07142018 - News Article - No charges for jail employee who was also imprisoned Lake County sheriff's 'significant other,' prosecutor says

No charges for jail employee who was also imprisoned Lake County sheriff's 'significant other,' prosecutor says
Chicago Tribune
July 14, 2018
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-back-prosecutor-decision-st-0714-story.html

The Lake County Prosecutor’s office decided Friday that charges would not be filed against a former jail contact employee from her testimony at former Sheriff John Buncich’s sentencing.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Department launched an internal investigation in January after Deborah Back, who was the director of nursing at Correctional Health Indiana and Buncich's “significant other,” was questioned in Hammond’s federal court about her use of the Spillman system to find information on a confidential source.

“Back’s improper use of the sheriff’s internal database system was directed by former Sheriff John Buncich and therefore criminal intent could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Prosecutor Bernard Carter said Friday in a news release.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson asked Deborah Back about the topic at Buncich’s sentencing hearing Jan. 16.

“Yes, I viewed it,” Back said, but denied doing it at the direction of the former sheriff.

“I don't routinely run people. Period,” she said. “I know that it was wrong.”

Benson said there's a warning in the Spillman that “unauthorized access is a violation of law.”

The FBI spoke with a sheriff's department employee who searched the records of the jail contract employee's use of Spillman and found several occasions where information outside the normal scope was sought.

During testimony, FBI special agent Nathan Holbrook said that the employee searched for two people tied to the Buncich trial: the confidential source and Benson.

Buncich was sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in prison after he was convicted in August of bribery and wire fraud, among other charges, for soliciting bribes from county tow operators in his public corruption trial.

Buncich was indicted in November 2016 in a towing scheme in which he accepted bribes in the form of thousands of dollars in cash and donations to his campaign fund, Buncich Boosters, according to court records.