MARK KIESLING: Fed sheriff's probe hits auditor's office

Federal investigators are continuing their probe of the Lake County Sheriff's Department, serving subpoenas on the county auditor this past week.

So says a source from within the sheriff's department, who said the FBI went into the auditor's office Wednesday with a subpoena for records relating to the county jail's commissary.

The commissary, you might recall, is where inmates may buy items not provided by their concierge at the jail.

The commissary funds were allowed to be used at the discretion of the sheriff until recently, after a downstate top cop was found to be abusing the system.

The commissary was reformed and cost sheriffs in large counties such as Lake and Marion hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.

That is supposedly one of the reasons at least one candidate for sheriff dropped out of the race in Lake County in 2010, a race won by former Sheriff John Buncich.

The Sheriff's Department itself already has had records subpoenaed and computers seized in the ongoing probe.

Indicted former sheriff's Deputy Police Chief Joe Kumstar is supposedly providing the road map to corruption in the hope of getting a lighter sentence on his guilty plea to selling machine guns over the Internet.

Now comes word that Kumstar's boss, former Police Chief Marco Kuyachich, has also decided to cooperate with the feds. He has been named as a sort of "person of interest" in the machine gun investigation but never was indicted.

Both Kuyachich and Kumstar were the top cops under former Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez, who immediately preceded Buncich but could not run for a third consecutive term by law.

Which leads one to ask: If Kumstar and Kuyachich are cooperating, how far up this ladder do the feds intend to go?

The assistant U.S. attorney on this case is Phil Benson, an old acquaintance, and he can climb a prosecution ladder better than just about anyone.

What will this mean for the race for Lake County commissioner in the 2nd District, where incumbent 11-year veteran Gerry Scheub will face off against Dominguez?

It's going to be a battle over who carries the most baggage: What did Dominguez know and when did he know it while his deputy police chief was peddling automatic weapons over the Internet?

And does Scheub really live in his district? Or has he (as his detractors claim) vacated Lake County for a "vacation home" in Marshall County, maintaining a sham local address?

It's going to be the most interesting race in Lake County at this point. But you know how quickly these things change.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at mark.kiesling@nwi.com or (219) 933-4170.