United States Attorney David Capp

Northern District of Indiana

5400 Federal Plaza, Suite 1500

Hammond, Indiana 46320

Hammond South Bend Fort Wayne

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Mary Hatton

July 27, 2012 PHONE: (219) 937-5603

www.usdoj.gov/usao/inn/ FAX (219) 852-2770

WEEK IN REVIEW – HAMMOND

Hammond, Indiana - The United States Attorney’s Office announced the following activity in Federal Court:

PLEAS:

Ø Dr. Mark Weinberger, 49, of Merrillville, Indiana, pled guilty before Chief Judge Philip Simon to the felony offense of health care fraud. Sentencing has been set for 10/12/12. These charges were filed as the result of an investigation by the Department of Labor OIG-Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Diane Berkowitz.

Ø Gerardo Lozano, 35, of Hobart, Indiana, pled guilty before Chief Judge Philip Simon to the felony offense of paying a bribe to an agent of a local government (the School City of East Chicago) receiving federal funds. Sentencing has been set for 10/26/12. These charges were filed as the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Gary Bell.

Ø Arien Williams, 29, of Gary, Indiana, pled guilty before Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen to the felony offense of distribution of crack cocaine. Sentencing has been set for 10/18/12. These charges were filed as a result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation GRIT Task Force. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dean Lanter.

Ø Robert Ross, 24, of Gary, Indiana, pled guilty before Judge Rudy Lozano to the felony offense of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. These charges were filed as a result of an investigation by the by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Gary Police Department. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Chang-Adiga.

If convicted in court, any specific sentence to be imposed will be determined by the judge after a consideration of federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

DISPOSITIONS:

Ø Tracey Davis, 39, currently incarcerated, was sentenced by Senior Judge James Moody to 66 months imprisonment and 3 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offenses of theft of mail and aggravated identity theft. According to the Plea Agreement filed in this case, Davis admitted that she possessed over 400 pieces of mail addressed to over 100 individuals and businesses located in the counties of Porter, LaPorte, Elkhart, Marshall, and Kosciusko. She admitted that she stole the mail from multiple mailboxes and that the mail she stole contained bank statements, credit card bills, utility bills, house deeds, and various other types of correspondence. She utilized the personal identifiers of the victims to purchase merchandise without the knowledge, authority, or permission of the victims. Davis also used convenience checks of the victims, deposited the checks, and withdrew money from the accounts. This case was the result of an investigation the United States Postal Service. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Toi Houston.

Ø Brian Kurth, 30, of Crown Point, Indiana, was sentenced by Judge Rudy Lozano to 30 months imprisonment and 3 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of conspiracy and possession with the intent to distribute heroin. This case was the result of an investigation the Drug Enforcement Administration. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Chang-Adiga.

Ø LaMonte Mallet, 29, of Gary, Indiana, was sentenced by to 60 months imprisonment and 2 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. This case was the result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joshua Kolar.

Ø Kevin Beltran, 19, of Hammond, Indiana, a defendant in the case US v Briseno et al., was sentenced by Chief Judge Philip Simon to 21 months imprisonment, and 3 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of conspiracy to participate in racketeering activity. This case was the result of an investigation by the by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the East Chicago Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David Nozick.

Ø Jamie Deal, 33, of Westville, Indiana, was sentenced by Judge Rudy Lozano to 37 months imprisonment, restitution of $5,014.00 and 2 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of the bank robbery of DeMotte State Bank. This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas Padilla.

Ø Desmond Turner, 38, of Chicago, Illinois, was sentenced by Judge Rudy Lozano to 26 months imprisonment, restitution of $5,089.00 and 2 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offenses of conspiracy to defraud the United States and misuse of a Social Security Number. According to the Plea Agreement filed in this case, Turner admitted that he obtained the names and social security numbers of individuals in order to obtain state ID cards, used false birth certificates, opened accounts at various financial institutions, deposited fraudulent checks at the institutions and wrote fraudulent checks from those accounts to businesses and merchants. This case was the result of an investigation by the United States Postal Service. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Toi Houston.

Ø Benjamin Walton, 30, of Gary, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior Judge James Moody to 51 months imprisonment and 3 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives HIDTA Task Force and the Gary Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dean Lanter.

Ø Juan Sanchez, 43, of Melrose Park, Illinois, was sentenced by Senior Judge James Moody to 63 months imprisonment and 4 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offenses of possession with the intent to distribute 500 or more grams of cocaine and being an illegal alien. Sanchez had been previously convicted of a drug offense for which the sentence imposed exceeded 13 months and was removed from the United States. This case was the result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jacqueline Jacobs.

Ø Terrance Peterson, 25, of Hammond, Indiana, was sentenced by Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen to 168 months imprisonment and 5 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine. According to the felony Complaint filed in this case, Peterson confessed that it was his intention to conduct a home invasion robbery of a stash house that an undercover agent had told him about and that he intended to steal approximately 15 kilograms of cocaine. This case was the result of an investigation by the by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives HIDTA Task Force and the Hammond Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David Nozick and Joshua Kolar.