As the legislature considers reducing criminal sentences in order to reduce the cost of the Indiana criminal justice system, it might want to consider whether it is locking up criminal offenders long enough. In the case of Thomas Hardy, who is accused of shooting IMPD Officer David Moore, he has been convicted no fewer than 11 different occasions since 1984 for various crimes, mostly pertaining to theft. His last conviction for theft was in 2008. With the exception of the 13-year sentence he received for his first offense, burglary, he has received sentences for less than two years. All of the convictions were for D felonies, except for one Class A misdemeanor for battery in 2007 and the B felony burglary conviction in 1984. With time off for good behavior, he served relatively short sentences despite the number of times he had been convicted of the very same offense so soon after being released from prison. Hardy was driving a stolen vehicle when he was pulled over by Officer Moore, and he is accused of robbing a Dollar General store on Emerson Avenue at gun point just minutes after shooting Officer Moore at least four times, including at least twice in the face. Moore is currently in critical condition in a life-saving induced coma at Wishard Hospital. All of Hardy's past convictions took place in Marion Co. with the exception of one conviction in Johnson County.
The Criminal Code Evaluation Committee has recommended the legislature consider legislation to reduce sentencing for non-violent offenders, particularly drug offenders. One of Hardy's 11 convictions was for possession of cocaine. One of them was for battery. The rest were all theft-related. It is hard to imagine how the prosecutors and judges could have treated each of his repeated offenses so lightly, but that is exactly what happened. This man should not have even been on the streets. It is clear repeat offenders aren't being locked up long enough. The legislature should think long and hard about tinkering with the sentencing of criminal offenders in Indiana to allow for lighter sentences. Hardy's case makes it clear the current system isn't working, and it's not because criminals aren't being locked up for long enough sentences. Here is the sentencing information for from the Department of Correction website:
Date of Sentence 08/28/2008
Description THEFT,RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
Term in Years / Months / Days 02 08 00028
Type of Conviction FD
Indiana Citation Code 35-43-4-2
Cause Number 49F15-0807-FD-179791
County of Conviction MARION
Projected Release Date 10/27/2009
Date of Sentence 01/04/2007
Description THEFT,RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
Term in Years / Months / Days 01 11 00030
Type of Conviction FD
Indiana Citation Code 35-43-4-2
Cause Number 49F09-0611-FD-226470
County of Conviction MARION
Projected Release Date 07/01/2007
Date of Sentence 01/04/2007
Description BATTERY
Term in Years / Months / Days 01 00 00000
Type of Conviction MA
Indiana Citation Code 35-42-2-1
Cause Number 49F09-0611-FD-226470
County of Conviction MARION
Projected Release Date 05/27/2007
Date of Sentence 01/04/2007
Description THEFT,RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
Term in Years / Months / Days 01 05 00026
Type of Conviction FD
Indiana Citation Code 35-43-4-2
Cause Number 49F09-0608-FD-141556
County of Conviction MARION
Projected Release Date 10/13/2008
Date of Sentence 11/19/2004
Description THEFT,RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
Term in Years / Months / Days 01 05 00029
Type of Conviction FD
Indiana Citation Code 35-43-4-2
Cause Number 49G990409FD170265
County of Conviction MARION
Projected Release Date 04/16/2006
Date of Sentence 07/16/2003
Description THEFT,RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
Term in Years / Months / Days 01 11 00030
Type of Conviction FD
Indiana Citation Code 35-43-4-2
Cause Number 49G990112FD235772
County of Conviction MARION
Projected Release Date 04/16/2006
Date of Sentence 02/07/2002
Description THEFT,RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
Term in Years / Months / Days 01 11 00029
Type of Conviction FD
Indiana Citation Code 35-43-4-2
Cause Number 49G990112FD235772
County of Conviction MARION
Projected Release Date 10/04/2004
Date of Sentence 02/28/2000
Description THEFT,RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
Term in Years / Months / Days 02 06 00001
Type of Conviction FD
Indiana Citation Code 35-43-4-2
Cause Number 41D01 0001 DF 00015
County of Conviction JOHNSON
Projected Release Date 08/04/2002
Date of Sentence 10/02/1998
Description THEFT,RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
Term in Years / Months / Days 02 01 00019
Type of Conviction FD
Indiana Citation Code 35-43-4-2
Cause Number 98144792
County of Conviction MARION
Projected Release Date 08/05/2000
Date of Sentence 02/13/1997
Description POSSESSION OF COCAINE OR A NARCOTIC DRUG
Term in Years / Months / Days 01 05 00027
Type of Conviction FD
Indiana Citation Code 35-48-4-6
Cause Number 49F18 9603 DF 043912
County of Conviction MARION
Projected Release Date 10/19/1998
Date of Sentence 08/30/1984
Description BURGLARY
Term in Years / Months / Days 13 00 00000
Type of Conviction FB
Indiana Citation Code 35-43-2-1
Cause Number CR83-075F
County of Conviction MARION
Projected Release Date 11/28/1997
UPDATE: No, Thomas Hardy should not have been on the street but for a screw up by the Indiana Department of Correction. Hardy was just picked up in November a short time after being released from prison for a repeat theft offense while he was still on parole from the previous conviction. Yet he was erroneously released from the Marion Co. jail in December after he posted a $15,000 bond. The Star reports:
Thomas Hardy, 60, was arrested in Indianapolis on theft charges in November, while he was still on parole from a previous conviction. But in December, he was released from the Marion County Jail after posting $15,000 bond.
