A grand jury investigation and an FBI raid have made it clear that federal prosecutors are targeting suspected wrongdoing in East St. Louis.
What is fuzzy is exactly who is wearing the bull's eye and what crime is being alleged.
Formally, the feds are not talking. East St. Louis precinct committeemen who were subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury 2 1/2 weeks ago say the investigation centers on voter fraud during the Nov. 2 election. The search warrant used to raid City Hall five days after the grand jury convened supports that but also indicates that the case is bigger than allegations of paying for votes or counting ballots from people who have died or are otherwise not qualified to vote.
The search warrant served by FBI special agent John Jimenez to City Manager Robert Storman is worded to give the federal government great latitude in its investigation. It cited specifically three crimes that the U.S. attorney's office is looking at: election fraud, mail fraud and "obstruction of an official proceeding by the destruction of records." But, at the end of the warrant signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Gerald B. Cohn, it states "as well as the fruits of these crimes."
"That's very common" to use one thing to get to another in a federal investigation, said Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. The vote fraud "is the foot in the door that allows you to open it up."
City leaders say they have no idea what the federal government is after.
"I don't know what any of this is all about," Storman said.
The search warrant limited the FBI to the computer room in Storman's office on the third floor of City Hall and the first-floor office of Regulatory Affairs, headed by Kelvin Ellis, one of the precinct committeemen who appeared before the grand jury. FBI agents spent two hours at City Hall and wheeled out a dozen large boxes of documents along with computer hard drives and two computer servers. The information on the servers goes back at least 10 years. Another server was left behind, allowing City Hall to conduct business.
Ellis, who served prison time 14 years ago after a federal investigation unraveled an extortion scheme hatched by him, is staying quiet. He said he had no idea what the federal government was looking for in his office.
But Mayor Carl E. Officer and two City Hall workers said that since finance department records were among the items confiscated, the raid is likely part of a separate investigation into the city's use of federal funds. East St. Louis receives about $7 million in federal grants each year.
The speed with which the investigation publicly began after the Nov. 2 election makes Redfield, the political scientist, curious.
"My guess is that the election might be coincidental to the timing" of the investigation, Redfield said. Rupert Borgsmiller, director of campaign disclosure for the state Election Board, agreed, saying federal investigations usually don't move that quickly.
"Free and fair election"
The first talk of voter fraud came Oct. 29 at a news conference in East St. Louis by Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, chairwoman of the state's Republican Party. She listed several examples of questionable voting practices, including 30 people voting from one address that turned out to be a boarding house. She called on federal authorities to "take the necessary steps to ensure a free and fair election." East St. Louis votes overwhelmingly Democratic.
Four days after Topinka's news conference, the election was held. In the hotly contested race to replace John Baricevic as St. Clair County Board chairman, Republican candidate Steve Reeb held a slight lead - 52 percent to 48 percent - over Mark Kern, a Democrat, before East St. Louis votes were added to the count. The city has its own election board.
In East St. Louis, Kern got 83 percent of the vote, compared to 17 percent for Reeb. The strong showing in East St. Louis gave Kern the boost he needed to win the race by 4,000 votes.
Reeb initially said he was hiring an attorney to challenge the outcome. He has since backed away from that action but still maintains that the results in East St. Louis are questionable.
Reeb said he did not ask for a federal investigation but acknowledged: "People think I instigated this, and that's fine."
He said he had not been contacted by U.S. Attorney Ronald J. Tenpas' office regarding the investigation. Tenpas is a Republican.
Less than two weeks after the election, subpoenas went out to several East St. Louis officials, including at least 14 of the city's 44 committeemen, and to James Lewis, who heads the East St. Louis Election Board.
An attorney for Lewis said the director was called on to provide information and was not a target of the investigation. The grand jury reconvenes Dec. 14. It is unclear who will be called to testify. Grand jury investigations are off-limits to the public and the media. Witnesses cannot have attorneys with them.
The St. Clair County Democratic Committee distributes to committeemen money for get-out-the-vote efforts. The money can be used to finance door-to-door canvassing, to run telephone banks or to print campaign literature. It also can be used to reimburse committeemen for out-of-pocket expenses, which could include delivering food to the elderly. But the money cannot be offered to persuade someone to vote.
State election records show that $42,000 of county committee funds went to East St. Louis between Jan. 1 and June 30. But the bulk of money usually goes out a few weeks before an election. Financial records for the Nov. 2 election are not due until late next month.
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