08252017 - News Article - Buncich trial wrap-up: 12 yes votes convict sheriff of soliciting bribes from tow operators

Buncich trial wrap-up: 12 yes votes convict sheriff of soliciting bribes from tow operators
POST-TRIBUNE NEWS
August 25, 2017
chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-buncich-trial-wrap-up-st-0827-20170826-story.html
Twelve jurors filed into Judge James Moody’s federal courtroom in Hammond Thursday morning, assuming the same seats they had occupied for 14 days.

John Buncich, 71, now former Lake County sheriff, watched the eight men and four women as they filed in and sat down, the judge asking if a verdict was ready.

Buncich closed his eyes as Moody read “guilty” six times on five counts of wire fraud and honest services wire fraud and one count of bribery.

Buncich's head slumped before jurors individually then affirmed the verdict to the court.

"With that ladies and gentlemen, your service is complete," Moody said.

Federal prosecutors spent more than five days presenting evidence and listening to testimony alleging the sheriff accepted bribes — often in the form of campaign fundraiser tickets — to help tow operators get more jobs through the county. The defense, however, argued for more than a week that the donations were made without any intention of influencing Lake County's top cop.

During closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson said Buncich wanted to recover the $85,000 he invested in his campaign and did that by taking money from tow operators, as jurors saw in a series of undercover recordings.

"You now know that he was absolutely serious about getting that money back because you saw how he got it," Benson said.

Throughout the trial, Buncich maintained his innocence, refuting the allegations of federal prosecutors.

Defense attorney Larry Rogers said the sheriff had a stellar reputation among law enforcement and the community until the government began its investigation.

"The government has systematically set out to paint the sheriff as a bad person," Rogers said.

Reflecting on the verdict Friday, Bryan Truitt, Buncich's other defense attorney, said he was still trying to understand how the jury reached the verdict they did.

"They didn't attend the same trial I did," Truitt said.

Buncich's co-defendants in the case, Timothy Downs, former Lake County chief of police, and William "Willie" Szarmach, owner of CSA Towing in Lake Station, pleaded guilty and testified about the scheme to solicit bribes in the form of fundraiser tickets or contributions to political campaigns at the sheriff's trial.

Benson said the tapes show what happened when people didn't buy the tickets.

"You don't buy the tickets, you get screwed," Benson said.

Pressure to buy
Jurors heard from tow operators, some of whom testified they felt they had to buy the tickets to curry favors, while others said they never felt pressured to make the purchases.

"I knew if I wanted to stay on the tow list, I needed to pay," said Scott Jurgensen, owner of Samson Towing in Merrillville and the government's confidential informant in the case.

The entire investigation into towing began in 2012, when an FBI agent asked Jurgensen why he wasn't getting more towing business in Merrillville, where he formerly worked as a police officer.

Jurgensen told FBI agents his business suffered because he refused to bribe municipal officials to get towing territory.

An ensuing investigation led agents to a Merrillville official allegedly soliciting bribes, before looking at alleged bribes to a Schererville official and ultimately up to Buncich, prosecutors said.

Rogers asked the sheriff if any of the tow operators had to pay to get on the list when Buncich took office in 2011.

"Absolutely not," Buncich said.

Kay Williams, manager at Bennie's Towing in Gary, said an officer with the Sheriff's Department showed up at his tow yard selling tickets but never told him he needed to buy them.

"You had to purchase 10 tickets and that's it," Williams said.

Williams said he thought buying the tickets was necessary.

"Only way to stay in towing," Williams said.

Rogers asked Williams if he was ever told that if he didn't buy tickets, he wouldn't get tows.

"No," Williams said.

Downs, who said he sold the tickets to some of the tow operators, didn't demand they buy a specific number of tickets or form of payment, though. At the mention of whether to pay cash or check, a 2014 video played in court showed Downs waving his hands and shaking his head.

"You're not asking. You never ask. I get that," Jurgensen said in the video.

But Downs said he felt he had to sell the tickets and collect the money, even if the sheriff didn't explicitly say it.

"Honestly, if I didn't do this, I wouldn't have a job," Downs said.

Others gave a different version of events, testifying they never felt pressured to buy the tickets or make contributions to Buncich's campaign.

Mitch Mannino, owner of Alternative Towing in Merrillville, said he "never" felt like he had the power to alter his designated towing area by buying more tickets. Some years, he didn't buy any tickets to fundraisers, but he still remained on the sheriff's tow list, he said.

Moving territory
By buying tickets and making cash payments to the sheriff, Jurgensen and Szarmach said they hoped they'd get more towing business from the sheriff.

The government presented a series of video and audio recordings of meetings between Jurgensen and Szarmach with Downs starting in 2014, eventually leading to meetings between the two tow operators and Buncich in 2016.

