Four named in vote fraud probe
East Chicago charges are just the beginning in absentee ballot investigation, prosecutors say
NWI Times
Nov 19, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/four-named-in-vote-fraud-probe/article_a4c657c8-ce3b-5667-9803-4381cce6cf11.html
CROWN POINT -- Four people have been charged as part of a special Lake County grand jury investigation into allegations of widespread voter fraud, county Prosecutor Bernard Carter announced Tuesday.
The allegations range from obstruction of justice to illegal voting, and are just the start of the indictments, said Carter and Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter, who have been overseeing the grand jury since it was empaneled Aug. 22 to investigate the May primary.
In May, East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick's Democratic primary victory was challenged by George Pabey, who lost the election by 278 votes out of 10,177 cast in a three-way race in which former City Judge Lonnie Randolph also ran.
Among the more serious violations alleged are those against Allen "Twig" Simmons, 36, of 4928 Jonquil Lane, East Chicago, who supposedly paid visits to the homes of people subpoenaed to testify at the Pabey challenge, warning them against incriminating him.
A woman told Indiana State Police investigator Mark Day that she got a subpoena to appear at the challenge, but before she testified, Simmons came to her home and told her, "Don't say anything. Don't say nothing, Don't say, don't say I filled out your ballot."
He allegedly told the woman and her boyfriend he would "whoop their butts" if they appeared and testified, which they nevertheless did.
Other similar stories were told by people who said they had been solicited by Simmons to sign absentee ballots and allow him to fill them out.
Simmons is charged with three counts of obstruction of justice and six counts related to fraudulent application, showing, examination, receipt or delivery of ballots.
Absentee ballots held the key to the Pastrick victory. Although he finished the race 199 votes behind Pabey at the polls, Pastrick's margin of victory in the absentee balloting was 477 votes, enough to push him to victory by 278 votes.
In his Aug. 13 ruling, Special Judge Steven King of LaPorte County found numerous examples of fraud, threats and connivance on the part of numerous Pastrick workers, and in the end threw out 155 votes -- few enough to allow Pastrick to win the election by 123 votes.
One of those allegedly solicited to vote absentee -- even though he did not plan to be out of town -- was Jimmy Lee Franklin, 50, of 4753 Alexander Ave., East Chicago.
Franklin was named during the Pabey challenge as having signed a ballot at the request of Ashley Dunlap, from whom Franklin rents his apartment, and having turned them over to Dunlap, who owns a business that has contracts with the city of East Chicago.
When state police interviewed Franklin, said Day, his attitude changed when told he would have to testify before the special grand jury. "He told (me) he would not appear," Day said, "and (I) explained that his intentional failure to comply with the subpoena could result in his prosecution."
Franklin did not appear when subpoenaed on Nov. 6, and subsequently was charged.
The final charges announced Tuesday were the indictments of Robert Croy, 73, and his wife, Dolores Croy, 67, both of 2620 W. 39th Ave., Hobart, for allegedly voting in East Chicago's precinct 5-4 in the May election.
The allegations are that Croy, a parks department employee, and his wife used the address of Charlie Tuna's Tap, 3802 Parrish Ave., as their home address for voting purposes.
Charlie "Tuna" Pacurar, who owned the bar until 1976 when he was elected city clerk and turned it over to his brother, said Tuesday he does not recall the couple ever having lived at the bar -- which has apartments above it -- although he said he knows the couple.
Dolores Croy once worked at Charlie Tuna's. Pacurar, who helped Stephen Stiglich run his 2000 campaign for mayor against Pastrick, also worked on the Pabey campaign this year.
The Pacurar family no longer owns Charlie Tuna's, having sold it after the 1995 death of Charlie's brother, Daniel, in 1995.
Bernard Carter declined to say how high he believes the probe will reach. "A number of individuals have been targeted," he said, although he declined to name individuals targeted or give a number of targets.
He said although the focus of Tuesday's charges is East Chicago, the investigation into similar voting irregularities in the Schererville judge's race is very much alive.
In that primary contest, incumbent Deborah Riga beat challenger Kenneth Anderson by 11 votes, but her nomination was reversed last month by a recount judge who declared Anderson the winner after disqualifying 23 absentee ballots in her name.
The grand jury also focused on allegations revolving around absentee ballots linked to Bosko "Bob" Grkinich, a Schererville businessman and Democratic committeeman of Schererville's heavily Serbian 10th Precinct.
Neither Bernard Carter nor Steve Carter would confirm or deny that Grkinich received a letter informing him that he is a target of the grand jury.
Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita praised the investigation Tuesday.
"Today's actions are a good first step in our effort to give government back to the people of Lake County. People who have followed these cases know that these charges and indictments are the tip of the voter fraud iceberg in Lake County," Rokita said.
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