Jury watches video of Lake County Sheriff Buncich accepting cash in his office
Chicago Tribune
August 09, 2017
With $7,500 in cash on him, former Lake County Chief of Police Tim Downs parked his car outside the Lake County Sheriff's Department on July 15, 2015, and made his way to Sheriff John Buncich's office.
Buncich, at his desk, makes some comments about how many tickets Downs said he sold to area tow operators.
Then Downs hands the money to Buncich, who holds the stack in his hand before placing it in the desk drawer in front of him.
"All right, see you in the morning," Downs said as he left.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson played a recording of the exchange, which Downs made while cooperating for the government, on Wednesday, the third day of Buncich's public corruption trial.
The sheriff's two co-defendants, Downs and William "Willie" Szarmach, owner of CSA Towing in Lake Station, previously pleaded guilty, but Buncich has maintained his innocence over accusations that he accepted thousands of dollars in bribes for his campaign as part of an illegal towing scheme.
The jury spent Wednesday watching and listening to recordings made between August 2014 and April 2016 of meetings at area restaurants between the defendants.
The earlier meetings were primarily between Downs, Szarmach and the government's informant in the case, Scott Jurgensen, owner of Samson Towing and a former Merrillville police officer. Later, Szarmach and Jurgensen started meeting with Buncich directly, according to the prosecution.
At those meetings, Szarmach and Jurgensen expressed their interest in getting more towing calls and territory from the sheriff.
In a March 2016 recording between Buncich, Jurgensen and Szarmach, Jurgensen is heard chuckling and saying, "Get to the point of why we're here, Willie."
Szarmach and Jurgensen asked the sheriff about getting to tow for a Gary ordinance the sheriff's department was enforcing, according to the government, to which Buncich replied, "We'll make it happen."
After leaving the meeting and Buncich, Jurgensen is heard asking Szarmach, "How much do you think it's going to cost us?"
The recordings were made by Jurgensen and Downs for the government, as agents took surveillance photos of some of the meetings, according to FBI Special Agent Nathan Holbrook, who took the stand as the recordings played Wednesday.
Downs was stopped in June 2015 by the FBI after a meeting with Szarmach and Jurgensen and another sheriff's department employee, who is not charged in the case, according to prosecutors.
Benson showed photos of the inside of Downs' car issued by the sheriff's department from that day. Investigators found a bank envelope that had "county" written on it with $2,500 inside that Jurgensen gave Downs at the meeting, as well as a yellow envelope on the passenger's seat with fundraiser tickets for Buncich's "summer fest."
Downs agreed to cooperate with the government in the investigation. Holbrook said Downs "wasn't comfortable" wearing the wire, "but he did it." About two weeks after being stopped by the FBI, Downs started recording, according to Holbrook.
The jury watched a video of Downs going to collect $2,500 from Szarmach in June 2015 at Szarmach's Lake Station office. "I will get this over to the sheriff," Downs said in the video as he left the office.
Downs also recorded a March 2016 meeting with Buncich and another sheriff's department employee, who is not charged in the case. In the recording, Buncich is heard saying he is "going to settle" his debt of the tens of thousands of dollars he gave to his campaign by the time he left office, which is a quote Benson began with in his opening statements Monday.
The day ended Wednesday with surveillance photos of an April 2016 meeting of Szarmach, Jurgensen and Buncich; Benson said he planned to play recordings Thursday morning.
Jurgensen, Szarmach and Downs all took the stand in the first two days of Buncich's trial.
Downs discussed how he was tasked by the sheriff with selling tickets to Buncich's campaign fundraisers each year to towing operators.
While Downs admitted Buncich never explicitly said Downs would be fired if he didn't comply, Downs said, "Honestly, if I didn't do this, I wouldn't have a job."
Szarmach described the times he donated to Buncich's campaign fundraisers, followed by cash payments and restaurant meetings they had, once leaving money in an envelope on the front seat of his truck for Buncich.
Szarmach said he felt he needed to do that to "be able to secure a spot on the tow list."
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