A former East Chicago politician who pleaded guilty in a sidewalk-for-votes public corruption scandal a decade ago is suing the city, claiming Clerk Adrian Santos fired him for not supporting certain political candidates.
An attorney for Randall Artis filed the lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond. The city and Santos are named as defendants. Santos could not be reached for comment.
Artis, a Democrat, served as the councilman for the city’s 3rd District until 2005, when he pleaded guilty to using the city’s money in 1999 to pay for work in his district in order to get people to support then-Mayor Robert Pastrick for the upcoming elections.
Artis, who was released from prison in 2008, says in his lawsuit that he began working as a junior clerk for the city clerk’s office in August and was clear from the beginning as to his previous conviction.
Artis says in the lawsuit that he supported the bid by Santos, a Democrat, who had previously also served as a city councilman, last year to take over the clerk’s seat. According to the lawsuit, the problem started after Santos took office this year and approached Artis in February about supporting two other candidates: Democrats Mike Repay, a Lake County Commissioner seeking re-election, and Marissa McDermott, who is running for judge of the Lake County Circuit Court.
Artis says in the lawsuit that although he supports the candidates, he wanted to do so in his own way and not what Santos asked, including taking the candidates through areas of the city’s 3rd District.
When Artis continued to refuse to work with Santos, the lawsuit says, Santos told him they needed his support because of the plans of others to run for various local offices in the future.
“Count me out, and that’s final,” Artis responded, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says that a few days later Santos fired Artis, claiming it was because of Artis’ criminal conviction and that Santos needed people with integrity.
The lawsuit claims the city and Santos violated Artis’ right to due process and free speech. He is asking for an injunction giving him his job back along with $100,000 in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages.
John Cantrell, who is representing Santos, denied the allegations.
“He’s just trying to get out of (being fired),” Cantrell said.
He argued that McDermott announced her candidacy on Jan. 28, just a few days before Santos fired Artis on Feb. 1, which would not be enough time for the allegations by Artis to happen, Cantrell said.
As for Artis’ firing, Cantrell said that although Santos knew Artis had a criminal past, he didn’t realize at first what the conviction was for; it wasn’t until Santos ran a background check on Artis after Santos took office that he learned Artis, who as an employee in the clerk’s office handled the city’s money, had stolen from the city.
“He had to go,” Cantrell said. “It had nothing to do with politics.”
Santos was first elected to the City Council in 2007, two years after Artis resigned from it.
Santos filed his own lawsuit against the city for wrongful termination after then-Mayor George Pabey fired him after he and other council members voted against a measure the mayor supported. That lawsuit was settled in 2012.
