EAST CHICAGO | Depending on who's talking, Timothy Raykovich is described as either a knowledgeable insider who helped divert millions in public dollars for political gain or an outside do-gooder now being blamed for a problem he tried to fix.

Raykovich is a central figure in the long-running racketeering lawsuit that aims to squeeze millions of dollars from now out-of-power East Chicago leaders who once sat atop one of the longest-running political machines in the nation.

On June 26, U.S. District Judge James Moody rejected arguments that the case is so clear cut he should stop the case before it goes to a jury. A trial date is in the process of being set.

Raykovich was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1999 sidewalks-for-votes scandal that drained more than $24 million from city coffers, resulted in numerous convictions and formed the basis for the racketeering lawsuit. Raykovich never was charged with a crime.

Hammond attorney David Weigle, who is defending Raykovich in the racketeering lawsuit, said it's a shame Raykovich's name is being dragged into the situation, especially after Raykovich donated so much of his own time to the city's school system to help it deal with financial problems.

"No good deed goes unpunished. This is the situation for Tim," Weigle said.

Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter, whose office filed the racketeering lawsuit, argues the East Chicago political machine in which Raykovich was a leading figure was so corrupt that it resembled organized crime in how it diverted public casino tax dollars into a private bank trust that was used to hold political power through concrete-pouring and other projects.

Officially, Raykovich was a city consultant and widely known as the special assistant to then-Mayor Robert Pastrick. Court papers filed by Carter's office allege Raykovich was a deeply involved insider whose office was 25 paces from Pastrick's office.

"To say that Raykovich was involved in these payments -- or caused or induced another to make the payments -- would be a gross (understatement). He was, in fact, one of the two representatives appointed by the mayor to represent the city in the aftermath of the 1999 sidewalk and tree programs," Carter's lawyers wrote.

The other, the government alleges, was James Fife III, who is in jail on an unrelated criminal charge. Fife, Raykovich and Pastrick are named as the three main figures in the racketeering litigation.

Weigle said Raykovich was not involved in the fateful 1996 formation of a special gaming trust for casino tax revenues, which is described by government lawyers as the original event that allowed so much corruption in later years through the misspending of public money on private, no-bid projects.

Weigle said Raykovich found out about misspending in the 1999 sidewalks program when Pastrick did -- right after the May 1999 election, when the mayor's own paycheck bounced.

Raykovich confronted then-City Controller Edwardo Maldonado about the bank account and learned that Maldonado had been writing manual checks to sidewalk contractors totaling millions, none of which was recorded in city ledgers, Weigle said.

"The fact that Raykovich knew about the financial condition of the city, which he did, ... doesn't mean he knew Ed Maldonado was secretly writing checks to these contractors," Weigle said.