Lake County Sheriff Buncich's towing bribery case heads to jurors
Post Tribune
August 23, 2017
chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-buncich-trial-day-13-st-0824-20170823-story.html
Federal prosecutors Wednesday told jurors that Lake County Sheriff John Buncich abused his elected position to solicit bribes from tow operators, but defense attorneys countered that it was the FBI that paid an informant to make a crime happen.
Attorneys for Buncich and the government made closing arguments in the sheriff's public corruption case Wednesday after 13 days, of testimony. Jurors began their deliberations shortly before 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and were scheduled to resume Thursday morning.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson said Buncich is heard on the recordings wanting to get the $85,000 back that he invested in his campaign and the evidence shows he sought to recover that money from tow operators.
"You now know that he was absolutely serious about getting that money back because you saw how he got it," Benson said.
Buncich took $7,500 in his office, $2,500 at one tow operator, $3,500 from another and lastly $7,500 in September, he said.
"All of it cash," Benson said.
Defense attorney Larry Rogers said the sheriff had a stellar reputation among law enforcement and the community until the government began its investigation.
"The government has systematically set out to paint the sheriff as a bad person," Rogers said.
The FBI directed and scripted the encounters with Buncich, deciding what to record, he said.
"They were in control," Rogers said.
The FBI's investigation into pay-to-play towing first began in 2012, when federal agents first came into contact with Scott Jurgensen, of Samson's Towing. After several years, the Lake County Sheriff's Department's towing operations came into the crosshairs when Downs approached Jurgensen about towing for the county.
Benson refuted the claim that the FBI set up the crime.
"That's a boogeyman they're throwing out there," Benson said.
Buncich, former Chief Timothy Downs and William Szarmach, of CSA Towing, were named in a multicount indictment in November alleging a towing scheme where the sheriff accepted bribes in the form of thousands of dollars in cash and donations to his campaign fund, Buncich Boosters, according to court records.
Downs pleaded guilty in December and resigned his position at the Lake County Sheriff's Department, according to court documents. Szarmach pleaded guilty in July, a week before the trial started.
Both agreed, as a condition of the agreements, they'd testify against Buncich.
Since the indictment, Buncich has maintained his innocence.
The defense team has said that the sheriff was simply conducting legitimate campaign business during the transactions with tow operators and in no way used that to influence how companies got on or stayed on the county list.
Rogers said witnesses testified that selling and buying campaign tickets is not a crime.
"In this instant, the government is trying to make it seem like it's illegal," Rogers said. But, he said, it only becomes a crime if there's a quid pro quo.
Rogers said an example of that is the meeting where Downs went into the sheriff's office to drop off $7,500 from three tow operators. Rogers asked if the sheriff knew he was doing something illegal, would he have kept the door open and spoken in his regular voice.
The reason the sheriff accepted the money is because there's nothing wrong with it, Rogers said.
Benson said the sheriff had such disregard that taking envelopes of cash in a restaurant parking lot or having money dropped in his office was nothing unusual.
Showing a July exchange of cash between Buncich and Jurgensen, where the sheriff reportedly took $2,500 cash, Benson asked the jury if that looked like legitimate campaign fundraising.
"Look at that. Does that look like a campaign contribution," Benson said. "That looks like it could be a hand-to-hand drug deal."
Rogers said the surveillance photos and recordings taken of Buncich and Jurgensen during a September do not show that he gave the tow operator fundraiser tickets, which the sheriff had reportedly done.
"I think the evidence shows he was dumb and cocky and arrogant," Benson said. "And that's why he's sitting over there today."
Benson said the tapes show what happened when people didn't buy the tickets.
"You don't buy the tickets, you get screwed," Benson said.
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