01252007 - News Article - Cantrell DUI case set for change of plea - Hearing replaces request to dismiss the charges - ROBERT CANTRELL

Cantrell DUI case set for change of plea
Hearing replaces request to dismiss the charges
NWI Times
Jan 25, 2007
nwitimes.com/news/local/cantrell-dui-case-set-for-change-of-plea/article_bd5e1331-852f-535a-94c0-3b9bbf422432.html
VALPARAISO | Jennifer Cantrell, daughter of East Chicago political operative Robert Cantrell, is expected to plead guilty here next month to a charge stemming from a 2005 drunken driving arrest in Hammond.

The Feb. 7 change of plea hearing was scheduled Tuesday, shortly before another hearing was to be held on a request by Cantrell's attorney to drop the charge.

Defense attorney Mark Gruenhagen would only say an agreement has been negotiated and that it is favorable to his client.

Special prosecutor J. Edward Barce, of Newton County, did not respond to a request for comment on the case.

Cantrell was charged with two counts of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated following a minor traffic accident Nov. 15, 2005, near 169th Street and Kennedy Avenue. No one was injured, but the Hammond police officer's field test determined Cantrell had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.12, which exceeds the legal limit of 0.08.

The case was transferred across the county line to the courtroom of Porter Superior Judge Roger Bradford, where Gruenhagen planned to argue Tuesday the charge should be dismissed because more than a year has passed without a trial and there has been no legal justification for the delay.

Tuesday's hearing on the motion to dismiss was called off.

The case was last in the news this past summer when the special prosecutor announced he would not be filing felony obstruction charges against Robert Cantrell or his son, Hammond attorney John Cantrell, for allegedly interfering with Jennifer Cantrell's arrest.

Both men showed up at the arrest scene and John Cantrell reportedly objected periodically and requested a second portable breath test with a new mouthpiece. John Cantrell then told police his sister would not submit to the second portable breath test.

At the police station, Robert Cantrell was not permitted to see his daughter, but asked the booking officer if she could see her attorney.

Barce's report says the booking officer was unsure whether that was permitted and decided to allow it, permitting John and Jennifer Cantrell to talk for about one hour and 15 minutes, delaying the breath test just beyond the three-hour period required by law.