The Associated Press
HAMMOND — Former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick didn’t show up for a court hearing to determine how much money he and a former aide may owe the city as a result of a racketeering lawsuit.
A federal judge ruled June 1 that Pastrick had forfeited his right to challenge the lawsuit filed by the state accusing him of running the northwest Indiana city as a “corrupt enterprise.”
However, Pastrick’s attorney had said his client would defend himself at Monday’s hearing.
Co-defendant James Fife III attended the hearing in U.S. District Court in Hammond.
The state filed the federal lawsuit in 2004 accusing Pastrick and others of spending $24 million in public money on private driveways, patios and walkways to curry favor with voters before the 1999 Democratic primary.
