Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter has a message for anyone who thought he might quietly let go of his three-year-old racketeering lawsuit against former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick:

Meet Patrick Collins, the newest addition to Carter's legal team. Collins is the federal prosecutor best known for leading the corruption cases against former Illinois Gov. George Ryan and Chicago patronage boss Robert Sorich, both of whom were convicted last year.

Just days after Collins announced his decision to move from the U.S. attorney's office and into private practice last year, Collins said he was contacted by the Indiana attorney general's office about joining the case against Pastrick and East Chicago.

"We wanted to have the strongest team possible, and we thought that adding (Collins') expertise would be of value to us," Carter said. "His heavy background in (prosecuting) public corruption made him a good fit for this."

Collins accepted the job, joining a legal team that already included Notre Dame professor Robert Blakey, a nationally known racketeering expert who helped write the federal organized crime laws after working in Robert Kennedy's Justice Department in the 1960s.

The East Chicago case is scheduled to go to trial in the summer of 2008, but attorneys have not even begun taking depositions. No one faces jail time because it's a civil lawsuit, but the defendants could be ordered to repay the city millions of dollars if they're found liable.

Pastrick's attorney, Michael Bosch, of Hammond, said the case is simply a political ploy for Carter, which is evident in how long it already has taken.

"I don't think the attorney general wanted to do anything with this case until it gets close to time for his re-election campaign" in 2008, Bosch said.

The state's team faces a tall task. The case against Pastrick is the first time Indiana's anti-racketeering law has named a city government as a "corrupt enterprise," Carter said.

Although racketeering laws were written to combat organized crime, Carter said corrupt political organizations often mimic the actions of organized criminals, which was why the state chose to use the RICO statute to go after East Chicago.

Essentially, the city, Pastrick and more than a dozen city officials are accused of participating in a long-running scheme to break state laws to divert $25 million into a public works program that handed out free concrete and tree trimming in exchange for votes in the 1999 mayoral primary election.

And then when Pastrick won the election, city paychecks started bouncing because the city treasury was empty. The lawsuit says Pastrick and his allies concocted a scheme to float a $13.8 million bond issue to pay for part of the illegal program.

The case is an outgrowth of the criminal Sidewalk Six case, in which more than a dozen city officials and contractors were jailed for handing out unbid city services in exchange for votes.

Collins is billing Indiana $395 an hour for his services, which he and Carter said was a "significant" discount from what Collins' private clients pay.

"I've never met Mr. Pastrick and don't have any opinions about him," Collins said. "(But) I believe strongly in the case, and I believe the case is meritorious."

Bosch, of course, disagreed.

"Bob Pastrick is now 80 years old. He's out of public life. The only reason this case is going on is for political expediency," Bosch said.