Former Chief Deputy Prosecutor Gets Probation, No Prison Time For Taking Bribe To Spring Convicted Murderer From Prison

If you are a corrupt prosecutor, there is no better place to ply your trade in all of America than Indiana. After U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett declined to seek charges against former Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi for soliciting campaign contributions and real estate interests in exchange for lenient plea deals and sentence reductions, a federal judge has decided that Brizzi's chief deputy, David Wyser, should serve no time in prison after he pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe in the form of a campaign contribution in exchange for agreeing to a sentence modification that allowed a woman convicted of hiring a hit man to kill her husband to be freed from prison after serving only 18 years of her 70-year sentence. Brizzi accepted $30,000 in campaign contributions from the woman's father before she was released from prison but claimed that he had no idea the father was seeking a sentence modification for his jailed daughter despite agreeing to a deal rarely if ever granted to convicted murderers. Instead, Wyser receives just 6 months home detention and three years probation. Compare that to the 40-month sentence in federal prison meted out to former IMPD officer and City-County Councilor Lincoln Plowman after he was convicted of soliciting a bribe from an undercover FBI agent. Wyser is credited for assisting in the investigation of his boss, which essentially consisted of rolling over and taking all of the blame for his actions. It makes a complete mockery of the criminal justice system in Indiana, but that's the way it rolls here in the Hoosier state where there are two criminal justice systems: one for the corrupt ruling elites who are above the law and can do as they please; and one for the rest of us who are expected to abide by the letter of the law or face stiff prosecution.

UPDATE: It looks like Judge Sarah Evans Barker has the same questions as me concerning the reason the U.S. Attorney's Office let other criminal wrongdoers off the hook and charged only Wyser. “There are sure a lot of people who did not act honorably,” Fox59 News' Russ McQuaid quotes Judge Barker as saying.  “Lawyers, other prosecutors who were not acting with the highest legal, moral and ethical duties." She added, “(Wyser) shouldn’t be scapegoated for all the other questionable behavior.” Wyser is also miffed that only he was single out for prosecution by Hogsett's office:

“Lukemeyer…and Epperly…all these guys skated,” said an embittered Wyser whose guilty plea will result in the only conviction of the federal investigation into prosecutor’s office corruption. “They all gave lies and made up lies about their involvement. Lukemeyer lied to cover her butt. The truth is she knew what was going on here. She asked me if I wanted the reward of redoing the modification and I accepted that.

“I appreciate the judge’s comments and clearly she was able to see through Hogsett’s tactics when he made a statement a couple weeks ago that he didn’t have enough evidence or insufficient evidence to go after Carl Brizzi. I think anybody who is in the system knows that is completely disingenuous. There was plenty of evidence supported by the documents that they filed in my case.”

The sister of the man whose life Paula Willoughby ended before her father paid a bribe to spring her from prison feels exactly how every ordinary Hoosier should feel about the corruption in the office of Joe Hogsett that allowed these scoundrels to skate for their crimes:

 Darrell Willoughby’s sister disagreed with what Wyser did…but she found agreement in what he said.

“When you’re a politician, a lawyer, someone with money, you’re not going to do time,” she said after addressing the court. “You’re not going to be held accountable. The state will do whatever it can to protect you because they don’t send these kind of boys to jail.

“When you’re playing hardball with these boys in politics, you do not stand a chance as a common person. You don’t.”

If we had a legitimate news media in this town, they would be demanding Hogsett's resignation for the gross misconduct of his office in handling the prosecution of this major public corruption case and demand answers about who he is protecting through negligent, if not deliberate, mishandling of public corruption investigations being conducted by the FBI and the Justice Department's public integrity office. Instead, they will be touting the man for yet another run for public office. This is precisely why any respectable FBI agent has no desire to work in the Indianapolis office. The U.S. Attorney's Office is always run by political hacks who do everything they can to protect the corrupt political establishment that runs this state. And what about Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry? If Wyser pleaded guilty to allowing a sentence modification to be procured through payment of a bribe to spring Willoughby from prison, why the hell has he not petitioned the court to reinstate her former sentence? The sentence modification should be null and void once it's determined that it was procured through the commission of a bribe.