North Township trustee target of probe
Agents gather records, conduct interviews as part of corruption investigation
Post-Tribune (IN)
January 28, 2004
Just days after announcing a joint federal and state initiative to root out public corruption in Lake County, investigators appear to have a target.
Agents hit the North Township trustee offices on Monday and Tuesday, conducting interviews and taking records.
Sources said the agents -- from the FBI and Indiana State Police -- were looking for Trustee Greg Cvitkovich and employee Robert Cantrell.
Neither of them was in when investigators hit the East Chicago and Hammond offices.
Sources said questions focus on contracts the office has with Addiction and Family Care, the Hammond-based counseling agency publicly headed by Nancy Fromm, but long tied to Cantrell.
Cvitkovich did not return repeated phone calls, nor did the township attorney, Anthony DeBonis.
Cantrell could not be reached at the East Chicago home he votes from, nor at the Schererville home where -- he has stated on state forms -- he lives.
At a news conference last week, U.S. Attorney Joseph Van Bokkelen said a four-month state investigation into voter fraud and official misconduct was beginning to point toward people who are subjects of current federal investigations.
That state investigation, led by Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter and Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, was centered on absentee voter fraud that infiltrated both the East Chicago and Schererville primaries, but was beginning to turn toward operations and contracts within the Schererville Town Court.
Several people with ties to Schererville or its court operations and contracts have been subpoenaed to appear twice before the state grand jury, then were sent home when the grand jury didn't meet.
Then last week, Van Bokkelen announced he was partnering with the Carters to investigate many of the cases.
He specifically mentioned people and issues in East Chicago and Schererville were of interest to federal agents.
Cantrell, one of the highest paid employees on Cvitkovich's staff at $37,000, works as an "inter-agency liaison" at the trustee's East Chicago office.
Testimony given through a recount hearing revealed many employees don't know what Cantrell does in the office, except to report to Cvitkovich.
But others say Cantrell simply uses the office to make political maneuvers and to maintain relationships with poor, indigent residents of Hammond and East Chicago.
Recount testimony showed many of those caught in last year's East Chicago voter fraud scandal fit the indigent profile, as they were paid paltry sums to cast fraudulent votes.
Cantrell also was linked last year to paying indigent clients to enter East Chicago races.
Cantrell is the father of Lake Superior Court Judge Julie Cantrell and lawyer John Cantrell, former law partner to Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr.
Cantrell, longtime head of the East Chicago Republican Party, was ousted last year after newly installed county chairman John Curley said Cantrell was a Democrat in disguise. Curley said this situation weakened the Republican party so as to strengthen the city Democratic party, headed by Mayor Robert Pastrick.
Cvitkovich, meanwhile, also has been a loyal Pastrick ally.
He attended the mayor's $1,000 fund-raiser at Arlington Park race track last year and regularly donates to Pastrick.
Like Cantrell, he was implicated in the voter fraud scandal and shown to be a key conduit to fraudulent Pastrick votes.
In the recount case, he and Cantrell proudly said elections in East Chicago are like a celebration day for the poor, as there are many ways for them to make money.
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