Democrat AG Hopeful Linda Pence to Lake County: Let's Stop Going After Corruption

Big post, but worth reading.

The likely Democrat candidate for attorney general, Linda Pence, was asked recently about her opinion of Steve Carter's fight against corruption in Lake County.

Democrat Linda Pence kicked off her campaign for state attorney general Thursday by criticizing the current GOP administration for reaching across state lines for help in the civil racketeering case against former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick.

Outgoing Attorney General Steve Carter last year went to the Chicago office of Perkins Coie to enlist Patrick Collins, a former federal prosecutor who helped convict corrupt Illinois Gov. George Ryan. Indiana thus far has paid Collins $317,000 to assist in the attempt to hold East Chicago leaders responsible for $25 million in public money diverted to a 1999 sidewalks-for-votes scheme.

"When I'm attorney general, I would review that file extensively," Pence said. "I'd review that case to see how much money the state has paid for lawyers to represent them. And I would also question why they needed lawyers out of state when we should have very capable lawyers in the attorney general's office itself."

Carter, who launched the racketeering suit four years ago, has said he hopes to see it go to trial before he leaves office in January. His office defended its hiring of Collins, who signed on at a discounted rate of $395 an hour.

"Patrick Collins came highly recommended by the foremost authority on the country's RICO laws, Notre Dame professor G. Robert Blakey," Staci Schneider, a Carter spokeswoman, said Thursday. "It is not unusual for outside counsel to be utilized for complex cases such as the White River fish kill, which has become of interest in these past few weeks."

The late Gov. Frank O'Bannon, a Democrat, hired Pence to lead a state civil suit against a company responsible for White River pollution that killed 5 million fish in 1999. Pence touted the more than $10 million settlement she helped secure on Thursday, saying, "I have punished polluters."

Pence also pledged to pursue public corruption but said she would need to examine the East Chicago case before pledging to continue that fight.

As Gary Welsh noted over at Advance Indiana, it's pathetic and hypocritical of Linda Pence to criticize Steve Carter and Greg Zoeller for seeking outside counsel when she personally was very handsomely paid for being an outside counsel during the O'Bannon administration.

The implication, given clearly above, that she wants to stop investigating corruption in Lake County is also a troubling one. Democrats, of course, don't like to investigate other Democrats.

And Linda Pence's claims of needing "to examine" the Pastrick "sidewalks-for-votes" case before agreeing to continue fighting corruption in Lake County ring false.

A few weeks ago, it was Republican AG hopeful Jon Costas that made noises about knowing nothing about the Pastrick case. It was Costas that indicated--unwilling to pledge to continue the case--that he would have to review the it before making any decisions.

It turned out that Costas was probably quite familiar with the case already; his small law firm (though not Costas personally) was working for several of the defendants in the case.

His claims of being unaware of the case rang somewhat false, and the blogs excoriated him for it.

There's nothing genuine about Linda Pence's assertions about needing to examine the Pastrick "sidewalks-for-votes" case. In fact, her assertions are so brazenly at odds with history and the facts as to defy any reasonable way to believe what she is saying.

Costas, at least, could say that he was not involved personally in the case. It was just his law firm.

Let's read again what she had to say:

Pence also pledged to pursue public corruption but said she would need to examine the East Chicago case before pledging to continue that fight.

She also criticized Steve Carter for hiring the very lawyer that wrote the RICO statute to get him to help pursue Pastrick's "sidewalks-for-votes" scheme.

Maybe she didn't like having to face him in the courtroom.

Linda Pence, herself (not her law firm, she herself), represented one of Pastricks co-defendants in the case (hat tip to Big Dawg Tales for this):

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA
SOUTH BEND DIVISION
APPEARANCE
STATE OF INDIANA )
and the CITY OF EAST CHICAGO )
)
Plaintiffs, )
)
v. ) CAUSE NO. 3:04-CV-0506-AS
)
ROBERT A. PASTERICK et al., )
)
Defendants. )
To the Clerk of this court and all parties of record:
I, the below-signed, state that pursuant to N.D. Ind. L.R. 83.5(g), I have read and will abide by the Local Rules of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, including Appendix B: Standards for Professional Conduct Within the Seventh Federal Judicial Circuit. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
Enter my appearance as counsel in this case for Rieth-Riley Construction Company, Inc.
Date: November 17, 2004 s/ Linda L. Pence
Linda L. Pence Atty. No. 13198-98
SOMMER BARNARD ATTORNEYS, PC
One Indiana Square, Suite 3500
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Telephone: 317/713-3500
Facsimile: 317/713-3699
Email: lpence@sommerbarnard.com

Linda Pence's client ended up settling out of court; paying some $625,000.

Linda Pence is complaining about the AG's office paying outside counsel for work on the case.

Her client's settlement, alone, paid for the legal fees of the outside counsel twice over.

Linda Pence said that she needed to examine the case before pledging to continue it.

She is already intimately familiar with the case itself.

From when she entered her appearance for Reith-Riley Construction, her clients, in November of 2004 until they settled out of court in early 2006 (around February), Linda Pence was an active litigator in the sidewalks-for-votes case for well over a year.

When it comes to the biggest case of Lake County corruption in history, Linda Pence's claims of a willingness to continue fighting corruption in the Region don't just ring false.

When you look at the facts and the record, she might as well not make any such claims at all.

Such an aversion to the truth would certainly not speak well of any candidate for attorney general of the state of Indiana.