Star: Brizzi Has Lost Our Trust

An Indianapolis Star editorial today agrees that Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi has lost our trust and should resign his office. Yesterday, Mark Massa, the GOP candidate for prosecutor, called on Brizzi to resign. Marion Co. GOP Chairman Tom John echoed Massa's call for Brizzi's resignation later in the day. The calls for his resignation center on allegations Brizzi accepted personal investments and campaign contributions from criminal defense attorney Paul Page in exchange for favorable consideration in dealing with criminal defendants represented by Page.

MDC Votes To Expand Southside Landfill

Decatur Township residents were rebuffed today by the Metropolitan Development Commission, which granted zoning approval to Southside Landfill to expand its operations along White River. According to the comprehensive plan, the land could only be used for light industrial use. Homeowners had been told the land would be developed as a golf course. Instead, they're getting a smelly landfill that has already caused property values in the area to decline.

Councilor Robert Cockrum represents the affected residents. He sided with the landfill's owners. The MDC voted 5-3 in favor of the zoning variance. Remonstrators pointed out to the Commission numerous misrepresentations made by the Petitioner's attorney, Mary Solada, a local zoning attorney known for her ruthlessness in pursuing zoning law changes. The case points up the total disregard the unelected MDC members have towards the comprehensive plan that is supposed to protect landowners from such unintended uses of their property.

Massa Outlines Ethics Reforms In Response To Brizzi Corruption

Seeking to put distance between himself and Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, GOP prosecutor candidate Mark Massa outlined a series of ethics reforms he will implement if he is elected prosecutor. At a press conference this morning, Massa called on Brizzi to resign his office. "I'm very concerned about what reports like this do to public confidence," he told the Star. "Very simply, you cannot have a prosecutor taking a 50-percent interest with no money down on a $1 million office building (in a deal with) a defense attorney." "This is not simply an academic question. We're starting to see the consequences of this in court," Massa said,

The ethics reform plan outlined by Massa includes:

- Creating and overseeing a Public Integrity Unit within the Prosecutor’s office (Massa is a former federal prosecutor).
- Establishing a hotline at Grand Jury Division to report malfeasance by public employees or officials and aggressively prosecute it if/when found.
- Working with Mayor and City-County Council to make Prosecutor’s office subject to the county ethics ordinance, like all other city and county offices (Marion County Prosecutor’s Office currently exempt.)
- Will not have any outside business interests.
- Will not serve on boards of for-profit companies.
- Will not allow deputy prosecutors to pursue outside employment without authorization.
- Will not accept gifts of any kind as Prosecutor.

UPDATE: Brizzi reacted angrily to Massa's call for his resignation, calling it a "political stunt." He vowed to stay and fight the bad guys until his term expires. It's about time the Indiana Supreme Court stepped in and used its authority to discipline attorneys who misbehave and take appropriate action against Brizzi. How can they expect us to respect our criminal justice system with Brizzi acting as the state's top prosecutor?

The Brizzi Hits Keep On Coming

Fox 59's Russ McQuaid follows up on the IBJ's story this weekend about how Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi cut a deal with a drug dealer represented by his business partner, Paul Page, a local criminal defense attorney. In a startling statement, Brizzi defended his handling of the case. Brizzi claimed the case of Joseph Mobarecki was handled just like any other case. "In this case, the prosecution and defense each wanted specific deals but a compromise was struck, which means that the defense did not get what it wanted," Brizzi said. Instead of serving 10 years in prison, the deal Brizzi cut with Mobarecki let him off with only two days in jail, and he got $10,000 returned to him that had been seized by police during his arrest. The deal also allows Mobarecki to reduce his one felony charge to a misdemeanor.

McQuaid confirms my earlier report that Mobarecki's customers included some prominent professional athletes. He also notes that a local high school coach was one of Mobarecki's customers as well. If you check Brizzi's campaign finance records, you will discover that one of his largest campaign contributors is a prominent plastic surgeon who wrote prescriptions for pain killers to Colts owner Jim Irsay. Brizzi swept that investigation under the rug several years ago in order to protect Irsay. Irsay had an addiction to prescription drugs and several local doctors were writing prescriptions for him knowing that he had an addiction. Irsay had to be treated for drug overdoses on several occasions.

Ballard Hoards 70 Final Four Tickets

In a little-noticed item in this weekend's "Behind Closed Doors" in the Star, it was pointed out that Mayor Greg Ballard snagged 70 tickets to the Final Four. The publicly-financed Indiana Sports Corporation and the Indiana Convention & Visitors Association snagged several hundred more tickets to the prized event. As this blog has pointed out in the past, Ballard is totally consumed by the perks of office. Getting tickets to sporting events is his highest priority as mayor. Ballard could be seen over the weekend desperately seeking out celebrities in town for the Final Four as he dined at downtown's best steak houses.

