The question is whether Cantrell will opt to sing
Post-Tribune (IN)
June 13, 2008
I first saw Bobby Cantrell on the basketball court at East Chicago Washington High School in the Indiana Harbor section of East Chicago.
When they played the school song -- "Hail Noble Washington" -- the joint rocked like no place I had seen before.
Cantrell was the point guard, the guy who ran the team. He was good, very good.
When he graduated from the University of Michigan, he came back to the Harbor and got a job in the school system, eventually becoming one of a host of athletic directors who didn't do much for athletics but made sure their political benefactors stayed in power or kept getting elected.
And politics is where Cantrell found his niche.
He was very, very good at being very, very bad.
If you were running for office, you didn't necessarily need him supporting you. But you sure as heck didn't want him working against you.
Former East Chicago Mayor Bob Pastrick and former Sheriff Bob Stiglich were the two best politicians I've ever seen in Lake County.
And while they were in power, you knew Cantrell was somewhere in the background doing what he could to help or hurt.
It wasn't that Cantrell had so much power as it was that he was bright, very bright.
Cantrell had a way of convincing a politician that he needed him to get ahead or put out a fire. He bobbed and weaved and danced and usually came out on top.
That is, until last week when he was convicted in federal court on 11 counts of fraud -- involving some of the money he received for getting an addiction service locked into government offices.
Much of the money Cantrell made -- let's just say that he received -- came from Nancy Fromm's Addiction and Family Care business.
Just like Cantrell, Fromm and her business were pretty much shams -- selling services that government offices neither needed nor could afford.
While there's nothing wrong with receiving a finder's fee to secure a government contract for a business, you do have a problem when you fail to report the money -- one of the things Cantrell was convicted of doing.
When you have shameless people like Fromm and disgraced former Schererville Town Court Judge Deborah Riga testifying against you, there is almost a guilt by association.
Defense attorney Kevin Milner made that point when he asked the jury during closing arguments, "Wouldn't you like to hear from someone who isn't facing time in prison?"
Yeah, but as a former federal prosecutor once said, "You don't swim with swans in the sewer."
While Cantrell is another feather in the federal cap, you just know prosecutors are looking for more.
If Cantrell had been convicted on a count or two and been given a year or two in prison, chances are he would have quietly done his time. That's pretty much how it always has worked in East Chicago.
But he was convicted on all 11 counts and now faces the very real possibility of dying a lonely man in prison.
Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. said he doubts Cantrell will talk, even if he has the goods on someone.
"He's old school," McDermott said.
Yeah, but he's got kids and grandkids. That's plenty of reason to sing, even if it isn't "Hail Noble Washington."
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