Intricate political web unravels at Cantrell trial
Post-Tribune (IN)
May 31, 2008
Jurors in the trial of political kingmaker Robert Cantrell on Friday got a crash course on how to win friends and influence government contracting Friday, the fourth day of the corruption trial of the legendary political fixer.
In her second day on the witness stand, prosecution witness Nancy Fromm laid out the web of political connections that were the lifeblood of her counseling service, with Cantrell brokering dozens of contracts for her Addiction & Family Care.
Cantrell's handwritten notes were quickly added to contracts with his close friends, North Township Trustee's office, the East Chicago City Court and City Hall. He negotiated fees and smoothed over political rifts, then kept nearly half the company's fees and split another $300,000 in off-the-books cash with Fromm over six years.
"The truth is, I never really looked at these (contracts)," Fromm told Assistant U.S. Attorney Orest Szewciw. "I signed them and trusted Mr. Cantrell to do the negotiating."
At Cantrell's advice, Fromm said, she burned some records and hid others from the FBI, and lied to State Police investigators to protect their booming business when a contract with indicted Schererville Town Judge Deborah Riga came under scrutiny. Initially, she tried to cover up for Cantrell when his full-time employer, North Township Trustee Greg Cvitkovich, was brought up on federal charges.
Fromm would eventually fail her political godfather, first by not taking his advice and destroying other incriminating records, and then by agreeing to testify against him after federal prosecutors charged her with obstruction of justice and tax fraud.
Thanks to the many off-the-books transactions and missing records, Fromm's statements are prosecutors' best evidence in the case against Cantrell, who faces an 11-count indictment alleging he violated state ethics laws by not disclosing the thousands he earned from AFC while he was also on the township payroll.
Defense attorney Kevin Milner painted Fromm as willing to lie not just to investigators, but to her business partner. Fromm, who faces as long as 13 years in prison, had no records to show if Cantrell received cash, and she admitted altering business records so that she would have to share less of her take with Cantrell.
Fromm testified that at Cantrell's request, she paid his son, John, for a no-show consulting job and falsified insurance forms to put John and Cantrell's daughter, Jennifer, on AFC's group insurance plan.
But, Milner pointed out, Cantrell also insisted he protect his daughter Julie, a Lake County judge, by not accepting any share of the nearly $600,000 AFC collected for counseling services for defendants in her court.
"Didn't you think it was odd he went to such lengths to protect his daughter Julie and hung his son John out to dry?" Milner asked.
The trial, scheduled to take as long as three weeks, will resume Monday with Fromm still on the stand.
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