The federal public corruption trial of the former head of the City of Indianapolis' Indy Land Bank, Reggie Walton, has ended with a jury finding Walton guilty of 8 of 9 wire fraud and bribery charges against him according to the IBJ. A co-defendant, David Johnson, was found guilty of 5 of 6 wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges. Three other co-defendants pled guilty prior to trial, including John Hawkins, a former assistant to Mayor Greg Ballard.
"It's a strong message that public servants need to serve the public and not themselves," said acting U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler, who applauded the work of a joint public corruption task force with the FBI and Indiana State Police. The IBJ report indicated federal prosecutors are likely to ask for prison sentences of up to 10 years each for Walton and Johnson.
The media coverage of this story has been pathetic with the exception of the IBJ. Why the Indianapolis news media has been so intent on covering up the widespread corruption in the Ballard administration is beyond me. If we were in any other state in America, there would have been daily news stories and federal prosecutors would have indicted dozens, including the mayor, not the low-hanging fruit handed to the feds in exchange for not pursuing charges against much bigger fish.
Only in Indianapolis would you see a deal made between the two major political parties whereby a corrupt Republican incumbent mayor would not seek re-election and his party would agree to throw the election to the opposing party's candidate, who just happened to be the federal prosecutor charged with bringing the public corruption charges that were swept under the rug. Why bother voting in this year's election. The two parties have already rigged the outcome before it even started? The only winners are the same corrupt political insiders who operate our city government as their personal cash cow.
1 comment:
This is the truth: The day I read about the creation of The Indy Lank Bank the very first thing I remember thinking was that this "land bank" was a scheme created to convert land from others to the profit and gain of those involved with the "land bank". Honest to Pete that's exactly what I thought. But then again, I've watched the Democrats and Republicans financially rape this town for years while the uninformed taxpayers cheered their debauchment every step of the way.
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