Pence Still Stuck on Pastrick Ties

From the NWI Times:

The two candidates for Indiana attorney general are sparring over the role a public construction contractor could play in the upcoming racketeering trial against former East Chicago city officials.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Greg Zoeller, whose office is prosecuting the civil case, said employees of the contractor will play a “critical” role in the trial — which could mean company officials probably will want their attorney, Linda Pence, at their side during the case.

Pence is the Democratic candidate for attorney general, and Zoeller is the Republican candidate. The election is in November, and a trial date for the case has not yet been set.

“If you’ve been involved in a specific case … you can’t represent both sides,” Zoeller said.

(Read more below the fold)

Pence has said she will not commit to going forward with the racketeering case against former East Chicago Democratic Mayor Robert Pastrick’s administration until she has a chance to review the files and judge the strength of the evidence.

Zoeller has said the office is mandated to pursue the case because state law says the office “shall” try to recoup money that turns up misappropriated in state audits — as more than $24 million was under the Pastrick administration.

The civil lawsuit is the largest-ever collection effort in the history of the attorney general’s office.

The lawsuit centers on hoards of publicly financed concrete and tree-trimming work that Pastrick-era officials used to curry favor with voters ahead of the 1999 mayoral primary election. More than a dozen people eventually went to prison in the scheme in a separate case.

Zoeller said contractor Rieth-Riley is bound to play a “critical” role in the trial, because city officials tried to cover up their actions after the fact using an old Rieth-Riley contract and cooperation from company officials.

Rieth-Riley originally was named as a defendant in the case, but the company paid $625,000 to settle the claims and cooperate against the remaining defendants.

A copy of the settlement obtained by The Times shows that Pence signed the agreement as counsel for Rieth-Riley.

For those that recall, the settlement text was first posted on this blog (the full text is available for viewing at the bottom of that post).

Again, Pence hardly needs to review the files, given how extensively she has been involved in the case as the counsel for one of its co-defendants.

Heck, she even claimed that she could not talk about the case because of attorney-client privilege, despite the settlement text (viewable at the above link) clearly showing that her client had waived it as a part of its agreement with the office of the attorney general.

Honesty, integrity, and transparency are important qualities to have in an attorney general.

Again and again, by misleading Hoosier voters and by refusing to be forthright about her involvement in the Pastrick case, Linda Pence indicates unacceptable deficiency in these critical elements.