When Szarmach and Jurgensen weren't satisfied with the business they were getting, they'd bring up these concerns at these meetings at area restaurants, recordings played in court showed.

"Get to the point of why we're here, Willie," Jurgensen said, chuckling, in a 2016 recording.

These led to Szarmach got business at Indiana University Northwest, while Jurgensen got towing work in New Chicago, the government said.

FBI Special Agent Nathan Holbrook said the sheriff used his political influence in New Chicago to get Jurgensen on the towing list by calling in a favor to New Chicago Councilwoman Susan Pelfrey, who is no longer in office.

Jurgensen wanted all of the New Chicago towing, which at the time he shared with another tow operator, and the sheriff made that happen.

Kevin Gaskin, of Tow Central, in Lake Station, said he shared tow operations in New Chicago for more than 20 years until roughly a year ago when Jurgensen took over the entire territory.

Buncich asked Pelfrey about tow operators working in New Chicago and she told him to call the New Chicago police chief to get that list.

Rogers asked if Buncich ever called the police chief.

"Never," Buncich said.

Benson asked why Buncich needed that information and if the sheriff was telling the jury he called to get information he already knew.

"That's exactly what I'm telling the jury," Buncich said.

New Chicago Chief James Richardson said he was never asked by the sheriff to take Tow Central off the list.

Nonetheless, Tow Central was gone and all of the New Chicago towing went to Jurgensen.

"You're the guy," Jurgensen said to Buncich in a recorded 2016 phone call.

Szarmach and Jurgensen also expressed interest in getting more towing in Gary. An agreement signed in 2014 gave the Sheriff's Department authority to enforce Gary city ordinances, including those that might require a vehicle being towed. Buncich assigned Szarmach and Jurgensen to tow for the ordinance enforcement, but Szarmach said it never panned out to be as lucrative as the two hoped.

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said the city had no input on which tow operators were used and did not retain any of the money towed by the vehicles by the county.

The defense argued, though, that when Buncich took office in 2011, he was busy dealing with Department of Justice mandates at the Lake County Jail and overseeing the department's budget, leaving everyday operations, including towing, up to Downs.

But Downs testified that Buncich never gave him the power to make changes to the tow list.

"Who controlled the towing?" Benson asked.

"The sheriff himself," Downs said.

Follow the money
Benson told the jury at the start of the trial that "you'll see it and you'll hear it" through recordings.

Jurors watched a July 2015 video Downs filmed of himself walking through the front doors of the sheriff's department, up to Buncich's office and handing the sheriff $7,500 in cash that Downs had collected from tow owners.

The government presented surveillance photos and videos of the restaurant meetings where Buncich accepted envelopes of cash from the front seat of Szarmach's tow truck and a meeting where Buncich put a payment from Jurgensen in his back pocket.

"Look at that. Does that look like a campaign contribution," Benson said. "That looks like it could be a hand-to-hand drug deal."

Rogers said witnesses testified that selling and buying campaign tickets is not a crime.

"In this instant, the government is trying to make it seem like it's illegal," Rogers said.

If those were in fact campaign donations, Gerard Hatagan, a special enforcement program revenue agent with the IRS, said they should have been on the annual reports. Hatagan said the two checks did show up on campaign finance reports for the Lake County Democratic Central Committee.

"The cash didn't make it, did it?" Benson asked.

"It did not," Hatagan said.

Near the end of the trial, attorneys examined Buncich's personal bank account with Benson showing the money Buncich received from tow operators, and the cash deposits into his personal and Buncich Boosters accounts.

The exhibit showed Buncich took $26,000 in cash from the towers between April 2014 to October 2016. In that same two-year period, $58,100 in cash was deposited in his personal account and $11,240 in the campaign account.

Benson harped on Buncich's practice of listing cash donations as anonymous on campaign reports, even if he knew who gave the money. Freeman-Wilson testified she never listed any donations as anonymous.

"I've never been questioned on that," Buncich said.

"You are now, sir," Benson said.

The defense asked Hatagan if he knew if Downs gave the money he collected to Buncich or the sheriff's political campaign, Buncich Boosters.

"No," Hatagan said.

Downs knew, though, if he didn't cooperate with the investigation and record himself giving the money to the sheriff, Buncich could say Downs kept the money, Benson said.

Given the sheriff's ethical obligations, Benson asked if he saw a problem with the people he supervised going to sell campaign fundraiser tickets to county vendors.

"It's no different than any other office in Lake County," Buncich said. "Every elected official in Lake County does it."

Truitt said the government's contention about fundraising practices is that officials are disqualified from taking donations from any contractor.

"This sends a message that if you want to run for public officials, you'd better self finance if you don't want to be on the business end of a federal indictment," Truitt said.