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Newman fails to Investigate Cottey Again

From Channel 13 News

Another Story about Prosecutor Newman not investigating Corruption


MISAPPROPRIATED FUNDS

Update

On February 15, 2002, Gene Tomey agreed to plead guilty to seven federal charges of mail fraud, in which he had Kroger mail checks to vendors for items purchased for his personal use. An initial hearing is scheduled for March 1, 2002. Tomey faces a maximum of five years in prison and $250,000 fine on each count.

Reported by Roger Harvey, photographed and edited by Bill Ditton and produced by Gerry Lanosga and Kathleen Johnston.

For 13 years, Marion County Sheriff's Major Gene Tomey held down two full-time jobs. In addition to being one of Sheriff Jack Cottey's top aides, Tomey also worked as head of security for the Kroger Company. In January 1999, however, Tomey resigned from Kroger, saying it had become too difficult to do two jobs at once.

But Eyewitness News has learned Tomey's abrupt departure came amid allegations of serious misconduct involving his work at Kroger. The allegations included misappropriation of Kroger money and use of the company's resources to assist Sheriff Cottey's re-election campaign.

An internal memo, written by one of Tomey's subordinates at Kroger and obtained by Eyewitness News, details the alleged diversion of more than $16,000 worth of electronics and other equipment. In invoices to Kroger, Tomey authorized the purchase of equipment including laptop computers, portable scanners, color televisions, office furniture and a high-end cellular phone.

It was all charged to Kroger, and according to the memo, some of it ended up at Tomey's home or at the City-County Building in his sheriff's department office. "It kinda surprised me at first because I didn't know what was going on," said Mark Toffollo, who runs a Kroger contractor, Photoscan Security Systems. "Gene was the go between between Kroger and me. They'd say purchase something and I didn't think anything out of the ordinary. I just purchased it and went on."

Toffollo confirmed the elaborate arrangement detailed in the internal memo. First, Tomey would send his Kroger employee to an electronics store. The employee would use his personal credit card to buy equipment. Then Photoscan would reimburse the employee, and Photoscan would cover its costs by billing Kroger. Some of the transactions, according to the memo, were made secretly.

For instance, the memo states Tomey took a newly-purchased laptop to his county office and swapped it with an old one that was to be given to a friend at Kroger. Tomey's employee wrote: "I was told by Gene to call Dennis and give it to him in the parking lot rather than inside where it would be seen." Again, Kroger didn't know about the equipment it was buying because, according to the memo, Tomey was using most of it himself - sometimes at his home and sometimes at his county office.

And who approved the invoices?

Tomey himself. There's another disturbing element to this story, one involving Sheriff Jack Cottey's re-election campaign. The internal memo refers to frequent trips to Photoscan to pick up campaign donations. According to the memo, Photoscan's Mark Toffollo said "he was not making the donation and had been told by Gene to charge it off as equipment as were so many other things."

Toffollo told Eyewitness News about one specific occasion when Tomey asked him for a $2,000 contribution to Cottey. "I said I can do that, but I don't have the cash flow now," Toffollo said. "He said, 'Ok, I will turn it in for you and you can reimburse me.' And I said sure, that wasn't a problem."

In fact, Cottey's fundraising reports show a $2,000 contribution from Tomey on July 7, 1998. Toffollo says he later wrote Tomey a check to cover the gift.

Under Indiana law, that's an illegal third-party contribution - a class B misdemeanor.

What's more, a Kroger invoice obtained by Eyewitness News shows Photoscan billing Kroger for a $2,000 closed-circuit TV system on july 16, 1998. That's less than two weeks after Tomey's contribution of the same amount.

Toffollo denies any connection between that invoice and his campaign contribution. But he freely acknowledges political contributions to the sheriff as a cost of doing business. "We were getting a lot of business from them and doing a lot of business with sheriff department," he said. "It wasn't anything out of the ordinary to me."

So did Kroger actually receive the closed-circuit system? We don't know, because Kroger wouldn't talk about it.

Gene Tomey refused an on camera interview but told us he doesn't think he did anything wrong.

Tomey's boss, Sheriff Cottey, refused our request for an interview.

Those officials could be compelled to talk to the FBI, however, which sources say is investigating both the campaign contributions and the credit card purchases.

Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman said he also is concerned, particularly about the allegations involving campaign funds. He said he will make his own inquiries.

posted by Bob Cardwell @ 7:51 PM