MARK KIESLING: Rumors abound about new sheriff's indictments

Talk within the Lake County Sheriff's Department is that there are more federal indictments in the pipe.

That's not much of a surprise, given the serious nature and high rank of officers already indicted who have pleaded guilty and allegedly are cooperating with the government.

The news angle on this, if you will, is that these indictments are supposedly being handed up this coming week by a grand jury in Hammond.

Bear in mind, rumors are just that. I recall hearing how a prominent city judge was to be indicted, and my fellow courts reporter at the time was sent scrambling on a wild goose chase.

This went on for months, with no result. The person was never indicted and enjoys a lucrative career today.

So you can take this with a grain of salt if you wish, but this rumor is coming from inside the Sheriff's Department itself.

Six officers were named as part of a scheme in which any number of strange things happened, including the sale of 74 machine guns allegedly bought by the department then placed on eBay.

One of those weapons was used in Mississippi in a shootout with cops; several of them allegedly were sent overseas and are now being used against U.S. troops.

The man who allegedly was in charge of the plan was former Deputy Police Chief Joe Kumstar, who was indicted, pleaded guilty and is allegedly spilling what he knows to the feds in hopes of slashing his sentence.

Two others also pleaded guilty to having used their Class 3 federal firearms license — which allows a person to deal in fully automatic weapons — to buy and sell the guns under Kumstar's directions.

One officer has been exonerated and is back on the force, but a lot of people have been waiting for another shoe to drop on former Police Chief Marco Kuyachich and a former staff services commander, Mike Reilly.

Both were named by the feds (an unusual move) as having been involved somehow, but neither has been charged.

It is time to clear up the cloud over Kuyachich and Reilly. Either indict them or, as in the case of the third unindicted suspect, let them go with a clean bill of health.

Where is all this going? It sure looks like the ultimate goal is to put former Sheriff Roy Dominguez on the hot seat.

He was, at least nominally, in charge when these and other shenanigans were happening, but he was too busy crisscrossing Indiana trying to garner support for the Democratic nomination for governor.

Was this a case of the mice playing while the cat was in Bloomington? Or was Dominguez aware that departmental letterheads were being used to purchase machine guns for later sub rosa sales?

After all, Kuyachich was his police chief and his hand-picked candidate to succeed him.

If the rumors are right, and there is a reasonable possibility they are, indictments could open more cans of worms in that department.

The opinion expressed in this column is solely that of the writer. He can be reached at mark.kiesling@nwi.com.