving with several boxes of documents from the entrance of the sheriff's office building.
Federal agents also raided a Portage business site, whose owner said was connected to a Merrillville-based towing firm.
Agents served a subpoena seeking documents from the Lake County Voter Registration and Elections Department, which tracks campaign contributions and spending for all candidates for county, township and municipal offices.
They served a search warrant on the E-911 office, which coordinates communications among the public, the county sheriff and 15 municipal police, fire and emergency medical service providers.
The E-911 warrant states the government is looking only for towing data. Lake County elected officials and their lawyers said they are cooperating with federal authorities.
Federal authorities petitioned a federal magistrate Nov. 9 to authorize the E-911 search warrant.
They sought authorization to seize evidence of crimes involving receipt of bribes by an agent of local government, mail or wire fraud of honest services, conspiracy to commit mail or wire fraud, and honest services mail/wire fraud and extortion by state authorities.
The crimes listed could result in felony convictions and long prison sentences.
The warrant identifies what is to be seized as: Data and information contained in the computers and all storage media used by the Lake County E-911 Dispatch Center relating only to Lake County towing from the time period of 2010 to present.
The year 2010 was the last year in office for former Sheriff Roy Dominguez. Sheriff John Buncich has been serving as sheriff since 2011.
County government was in the midst of a financial crisis, because the 2008 recession and state-mandated property tax cuts had cut county government revenues to the point it was prepared to lay off 10 county police officers.
Buncich asked the County Council in 2012 to raise to $75 from $20 the fee the county charges each time a county police officer calls for a towing firm to remove a car on public streets. Buncich said he would use the revenue from those fees to support the endangered officers' salaries and benefits.
Buncich said then he would become more aggressive in towing disabled cars as well as vehicles belonging to targets of his department's gang and drug task forces.
The county collected $220,000 in towing fees last year and $164,000 this year to date from the thousands of cars towed.
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