Every so often rumors of indictments are visited upon the political establishment in East Chicago, which creates a momentary blip of enthusiasm and confusion. These rumors often whip the spirits of the opposition tribe into a frenzy that last - oh, about a week or so - or until it becomes obvious no indictments are coming. This week there is a new round of rumors that the Mayor of East Chicago and 8 - 10 of his closest cronies and petty thieves will be indicted on Friday.

Unlike the rumors of the past these seem to some velocity based on grand jury subpoenas. The best I can determine is that several department heads were issued subpoenas including; Al Velez, Charlie Pecurer, Ernie Jones, and Kenny Monroe. The list also includes a couple of employees, North Township Assessor John Matonovich and maybe Councilperson’s, Christine Vasquez, and Adrian Santos. We knew something was up when Camacho went into hiding in Puerto Rico. But of course everyone’s hopes are getting ahead of themselves, including mine. 

What surprises me about these rumors is that there are no surprises in who was named. Generally an investigation will produce many surprises - but none here. Accounts disclose petty self-interested abuses, not an orchestrated abuse of power and public policy. We will just have to wait and see. It kind of reminds me of how the numbers from the last primary seemed too conscious to be real (those numbers too conveniently and consistently told a story from a specific point of view, not a general population). 

just wondering - ARE THEY GOING TO BROADCAST THIS ON THE GOVERNMENT CHANNEL?

I have to ask - are these public servants products the the East Chicago public school system as those who were convicted under Pasterick? If so, does anyone have a tally of how many E.C. grads have been convicted for public corruption?  

This from Dan Lowery quoted in the Times

“What you have is the ethics of the Mafia, in effect,” Lowery said. “It’s taking care of family. That is an ethic. It’s just not an ethic that’s legal.”

I have to admit, I cannot contain my glee. I have no pity for these criminals. They behaved as a criminal enterprise the moment they came into office and they never stopped. Pabey always boosted that Gov. Mitch Daniels had his back giving him immunity from prosecution. This made it nearly impossible for those of us who tried to move this city in a positive direction to do so. I don’t know how culpable Mitch Daniels and the Feds are in allowing this criminal enterprise to continue this long, but I do know Pabey would boost of Daniel’s taking care of him. I can’t say, but it seems to me that Daniels must have gotten wind of Pabey’s activities and boosts and decided he needed to cut ties with Pabey once the BP deal went through.

In exchange for protection the city paid republican attorney’s >$5 million in Pabey’s first year in office. And the Feds responded to evidence of wrong doing in the Pabey administration by bringing the information to Pabey and asking him to stop. This arrangement provided a perfect environment for Pabey’s cronies to operate with impunity.

When you look at all the damage that is allowed to occur here in East Chicago, you have to look upstream at the cause of these tragedies, and I look toward Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Steve Carter - Indiana AG, Todd Rokita - Indiana Sec of State, and the Federal Prosecutors office.

Yesterday I received several phone calls and was visited by a councilmen. There is a lot of scrambling going on. Everyone is looking at state statues on what will happen in the event the Mayor is indicted, and who would become the next Mayor and what the procedures precribe. People are afraid Pabey will appoint a deputy Mayor to fill his place, and allow his criminal enterprise to maintain control. they are also afraid Council President Medina will fill his place. 

In Short, the Campaign for Mayor has just begun.

Questions:

• How far will the indictments go?
• Does it extend to Governor Daniel’s office for initially providing cover?And does it include his involvement in striking a deal with the Pabey administration on behalf of BP? And what were the terms of that deal?
• Will prosecutors risk going after those who REALLY benefitted from Pabey’s Corruption? That is will they follow the money? (What justifies this criminal enterprise providing BP with $165 million tax abatement without a legally required public hearing - while the only benefit to local home owners is the taking of the little value left in their homes) - this is a big chunk of money, to ignore it is to a dereliction of duty.
• If these rumors bare-themselves-out, why do I know about them? I don’t care so much who is leaking this information but I want to know who has the access to these prosecutors and why do they have access?  

Thomas Local