Riga seeks delay in corruption trial
GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION: Prosecution: Case must move ahead
NWI Times
Mar 17, 2006
nwitimes.com/news/local/riga-seeks-delay-in-corruption-trial/article_6d304f50-82c6-5f8d-9189-69aa1e288343.html
HAMMOND | A former Schererville judge facing public corruption charges is hoping to delay her trial, set to begin April 3, because her daughter is ill.
But the U.S. attorney's office wants the trial to start on schedule because an FBI agent who would be a star witness might be sent to Iraq with the U.S. Army.
U.S. District Court Judge Philip P. Simon will review medical documents provided by Deborah Riga regarding her daughter's condition before deciding if a new trial date is needed.
Riga is pleading not guilty to charges she shook down more than 1,175 minor offenders who appeared before her, ordering them to undergo counseling at a service she owned in the name of a family friend.
Federal prosecutors say they will prove Riga pocketed more than $30,000 in fees the offenders were required to pay for the services.
Riga, who is free on bond and living in Sarasota, Fla., already has received two previous trial delays since her Aug. 5, 2004, indictment. Her defense team needed more time to study thousands of documents the government might use against Riga.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Orest Szewciw has argued that delaying the trial would be a hardship on the prosecution because two FBI agents who are crucial to proving the case would be unavailable.
He said FBI Special Agent Julie Neiger is being reassigned from here to Washington D.C. next month, and FBI Special Agent Meagan Sands must report for duty as a member of the U.S. Army's Individual Ready Reserve being deployed to Iraq.
Sands initially was scheduled to leave last month, but participated in Wednesday's court hearing. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney said it is unclear when the deployment might take place.
Szewciw said in January that Sands had asked the military for an exemption, but there had been no response at that time.
Riga faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each of seven fraud counts and 20 years in prison on a racketeering count. The government also seeks forfeiture of all money illegally diverted.
Voters elected her judge in 1999 to preside over one of the county's busiest municipal courts.
A 20-page indictment alleges Riga extorted money from a legitimate counseling service working for the court, cheated taxpayers out of rent 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.
Schererville lawyer Kenneth Anderson replaced her after Riga's re-election was nullified following a challenge that revealed vote fraud.
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