09272018 - News Article - Ex-Lake County sheriff is appealing public corruption conviction

Ex-Lake County sheriff is appealing public corruption conviction
Chicago Tribune
September 27, 2018
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-buncich-appeal-brief-st-0927-story.html

Former Lake County Sheriff John Buncich claimed that there was not enough evidence to convict him in his public corruption last year in his appeal filed late Wednesday.

Buncich, 72, filed his appeal in the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago after a jury found him guilty of bribery and wire fraud during a 14-day trial in August 2017.

Buncich accepted bribes from tow operators in the form of thousands of dollars in cash and donations to his campaign fund, Buncich Boosters, court records show.

Buncich was charged in November 2016 in a multicount indictment along with former Lake County Chief Timothy Downs and Williams Szarmach, of C.S.A. Towing.

Downs solicited and collected bribes and Szarmach paid the former sheriff money to secure and expand his towing territory. Both testified at Buncich’s trial and were each sentenced in July to two years of probation.

Buncich was sentenced in January to 15 years and eight months in prison. He is currently housed at MCFP Springfield, a secure federal medical center in Missouri, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

In his appeal, Buncich raised two primary issues: whether there was sufficient evidence at trial to convict him of five of his counts, and whether evidence of “criminal activity” involving his personal bank account should have been presented to the jury.

Kerry Connor, Buncich’s attorney for his appeal, wrote that there was “woefully insufficient evidence to support conviction” for five counts of wire fraud and honest services wire fraud, court records show.

“During deliberations, the jury sent a note to the trial court indicating it could not ‘find evidence relating’ to counts one through three of the superseding indictment,” the appeal states.

Those counts alleged that “Federal Reserve payroll funds transfer(s)” were made on May 5, 2014, Nov. 17, 2014, and Aug. 10, 2015, according to the appeal.

Connor said “it was not surprising,” though, that the jury couldn’t find evidence of this because it was “conspicuously absent” in the government’s case, the appeal states.

There were also two checks — made by the government’s confidential informant, Scott Jurgensen, of Samson's Towing in Merrillville — included in the charges that “were neither bribes nor kickbacks” but instead were “legitimate political donations written to and deposited in the appropriate organization accounts,” Connor said.

Jurgensen wrote a $2,000 check April 8, 2014, that was a “campaign contribution” to Buncich Boosters, according to the appeal.

“There is no evidence that any comment that Jurgensen might have made in reference to towing, however construed, was even shared with Mr. Buncich in reference to the April 8, 2014, donation,” the appeal states.

Jurgensen wrote another $2,000 check Oct. 21, 2014, for a “campaign contribution” to “Lake County Central Committee,” which Buncich was the chairman, according to the appeal.

“The check was, in fact, delivered to the Lake County Democratic Central Committee and deposited into the Committee’s account,” the appeals states.

Connor said, “There can be no ‘quid pro quo (planned or realized)’ when the payee has no knowledge of the payer’s corrupt intent.”

The government presented a summary of Buncich’s personal and campaign accounts arguing that Jurgensen and Szarmach made cash payments to Buncich in the amount of $26,000, the appeal states. While the campaign account showed deposits of $11,230, the appeal states there was $14,760 that “could not be accounted.”

In his appeal, Buncich questioned the inclusion of evidence of $58,100 cash deposits that went into his personal bank account, which allowed “the jury to infer the unexplained cash income indicated additional ‘criminal activity.’”

“The government had no viable evidence as to the source of the funds, whether they were legal or illegal, and whether the fact that they were present in the personal account had any relevance to the case at hand,” the appeal states.

An IRS agent testified “that it was his opinion that the money came from an illegal source because it was not entered on the defendant’s federal income tax returns as income and the evidence previously presented at trial,” according to the appeal.

On cross-examination, the agent “agreed the source does not have to be illegally obtained cash,” but “it could be another nontaxable source,” the appeal states.

“Logic dictates that when an IRS agent, who specializes in financial transactions, gives an opinion as to a defendant’s participation in criminal activity, the jury is likely to be significantly impacted by it,” Connor said.