A county government history of bribery
From the FBI raids Lake County sheriff's offices series
NWI Times
Nov 27, 2016
CROWN POINT — Once upon a time, Lake County had a sheriff indicted for mail fraud.
Last week, it was Sheriff John Buncich, who has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial in January on allegations he solicited and received bribes from towing firms doing business with his department.
Three decades ago, it was Rudy Bartolomei, for wide-ranging bribery solicitation.
Bartolomei, better known to his friends as Rudy Bart, cooperated with federal investigators who sent many other high-ranking county government officials to prison under Operation Lights Out.
Bartolomei’s whereabouts have been unknown since he entered the federal witness protection program in 1986 at age 62, although the rumor among political circles is that he died years ago.
But between 1976 when he was first elected a Lake County commissioner and 1985 when he resigned as sheriff following a guilty plea in U.S. District Court, he was one of the best known and most powerful politicians in Lake County.
In his younger days, he helped his mother run the family’s grocery store in Gary’s Glen Park section. He became a Democratic precinct committeeman and worked eight years in the county assessor’s office.
‘Helping people’
A Times story about the new commissioner portrayed him as having a handshake and a warm greeting for the common man. He told a Times reporter, “I’m really excited about helping people, now. Most of the time, it is people asking for help, and you do your best to help them.”
He had a jar of licorice on his desk for his many visitors.
Years later, his other side was revealed in court testimony about forcing county employees to buy political fundraising tickets and shaking down those who wanted business with the county.
A federal court document recounts Bartolomei meeting a then-up-and-coming politician, Frank A. J. Stodola, who had just been elected county commissioner in 1980 and wanted to know if rumors about county government graft were true.
It states, “Stodola approached Commissioner Rudy Bartolomei on several occasions and asked Bartolomei where the commissioners made their money.”
Bartolomei answered that the cleaning service for the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point inflated its bills to the county to cover the bribes paid all three members of the Board of Commissioners at that time.
Moving up
Bartolomei saw his opportunity to become the county’s chief law enforcement officer in 1983 when Sheriff Chris Anton died in office. A caucus of the county’s Democratic precinct committee members picked Bartolomei over Anton’s widow, Anna, to replace him.
A Times reporter asked him after his victory celebration about reports the FBI was looking into him. Bartolomei denied knowing anything about it.
Shortly after becoming sheriff, court documents state Bartolomei began offering protection to the owners of video poker machines, which were illegal at the time, but popping up at local taverns.
Bartolomei and other county police officials promised protection for those willing to pay, not knowing one of their petitioners was wearing a wire and recording conversations for the FBI.
A second federal investigation focused on Bartolomei’s stolen gun collection. U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raided a safe in the Sheriff’s Department and seized 50 weapons and an unregistered .38-caliber handgun silencer.
After months of speculation, a federal grand jury returned a 15-count indictment against Bartolomei March 1, 1985, accusing him of:
Ordering five county employees in 1980 to assemble political signs for his re-election at public expense
Ordering three county employees in 1981 to do repair work on his summer cottage on Lake Michigan
Paying his housemaid with $2,300 from federal revenue sharing funds belonging to the county
Extorting political contributions from employees, including $650 from a heavy-equipment operator who asked Bartolomei for a raise
Bartolomei pleaded not guilty, blamed the allegations on political enemies and disgruntled county employees and wouldn’t compromise his ability to remain sheriff.
Six months later, he pleaded guilty to two felony counts, received a 28-month sentence, and was shackled and marched out of a federal courtroom.
Two months later, he was briefing federal investigators and a grand jury on the web of public corruption over which he and his fellow county officials had presided.
He would return to the federal courthouse over the years to testify as the government’s star witness, helping win convictions against a number of officials, including: County Assessor Michael Jankovich, county Commissioners Noah Atterson Spann and Frank A.J. Stodola and Michael Mokol Sr., chief of police under Bartolomei.
To protect his new identity outside the courthouse, he wore a Halloween mask resembling Skeletor, a character from the Masters of the Universe cartoons.
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