Mayor Ballard appeared on the Morning Show with WIBC's Terri Stacy and Steve Simpson this morning. Ballard used the opportunity to promote his tax, spend and borrow bailout of the CIB as the reason our city was able to host a Final Four this weekend. Naturally, Stacy and Simpson threw only softball questions to the mayor. Ballard likes to brag about how transparent his administration is. Let's get a full accounting of just who all got those Final Four tickets doled out by his office, the Indiana Sports Corporation and the Indiana Convention & Visitors Association. Our taxpayer dollars were used to purchase those tickets. Let's see who got them.

Despising Duke: How Far Will The Star Go?

Tens of thousands of Star readers opened up the Sports section of the newspaper yesterday shocked to see the picture of Duke Coach Mike Kryzewski defaced with the headline above it reading, "Despising Duke." The Star pulled the picture and apologized for it but only after 30,000 copies of it had already reached the streets, including one read by Coach Kryzewski, who was shocked by it and called it totally juvenile. Who would have thought that the Indianapolis Star would become a local embarrassment as the city plays host to the NCAA Final Four.

More On Brizzi Justice

The IBJ's Cory Schouten has another eye-popping story about how Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi has repeatedly auctioned off justice to his political and business associates. He cites a major drug felony arrest where the defendant was represented by Brizzi business associate and criminal defense attorney, Paul Page. According to Schouten, Brizzi personally intervened to cut a special deal for Joseph Mobarecki, who Indianapolis police caught with more than $100,000 worth of anabolic steroids, five unlicensed firearms and more than $17,000 in cash. He was initially charged with seven felony counts of possession and dealing, including marijuana. State sentencing guidelines would have called for a sentence of 6 to 10 years in jail. Instead, Brizzi agreed to a plea deal for Mobarecki that allowed him to plead guilty to just one felony possession charge, the least among the charges he faced. Even more shocking, Brizzi allowed $10,000 of Mobarecki's seized money to be turned over to Page to help cover his legal expenses.

According to a police source, I learned more than a year ago that police were wanting to investigate Mobarecki's customer list. Police believed that Mobarecki had been selling the steroids to some prominent professional athletes in the area. Brizzi wanted the case killed to keep the identities of those prominent professional athletes confidential. I believe that was his real motivation for the plea deal with Mobarecki as opposed to his business ties to Paul Page. In the end, Mobarecki only served two days in jail and paid $365 in fines.

Professor Henry Karlson tells Schouten the plea deal violated three basic rules of the Prosecutor's Office. "Typically, plea deals in drug cases keep the most serious felony charge, not the least, Karlson told Schouten. "Defense attorneys usually deal with trial attorneys and not the elected prosecutor." "And most major drug cases lead to substantial forfeiture actions—including cars, homes and cash." “That appears to be a very good plea bargain—the kind of plea bargain lawyers dream about,” Karlson said. “It appears to be a very unusual case with a very unusual plea bargain carried out in a very unusual manner.”

Schouten found two other serious criminal cases where special deals were worked out for defendants represented by attorneys with close ties to Brizzi. An accused rapist who worked for Paul Page and was represented by him copped a plea agreement that allowed him to plead guilty to criminal confinement and serve 365 days on home detention. In another case, Brizzi agreed to modify a felony murder conviction for a man represented by Bruce Donaldson of Barnes & Thornburg. Under the modification, the defendant won a 45-year sentence reduction, allowing him to go free after serving only 10 years of his original 55-year sentence. Then there is also the Harrison Epperly case where Epperly made tens of thousands of dollars of contributions to Brizzi and then won a major sentence reduction for Epperly's daughter, who had hired someone to murder her husband.

I don't know how much more the Marion County Republicans are going to stand by as the slime continues to roll out of Brizzi's office. It's time for the leadership to demand his resignation. He has forfeited his right to hold this public office.

Will Ballard Use Citizens' Money To Balance City Budget?

Mayor Greg Ballard maintained in his initial announcement of the proposed sale of the water and wastewater utilities to Citizens Energy that all of the cash proceeds of the sale would be plowed into new sidewalks and street improvements. More recently, Ballard conceded he may use some of the money to pay for a new data processing system for public safety and fund economic development efforts. Ballard's administration has been spending like drunken sailors recently despite predictions that state reimbursement adjustments to the city will leave the city budget with a hole of $20 to $30 million. Ballard recently obtained council approval to spend $27 million on the purchase of new public safety vehicles, which effectively drained the city fund from which the funds are being appropriated. The administration claims the purchase will actually save taxpayers in the long haul.

Airport Authority's Clark Under Investigation By Florida Prosecutor

The Indianapolis Airport Authority hired John Clark, III as its chief executive officer knowing his controversial record in a similar position with the Jacksonville, Florida airport. Now comes word that a Florida prosecutor is investigating his tenure at that airport. According to the Star's Bruce Smith, a Florida prosecutor obtained Clark's personnel records through a subpoena he recently issued. Clark assured the Star he had done nothing wrong during his tenure in Jacksonville. News reports in Florida prior to his departure questioned lavish trips he took around the world at the airport's expense.