Bob Cantrell's son takes stand for the prosecution
Post-Tribune (IN)
May 29, 2008
John Cantrell took the witness stand Wednesday to testify for the prosecution in the trial against his father, Lake County political insider Robert Cantrell.
Both father and son seemed uncomfortable during the more than two hours Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Ault questioned the younger Cantrell. As the young lawyer carefully parsed his answers, he clearly appeared to be a reluctant witness despite an immunity deal with prosecutors.
And Robert, reputed for his love of bareknuckle politicking, fidgeted as Ault pointed out discrepancies -- most of them apparently minor misstatements about his dates of employment-- between his son's answers on the stand and previous statements to the grand jury.
The younger Cantrell's payouts from Addiction & Family Care (AFC) -- a counseling firm his father helped win lucrative contracts with more than a dozen government agencies -- form much of 11-count indictment against Robert Cantrell.
Prosecutors allege payments the company made to John Cantrell were illegal kickbacks that went directly to his father, and that Cantrell had John and his daughter, Jennifer, included on the AFC group insurance plan while the pair were both full-time law students.
In his opening statement, Cantrell attorney Kevin Milner described the payouts as fees paid to John Cantrell, who first offered an idea for a way his father could profit from his decades of travel in Lake County political circles. While working in the courts before he started law school in 2000, John Cantrell suggested his father charge fees to lobby local courts to hire AFC.
The arrangement saw AFC get $1.3 million, with nearly half that sum going to the Cantrells, prosecutors allege. From 2000 to 2003, the younger Cantrell received as much as $12,000 a year from AFC for consulting work, as well as health insurance, though he admitted he never worked directly for the company.
"Your father is a smart man?" Ault asked. "Do you think that your conversation was the first time that he had thought to make money from his connections?"
John Cantrell also seemed uncertain about whether he had signed checks and insurance forms from AFC, noting his signature had changed since law school. In his opening statements, Milner said a handwriting expert would testify, and said AFC owner Nancy Fromm had filled out fraudulent insurance paperwork for her relatives as well.
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