Indictment says Riga ruled over crime ring from court
NWI Times
Aug 7, 2004
nwitimes.com/news/local/indictment-says-riga-ruled-over-crime-ring-from-court/article_2542b002-26ab-5e0b-aee3-1b64e21dd5f0.html
SCHERERVILLE -- A federal grand jury charged former Town Court Judge Deborah Riga with dispensing fraud and extortion rather than justice.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Van Bokkelen said Friday Riga shook down more than 1,175 minor offenders who appeared in her court, ordering them into counseling following their arrests on traffic, substance abuse and domestic problems.
"She deprived the town of honest services," Van Bokkelen said.
A task force of state police and FBI agents collected evidence they said will prove Riga pocketed more than $30,000 in fees she ordered offenders to pay to a counseling service she owned in the name of a family friend -- in violation of state law and the canons of judicial ethics.
A 20-page indictment alleges Riga also extorted money from a legitimate counseling service working for the town court, cheated taxpayers out of rent payments to the town, used public employees to help collect her illegal profits and cheated the state out of revenue she diverted to the town treasury to improve her image.
Riga faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each of seven fraud counts and 20 years on a racketeering count. The government also seeks forfeiture of all money illegally diverted.
Riga, 47, who moved to Sarasota, Fla., following her defeat in the vote fraud-tainted 2003 Democratic primary, couldn't be reached Friday for comment. U.S. District Court Magistrate Andrew Rodovich issued a warrant Friday for her arrest.
She graduated from Valparaiso University's Law School and became a lawyer in 1993. She served as a deputy county prosecutor, a public defender and a law professor at Indiana University Northwest.
She was elected in 1999 to preside over the fourth busiest municipal court in Lake County and a rich source of revenue for the town and state from the fines and fees offenders pay the court.
She opened a driving school and a counseling program called Crossroads for young offenders who wanted to avoid unwanted convictions, points on their driving record or other punishments by participating in the programs and paying fees of up to $139 per person.
She said the programs were designed to direct offenders to a more law-abiding life. They were successfully run at first by a series of private businesses, including Nancy Fromm's Addiction and Family Care of Hammond. They paid the town hundreds of dollars in rent to have their meetings in town facilities.
The indictment alleges Riga began muscling the legitimate businesses out in October 2001 and assumed control of the programs to steal their revenue.
It alleges she and her father, Anthony "Tony" Riga concealed the takeover by turning them over to a business entity she created, Diversified Educational Service. It alleges she paid Winslow "Jake" Stephic, a friend of her father, $3,800 to open a bank account under that company name.
Neither man is charged with any wrongdoing. Neither could be reached Friday for comment.
Prosecutors allege she ordered about 1,000 defendants to pay $29,600 in fees to her traffic school and another 175 families to pay $14,320 to Crossroads between November 2001 and December 2003. It alleges she withdrew most of that from the corporate account for her living expenses and re-election campaign last year.
She allegedly maximized her illicit profits by stopping thousands of dollars in rent to the town and using town employees to operate the program at taxpayer expense.
The indictment alleges Riga kept Fromm's counseling firm working for the court, but extorted $2,000 from Fromm with the threat of canceling her lucrative contract to counsel town defendants. Fromm said she paid the money in checks to Riga's father, who was listed as a consultant, but in fact did nothing for Fromm.
Fromm couldn't be reached Friday for comment. A source close to her said Fromm is a cooperating witness for the government and her firm has been cleared of wrongdoing in the case.
The indictment alleges Riga illegally altered traffic ticket offenses to make her court appear to generate more revenue for the town. It alleges she changed tickets written for offenses on state highways, where fines were paid to the state, to violations on town roads, where fines stayed in town.
Riga's scheme unraveled last year after Kenneth Anderson challenged her in the spring Democratic primary. She initially won that election, but Anderson demanded a recount. His investigators found enough fraudulently cast absentee ballots to have him declared the winner.
Anderson began cooperating with the task force in January upon taking office. He said he has closed down the illegal operations.
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