Parole officers are supposed to do monthly checks to see if parolees have been arrested, and that didn't happen in Hardy's case, said Doug Garrison, spokesman for the Department of Corrections.
Usually, if people on parole are arrested for new crimes, they're held in custody until the parole board can review their case and determine whether to revoke parole. Hardy should've been put through that same review process, he said.
Garrison doesn't know why Hardy's case slipped through the cracks, but he said the Department of Corrections would use this situation as a training opportunity to "tighten (our) procedures."
Hardy had been on parole since being released from prison in October 2009. He was considered to be a "low-risk" parolee for several reasons, including the fact that he had never been convicted of a violent crime, Garrison said. Also, he had been seeing his parole officer as scheduled. He could've been taken off parole in March if he hadn't been arrested on new charges.
He faces charges of robbery and being a felon in possession of a handgun in connection with the armed robbery of a Dollar General store on Sunday. He is also suspected of shooting Moore shortly before the robbery, although Marion County prosecutors have yet to file charges. He was already facing four felony counts of theft in connection with his November arrest.Hardy's screw up isn't isolated. Last month, Garrison told us the Department of Correction mistakenly released a sex offender from prison, who two days later sexually assaulted a woman in the bathroom of a South Bend drug store. As the AP reported:
The Indiana Department of Correction mistakenly paroled a convicted sex offender who now faces charges in the sexual assault of a woman in a drugstore restroom two days after his prison release, an agency spokesman said.If Mitch Daniels decides to run for president, these missteps might become his own Willie Horton problem, hearkening back to the issue made in the 1988 presidential race between George H.W. Bush and Gov. Michael Dukakis over offenders who committed serious crimes while let out on weekend furloughs by Dukakis' Department of Corrections in Massachusetts. Horton raped and murdered a woman during his weekend furlough. This could particularly become a big issue because of Daniels' recently announced support for revamping Indiana's sentencing laws to allow judges to mete out lighter sentences in an effort to cut state prison costs.
Robert Kemp Jr., 31, of Ann Arbor, Mich., was being held on $50,000 cash bond at the St. Joseph County Jail in South Bend on Wednesday, a day after prosecutors charged him with rape, criminal deviate conduct and attempted criminal deviate conduct.
The Department of Correction mistakenly transferred Kemp from southern Indiana’s Wabash Valley Correctional Facility to the custody of the South Bend Parole District on Dec. 30 instead of holding him for Wabash County, where he was wanted on a warrant, agency spokesman Doug Garrison told the South Bend Tribune.
“A mistake was made,” Garrison said. “It’s clear something went wrong.”
A statewide record system used by police showed Kemp was wanted on an active warrant, also on a charge of criminal deviate conduct, but the Correction Department’s internal records showed the warrant had been dismissed, Garrison said. Prison officials who prepared Kemp for release saw both and assumed the department’s records were correct.
Discharge officers “should have called Wabash County to see if the warrant was still active, even though our records showed that it wasn’t. They didn’t do that,” Garrison said.
Prosecutors say that two days after this release Kemp went to a Walgreens store in South Bend and waited in a bathroom stall until a female employee entered, then he assaulted her.
Kemp is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 18. A jailer said he did not know if he had an attorney.
Garrison said the Correction Department hoped to avoid the mistake in the future by having staff make phone calls to clear up any discrepancies in records.
Records show Kemp was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003 for criminal deviate conduct and to 2 1/2 years in prison in 2009 for breaking and entering.
UPDATE II: A Fox59 News report recounts the same screw up by IDOC:
The Indiana Department of Corrections admits making a mistake. They say the man accused of shooting an Indianapolis police officer should not have been on the street. This comes as Officer David Moore remains in critical condition. His family is telling Fox59 his condition is very serious.WRTV News chimes in:
Department of Corrections spokesperson Doug Garrison says 60-year old Thomas Hardy shouldn't have been released from police custody when he was arrested last month. Hardy was on probation at the time of his arrest and should have been held in custody until his case was reviewed by the parole board.
Prison officials admitted Monday that mistakes were made allowing the man accused of shooting an Indianapolis police officer to be released from the Marion County Jail last month even though he was on parole at the time.And so does WISH-TV News and WTHR news. Not a good day for Daniels.
Officials with the Indiana Department of Correction told 6News they failed to perform monthly records checks on Thomas Hardy, 60, the main suspect in the shooting of Officer David Moore, 29, on Sunday.
See earlier post here.
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