Jack Crawford, a former Lake County Prosecutor whose statewide political ambitions were derailed by scandal, died Wednesday.

He was 77. The cause was congestive heart failure, his wife Kim DeVane said by phone.

In later years, Crawford resurrected his legal career, as a dedicated Indianapolis defense attorney.

After a stint as a Hammond city judge, he was elected as Lake County Prosecutor from 1979 to 1989.

Crawford felt he ran on a promise to tackle crime, said Tom Vanes, who was a deputy prosecutor then. The emphasis shifted from plea deals to felony trials. In 1984, Vanes estimated Lake County had nearly 250 trials, compared to just over 50 last year.

In an early case Crawford personally prosecuted, jurors acquitted Leonard Smith by reason of insanity in November 1979 in the fatal

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