Bennett Admits Breaking Ethics Law, Agrees To Pay $5,000 Fine

Under a proposed settlement agreement reached with the state's Inspector General, former Education Superintendent Tony Bennett has agreed to admit that he violated state ethics laws by using state resources to engage in political activities and pay a $5,000 fine according to the Journal-Gazette's Niki Kelly. The Inspector General's report concluded that Bennett was a state officer and not a state employee, which means he could engage in political activity, but he was prohibited from using state materials, funds, property, personnel, facilities or equipment to engage in political activities without a policy or regulation in place that permitted him to do so. Bennett was also cleared of any wrongdoing with respect to the A-F grade changing scandal that cost him his new job in Florida. According to Kelly, Bennett admits that he broke state ethics rules in three ways:

• Prior to the 2012 election, joint meetings between his campaign staff and department staff were conducted at which they coordinated his political calendar with his knowledge. He then maintained a consolidated calendar of both official and political events using his state-owned and maintained e-mail account.
• Bennett received e-mails of a political or campaign nature using his state e-mail account. He maintains the e-mails were unsolicited and he does not recall receiving, reviewing or responding to many of them.
• Following his defeat in 2012, Bennett had his campaign compile a list of contacts for his new position as Florida Education Commissioner, which included three lists entitled, "The 5000", "The Big Hitter List" and the "Red Meat List." Those lists included the names of people who had been relied upon for political fundraising purposes. The lists were maintained on a state-owned and maintained computer server in his office. 

Clearly, the admissions made by Bennett involve violations of criminal statutes, including official misconduct and ghost employment under state law. Former Education Supt. Harold Negley was forced to resign and prosecuted for exactly those same offenses back in 1985 by then-Marion Co. Prosecutor Steve Goldsmith. The state ethics commission can recommend forwarding the findings to the prosecutor for further investigation, but nothing is stopping Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry from acting on his own. It remains unclear why he sat back and allowed the Inspector General's investigation to play out before convening a grand jury to conduct his own independent investigation. Remarkably, Bennett's lawyers at Barnes & Thornburg claim they have an agreement with Curry not to prosecute him, which is a complete outrage if true. Curry claimed he planned to get tough on the prosecution of public corruption cases when he ran for office four years ago, but he declines to take any action in the most brazen cases set in front of him.

It's even worse though. When Charlie White became Secretary of State, he found that this predecessor, Todd Rokita, had stored campaign-related data on computers in his office. He reported his discovery to both the Inspector General's Office and Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry. White personally spoke to David Rimstidt in the prosecutor's office about what he found. Both offices refused to investigate, and the news media treated White's allegations as sour grapes because they were still hell-bent on finding a way to bounce him from office by hook or crook based on their belief Vop Osili and not White was entitled to hold the office. So why would a Democratic prosecutor refuse to act on direct evidence of criminal evidence committed by two statewide elected Republican officeholders?

UPDATE: The state ethics commission has approved the recommendations made by the Inspector General. Read here for more details. A copy of the settlement agreement can be viewed here. The commission also gave the go-ahead to INDOT's Troy Woodruff to negotiate a new job with an INDOT contractor if he follows screening conditions.