Someone's on the federal hook
MARK KIESLING
NWI Times
Mar 21, 2006
nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mark-kiesling/someone-s-on-the-federal-hook/article_782b5ed5-5fcd-552b-b204-910bca282c1d.html
For whom is the indictment of Nancy Fromm bad news?
It's really not bad news for Fromm, owner of a lucrative and politically connected counseling service, Addiction and Family Counseling of Hammond.
She has only been indicted on an obstruction of justice charge, which means she wasn't giving up something federal investigators wanted on their way somewhere else.
For the feds to get what they want, they needed some leverage -- hence the indictment.
But where is the investigation going? Fromm's network is so connected to so many people that her Monday indictment has people spinning scenarios that sound like a combination of the court of Czar Nicholas II, the Byzantine empire and dinner with the Borgias.
Political operative Bob Cantrell is a consultant to the service, which is or has been used by a number of judges, Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez and former North Township Trustee Greg Cvitkovich. Cantrell also works for North Township's East Chicago office, and his daughter Julie is one of the judges who refers convicted drug and alcohol abusers to the service.
So does U.S. Attorney Joe Van Bokkelen have his sights set on one or both of the Cantrells? Other judges also have used the service, described by Van Bokkelen as a "pay to play" operation that depended on kickback payments to vendors to thrive.
County commissioners recently, quietly did not renew the service's contract with the Lake County Jail, where the service was paid $84,000 annually to counsel prisoners.
And Frank Mrvan, the new North Township trustee who replaced the indicted Cvitkovich, has quashed the township's contract, although he continues to employ Bob Cantrell. Former Schererville Town Court Judge Deb Riga, who is also under indictment, likewise used the service.
Bob Cantrell was an adviser to successful politicians such as Treasurer John Petalas, Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. and County Clerk Tom Philpot, who employs Cantrell's son John as his child support division lawyer, even though child support responsibility has been transferred to the state.
John Cantrell also was McDermott's law partner before McDermott ran for mayor. He's been employed in Hammond City Court by Judge Jeff Harkin, who also uses the service.
There are so many potential clients out there that it's entirely possible one lawyer could end up having to decide which defendant or target to represent.
Obviously, not everyone mentioned above is facing the threat of indictment. But because politics is followed in Lake County as a spectator sport, speculation is running rampant.
Everyone knows Nancy Fromm isn't the target, not merely with an obstruction of justice charge facing her. She's just the conduit, the line on which the bigger fish can be hooked.
We know Van Bokkelen's got the rod and reel in his hands.
Who's got the hook in his mouth?
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