By: Diane Benjamin
The 111 felony count indictment against CIAM employees was returned by the Grand Jury on September 20, 2017.
In case you forgot, CIAM formerly managed the Coliseum.
Every story the Pantagraph has written since has mentioned the Illinois State Police investigated for 18 months.
Since it takes time to put together a grand jury, prepare evidence, and present it – the State Police investigation most likely ended in August, 2017. (or earlier)
18 months before August/September 2017 would be March/April 2016.
The City of Bloomington likes to claim VenuWorks discovered the theft etc when they took over management on April 1, 2016. (my lawsuit had nothing to do with it!)
What this says so far:
- The Grand Jury returned the indictments 18 months after VenuWorks took over on April 1, 2016.
I wonder if that’s where the 18 month number came from? VenuWorks took over and immediately noticed what nobody at the City did for years?
Not so fast.
A FOIA request for the date Bloomington called the Illinois State Police took months to get, but here it is:
June 9, 2016.
So, the ISP investigation started in June 2016 and ended by August of 2017.
That’s 14 months, not 18.
Couple of questions:
- What was the real reason ISP was called in June? VenuWorks took a little over 2 months to see embezzlement?
- If the 18 month number came from the City, does somebody want you to believe ISP was called in March when CIAM was busy shredding documents?
- Did the ISP investigation start immediately, or did they have other cases to wrap up first? Did the investigation really last 14 months?
- Since we don’t know when the ISP sent their report to Jason Chambers, did his office take longer than a month before convening a grand jury?
Now that you are completely confused:
The investigation didn’t take 18 months.
When you see that number in the media you will know it is incorrect.
The only question is why is someone trying to re-write history?
I only FOIA’d the date because 18 months made the Illinois State Police look like it took longer than it did. It also makes the City look like they cared earlier than they actually did.
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It’s clear that the powers that be don’t want to give you any credit, Diane. They didn’t want to find out what they knew deep down. Afterall, Tari would have taken your detailed info and stolen the credit if he was really interested in uncovering the misdeeds. More than likely, the City begrudgingly called in the State Police because they knew this wouldn’t go away. Gotta keep up the narrative that government-run “quality of life” is the way forward.
I know the truth. I’m not confused. The City realized you were not going to give up. You started the investigation. The Citizens better start paying attention to you because you will bring them right out of the darkness they are living in. And it’s a very dark place.