Imagine a prosecutor accepting an award named after a convicted felon.
Imagine a prosecutor accepting that award from yet another convicted felon.
You don’t have to imagine, Lake County — it happened.
And Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter hasn’t commented about receiving “the highest recognition” from the Katie Hall Educational Foundation, which public records show:
Has filed no detailed financial documents in a decade
Lists no names of those who’ve given them thousands of dollars
Has no board of directors
Lists only Katie Hall’s widower, John, and daughter, self-appointed organization CEO/convicted felon Junifer Hall, as trustees.
Next month marks 23 years since former Gary City Clerk Katie Hall and her daughter, former Deputy Clerk Junifer Hall, were indicted for fraud, extortion, ghost payrolling schemes with daughter Jacqueline Hall, and shaking down low-paid city employees for thousands of dollars in campaign donations. After accusing the media of racism, protesting newspaper offices and angrily denying any wrongdoing, the Halls finally admitted it was all true, pleading guilty to mail fraud charges.
Junifer Hall swore under oath in a guilty plea that for more than a decade, she “made improper demands for money … and took adverse action against some employees who failed,” while her mother Katie swore that she knew employees “were being improperly pressured” to give her campaign money, yet “she took no steps to stop any of this improper activity.”
Employees said rather than lose their jobs, they sold their home appliances and skipped rent when they couldn’t afford to meet the constant financial demands. After the Halls admitted the charges were true, both resigned in shame — Katie serving probation and Junifer going to federal prison for 16 months.
“We got them to acknowledge what they did was a crime,” then-U.S. Attorney/now U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen said after they admitted their guilt.
Van Bokkelen led a strong team, including a seasoned FBI public corruption unit based in Merrillville, and they worked tirelessly to secure those convictions.
So it’s odd that Carter would effectively thumb his nose at Van Bokkelen and those who pursued justice for those victims. It’s something that has led to confusion, shock and embarrassment from those who work with him and those who’ve cast votes for him for the last 30 years.
Because he’s thumbing his nose at the victims of the Halls, too.
“We were the ones who suffered,” one victim testified.
After the Halls pleaded guilty, those victims filed a lawsuit, hoping to get just some of their improperly extorted money back. The Halls shamelessly countered, suing the City of Gary, claiming it was city government’s fault they did all they did. A federal judge swiftly tossed their lawsuit and ordered them to reimburse taxpayers for even having to defend that frivolous complaint.
Today, the Katie Hall Educational Foundation charges $100 a ticket for an awards luncheon, honoring those who embody all that Katie Hall represented.
Records from ProPublica show the organization received more than $4,000 in undescribed donations, while spending double that amount, all while carrying almost $10,000 in liabilities … in 2014 — the last year the charity reported detailed financial information to the federal government. Additional information on the organization has been hard to come by as it is eligible to file the 990N e-postcard since its receipts are less than $50,000 annually.
Since the charity was formed in 2012, there have been attempts to gloss over the crimes and change the narrative about Katie Hall’s past — even edits made to soften her Wikipedia page. But as we are so often reminded, we should never forget our history.
While Katie Hall is remembered in part for her brief time in Congress, where she introduced a bill to create the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, she is also remembered for overseeing a public corruption scheme led by her daughter, which defied every tenet Dr. King stood for.
That is why, as Junifer Hall looks to honor other local elected officials and seeks more donations and grants to honor her mother, it’s important that we remember their victims.
That is, after all, what a prosecutor would ask us to do.
Steve Patterson was an investigative reporter with the Post-Tribune, whose stories on Katie and Junifer Hall won numerous awards and served as the foundation for their federal indictments and convictions.