Murder Victim's Brother: Carl Brizzi "Ripped Out Our Hearts And Held It In Front Of Our Faces"

It's refreshing to see a reporter view U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett's decision this week not to pursue evidence that former Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi accepted bribes from the father of a murderer in exchange for his daughter's early release from prison from the perspective of those impacted by the decisions of our politicians instead of the other way around. WRTV's Derrick Thomas took the time to speak to Richard Willoughby, whose brother Darrell was murdered in 1991 after Paula Willoughby and her boyfriend hired a hit man to kill him. Paula Willoughby's boyfriend, Douglas Stueber, pleaded guilty and received a 45-year sentence. Paula was found guilty at trial and sentenced to 110 years in prison. The alleged hit man, Kevin Spohr, was found not guilty. As a result of an appeal, the Indiana Supreme Court reduced Willoughby's sentence to 70 years in 1996. Thanks to a re-sentencing agreement initiated by Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi's office, Willoughby's sentence was reduced to 40 years and is now a free woman.

Richard Willoughby told Thomas that "It's a scar on our hearts that my brother is not here." "And they just ripped out our hearts and held it in front of our faces as we are dealing with this." "Our family … just because we don't have any money and we can't buy our way out of stuff, doesn't mean we don't have the same rights as someone who has millions and billions," Willoughby said. "Let a jury decide," Willoughby said. "Why not? Let a jury decide. You got enough on this guy." Unfortunately, Richard, that's not the case in this county and this state where two forms of justice exist: one for the ruling elites where the law is always a moving target and another for the rest of us serfs where the law is always firmly written in stone.

Paula Willoughby's father, Harrison Epperly, who hired the attorney who sought the sentence modification, made a number of large campaign contributions to Brizzi, totaling $29,000 prior to the sentence modification being granted. Brizzi's chief deputy, David Wyser, accepted a $2,500 campaign contribution from Epperly for his bid to become Hamilton County Prosecutor. Earlier this year, Wyser pleaded guilty to a single federal bribery charge and is still awaiting sentencing. At the time his plea agreement was announced, Hogsett's office said that Wyser had agreed to cooperate fully in an ongoing investigation. Yet this week Hogsett announced that no charges would be brought against Brizzi in the Willoughby case or other cases under investigation. Inexplicably, Hogsett said that Wyser had no information to offer prosecutors that would implicate his former boss. Wyser has been living in Nevada according to news reports while he awaits his sentence. He will presumably lose his law license. Hogsett, who has done a lot of huffing and puffing the past few years about how serious he is about prosecuting public corruption said he will instead recommend that the state's attorney disciplinary commission investigate whether Brizzi violated the rules of professional conduct.