02012019 - News Article - A common denominator in Northwest Indiana's pay-to-play towing investigations: 'Individual A

A common denominator in Northwest Indiana's pay-to-play towing investigations: 'Individual A'
Chicago Tribune
February 01, 2019
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-jurgensen-towing-investigation-st-0203-story.html

A Hobart tow operator wanted to do the right thing to get work for his company.

Scott Jurgensen, owner of Samson’s Towing, allegedly went to Portage Mayor James Snyder to get on the city’s tow list, but federal prosecutors say that deal went nowhere until he paid a bribe.

What allegedly happened in Portage wasn’t the only case of pay-to-play towing that Jurgensen helped expose.

Federal authorities, with Jurgensen’s cooperation, built public corruption cases against former Lake County Sheriff John Buncich, former Lake County Police Chief Timothy Downs, former Merrillville town councilman Tom Goralczyk and former Lake County Deputy Chief Dan Murchek. Also indicted with Buncich in November 2016 was tow operator William Szarmach of CSA Towing. John Cortina, of Kustom Auto Body in Portage, was indicted with Snyder.

Jurgensen testified Tuesday during Snyder’s public corruption trial about how he tried to get on the tow list, but until he partnered with Cortina and kicked in money to give to the mayor, the process languished.

But Jurgensen’s story mirrored his experiences to get on the Merrillville and Lake County tow lists.

When the FBI came looking for a towing invoice at Jurgensen’s yard in 2013, they asked the retired Merrillville police officer why he didn’t do more towing.

“Because I didn’t pay bribes,” Jurgensen said. That conversation began a years-long investigation into pay-to-play towing in Northwest Indiana.

At its early stages, the investigation started in Merrillville.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Benson asked how long Jurgensen tried to get on the Merrillville list.

“Years,” Jurgensen said.

That changed when “a politician took cars from me,” Jurgensen said. In November 2017, Goralczyk was indicted for allegedly taking a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee; a 2008 Ford Focus; four new camper tires; and free storage for a motorcycle from “Individual A” in return for a towing contract from Merrillville, according to court documents.

Goralczyk, who represented Ward 4, was seeking his third term on the Merrillville Town Council when he lost the seat to Marge Uzelac, a longtime activist in the town, in the May 2015 Democratic primary. He had served as council president twice during his two terms.

Jurgensen had tried for at least three years to get on the Merrillville list, according to testimony, but once the bribe was paid Jurgensen was towing within six months.

While Jurgensen worked in Merrillville, he began talking about tow operations with Downs, who also distributed political fundraising tickets and collected money for Buncich.

Buncich, Downs, and Szarmach, of C.S.A. Towing, were named in a multicount indictment in November 2016 alleging a towing scheme where the sheriff accepted bribes in the form of thousands of dollars in cash and donations to his campaign fund, Buncich Boosters, according to court records.

Buncich, 73, was convicted for using his office to solicit bribes from tow operators, according to court records, and later sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison. Buncich, who entered prison in January 2018, is in the process of appealing his conviction and sentence.

Jurgensen told a jury during Buncich’s trial that the bribes helped him get on the tow list but also led to the expansion of his towing territory. During Buncich’s trial, his defense team accused the FBI of buying itself a crime.

They argued that the former sheriff did nothing illegal and all the donations and fundraising tickets purchased were legitimate. Jurgensen said during the six and half years of cooperating with the FBI, he’s been paid roughly $140,000. He said $30,000 of that amount was for expenses.

While not directly tied to the bribery scheme that took down Buncich, Murchek was pulled into the federal investigation when he lied about campaign donations he received from Jurgensen.

Murchek was indicted in April for allegedly making false statements to the FBI, according to court documents, and reportedly lied to investigators during an interview about towing operations under Buncich when the former deputy chief was asked about campaign contributions he received from a tow operator.

During the fall of 2016, Murchek had announced he planned to run for sheriff during the 2018 primary, as Buncich had served two consecutive terms and was prohibited by term limits from running again.

On Sept. 23, 2016, Murchek met with “Person A,” who was recording the meeting in cooperation with the FBI, and discussed how to structure a campaign donation to avoid Indiana’s limitation on business contributions, according to court documents.

The indictment said “Person A” allegedly gave Murchek a $1,000 donation from his business, which was a towing firm that did work for the Sheriff’s Department, and a personal check for $500 from one of the business’ employees. “Person A” had given an employee $500, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the employee then wrote a check to Murchek’s campaign.

During a November 2016 interview with the FBI, agents asked Murchek about contributions from “Person A,” according to the indictment, but he denied structuring the donation to skirt Indiana campaign donation limits.