Inactions speak louder than words
Why wasn't John Cantrell indicted?
NWI Times
May 30, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mark-kiesling/inactions-speak-louder-than-words/article_bf6b5618-fd25-5cda-b505-192d69fe5426.html
Why wasn't John Cantrell indicted?
The public corruption trial of his father, longtime Lake County political fixer Bob Cantrell, opened in federal court Wednesday.
And given John Cantrell's testimony as a government witness who has been granted immunity, it is to me a logical and obvious question, and one to which we probably never will get an official answer.
John, a lawyer, said on the stand he was paid by Addiction and Family Care Inc., a Hammond counseling service that has worked for, among others, the Lake County Jail. Defendants have been referred there by, among others, Lake Superior Court Judge Julie Cantrell, John's sister and Bob's daughter.
But under oath, John admitted he never did any real work for the counseling service, and was paid as a "consultant," which in many cases is Lake County shorthand for a no-show paycheck.
John and sister Jennifer Cantrell also got health insurance from AFC, which is owned by political insider Nancy Fromm, who pleaded guilty in March 2007 to hiding income and underreporting business profits and agreed to testify against Bob Cantrell.
Bob Cantrell worked for Fromm as a "finder," which meant he could drum up business for her through his connections with people like his daughter Julie and Sheriff Roy Dominguez, whose wife works in Julie Cantrell's court.
This trial is laying bare Lake County's "pay to play" game that determines who gets hired, promoted, elected or given outside contracts and by which tax dollars are steered to the connected few.
OK so far. Fromm has been indicted and pleaded guilty. Bob Cantrell has been indicted and could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
But neither John nor sister Jen, both of whom were beneficiaries of the influence of their father and the forced largesse of Fromm, have been indicted, although they were named as Persons A and B in Bob Cantrell's indictment as having improperly received health benefits.
The "why" would have been self-evident if Bob had pleaded guilty to spare his kids indictments. But he didn't.
So I'm left to guess that John was offered immunity to testify against his father as a non-hostile witness, and that a deal for Jen was thrown in as part of the no-indictment agreement.
All that is purely my speculation, but here's a fact you can take to the bank: The government doesn't do favors for people like the Cantrells without a good reason.
Will we ever know why? Don't bet on it.
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