12212006 - News Article - Another judge levels allegations against Robert Cantrell - EAST CHICAGO: Political operative denies trying to influence court to hire friend's firm - ROBERT CANTRELL

Another judge levels allegations against Robert Cantrell
EAST CHICAGO: Political operative denies trying to influence court to hire friend's firm
NWI Times
Dec 21, 2006
nwitimes.com/news/local/another-judge-levels-allegations-against-robert-cantrell/article_27804ff0-4b1d-5d51-a809-0acaa3d3d9da.html
EAST CHICAGO | Political operative Robert Cantrell is denying allegations from a second judge that he tried to cajole the court into hiring a counseling firm that was paying Cantrell fees.

In a sworn deposition, East Chicago Judge Sonya Morris said Cantrell threatened to run a challenger against her during the 2003 election unless she agreed to send all of her drug-addicted criminal defendants to treatment at a firm owned by a friend of Cantrell's.

The firm, Addiction and Family Care, is paid to treat clients for court-ordered addiction counseling. At the time, Cantrell was receiving a finder's fee from the firm for each person he could convince judges to refer to them.

Morris said in 2003, she received a message that Cantrell was threatening to put former city judge Eduardo Fontanez in the race against her unless she agreed to make Addiction and Family Care the court's sole counseling provider.

"If she got a message from somewhere, it wasn't coming from me. That's a fact," Cantrell said Wednesday. "I don't have to send messages. I'm a grown man. I can talk to people."

Morris stands by the allegations in her sworn testimony, said Jon Schmoll, a legal adviser for Morris who also works for the East Chicago court.

Nancy Fromm, owner of Addiction and Family Care, said she was not aware of whether Cantrell had made political threats against Morris.

"(Morris) didn't say that to me, and I didn't know (Cantrell) did it," Fromm said. "He didn't tell me if he did that."

Like many courts in Lake County, East Chicago's city court today includes Addiction and Family Care as one of several counseling providers on a list from which defendants can choose, Fromm said.

The firm no longer pays Cantrell for referrals, Fromm said.

Morris' comments echo accusations from Lake Superior Court Judge Jesse Villalpando, who said Cantrell tried to convince him to hire Addiction and Family Care for his court.

Fontanez, who did not return a call for comment Wednesday, ran against Villalpando this year and lost. Villalpando has said Fontanez was put into the race by Cantrell because of the judge's flat refusal to refer business to Addiction and Family Care.

Morris' comments about Cantrell became public as part of an unrelated civil lawsuit for wrongful termination that Cantrell's son, John, filed against Morris after she fired John Cantrell from the city court.

John Cantrell filed suit in U.S. District Court in Hammond saying Morris fired him for political retribution and hired one of her own campaign workers to replace him shortly after her election.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Rodovich declined to dismiss John Cantrell's case Friday, saying there was enough evidence for a jury to decide whether John Cantrell was the victim of political retribution.