Indianapolis City Council Candidate Hosting D.C. Fundraiser

This has to be a first and is not a good development at all for the taxpayers of Marion County. Democratic City-County Council candidate Kostas Poulakidas is holding a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. that is being co-hosted by U.S. Rep. Andre Carson and a former Republican congressman and now a fat cat Washington, D.C. lobbyist for Rolls-Royce, Ed Pease, according to a report in the latest edition of Ed Feigbenbaum's Indiana Legislative Insight. Poulakidas has been drafted by the downtown elites of both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party to take on one of the lone independent voices on the City-County Council who doesn't take her marching orders from the big law firms, Christine Scales.

Poulakidas is a partner at Krieg DeVault who specializes in government bond work, tax increment finance districts and economic development-related incentives that are handed out to businesses who bankroll the politicians. Naturally, his clients include governmental entities, including the City of Indianapolis and Marion County governmental bodies over which he would have oversight if he is elected to the City-County Council, creating many potential conflicts of interest. According to his campaign finance reports filed with the Marion Co. Board of Elections, Poulakidas has raised more than any other candidate for council with contributions topping the $40,000 mark as of the April 15th filing.

I can't begin to emphasize the danger in continuing this trend of putting people who are totally beholden to powerful law firms on the City-County Council. We've already seen what happens when you put an attorney from a big law firm in as the council president. We long ago lost control of our federal government in Washington to the K Street influence peddlers. Now we see a city council candidate actually going to K Street to raise money for his campaign for local political office. It's no surprise that a lobbyist for Rolls-Royce would be hosting his fundraiser. Mayor Greg Ballard recently announced the City of Indianapolis was granting more tax abatements and economic development incentives to the major defense contractor for its local operations. Although Scales is a Republican, Ballard has brushed her aside because she won't vote down the line with him as other members of the Republican council do. Make no mistake about it, there is a bipartisan effort on the part of the downtown elites to bounce Scales from the City-County Council because she dares to think for herself. If she loses her re-election bid, it's the average, hard-working taxpayers of Marion County who will lose. Scales is the only independent Republican voice on the council. We can't afford to lose her.

Star Story Questions Whether OmniSource Bought Its Justice

The Star's Carrie Ritchie has a spot on story this morning reacting to Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry's outrageous decision to drop all criminal charges against a giant scrap metal dealer, OmniSource, in consideration for a $300,000 donation to a law enforcement fund. Although the facts of a lengthy investigation by law enforcement demonstrated OmniSource purchased stolen metal during a time it employed more than 50 IMPD off-duty police officers, Curry insisted there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute the company. Ritchie asks the right questions about the deal and points out that 20% of the money being donated by OmniSource will go to his office, a fact an OmniSource executive claimed not to know:

When Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry won the election in November, he said he was "taking down the 'for sale' sign" from the prosecutor's office.

But Wednesday, it was Curry who was raising eyebrows and facing scrutiny. The prosecutor announced he was dropping charges in a high-profile case against a local metal recycling company -- and that the company, OmniSource, had agreed to donate $300,000 to law

Curry said the money will help cover the cost of the nearly two-year investigation, and that 20 percent, or $60,000, will go to the prosecutor's office.

"It creates an appearance that the dismissal was purchased," said Shawn Boyne, who has studied prosecutorial ethics and is an associate professor at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. "Whether or not it's true . . . it creates that appearance."

It's common for people and companies convicted of crimes to pay restitution and fines, but even Curry couldn't think of a case where someone who's innocent paid.

Curry said he views the money as a small punishment for the fact that, knowingly or not, OmniSource was taking in stolen goods.

The company was accused of knowingly buying stolen items, such as copper wire and cars. But the case garnered extra attention because OmniSource employed more than 50 off-duty Indianapolis police officers as security guards.

Joel Schumm, clinical professor of law at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, said the $300,000 donation is surprising, considering Curry promised to restore faith in the office after Prosecutor Carl Brizzi was criticized for accepting $30,000 in campaign donations from the father of a convicted woman who had decades shaved off her sentence.

"There shouldn't be an exchange of money in a case where the prosecutor says there's not enough evidence," Schumm said of Curry's decision. "It doesn't smell right."

And not to OmniSource, either.

The company is now raising questions over the intended use of its $300,000. The company didn't know that 20 percent of the money would go to the prosecutor's office, said Ben Eisbart, who is vice president and oversees compliance for Steel Dynamics, OmniSource's parent company.

He said OmniSource thought the money would be used for law enforcement training programs, not reimbursement for the investigation.

"I would like to get that clarified," Eisbart said, "because that certainly wasn't our understanding."

Boyne, the associate professor at IU School of Law-Indianapolis, said Curry doesn't seem to be in violation of any specific rules on ethics. But, she said, "this whole case just would've looked a lot cleaner without the donation." . . .

The one aspect of this story that I wish Ritchie had covered in more detail is the fact that at least one of the off-duty police officers working at OmniSource was conducting undercover sting operations against several of OmniSource small scrap metal competitors in Indianapolis. Ritchie writes, "Among those officers was Jason Prendergast, IMPD's chief investigator of scrap metal thefts." "Prendergast was reassigned because of the investigation. IMPD also changed its policies on where officers can work when they're off duty." Those investigations headed up by Prendergast resulted in prosecutions and jail time for the offenders, and the licenses for those businesses to operate scrap metal yards in the city were pulled. When those persons were prosecuted, they had no idea the person heading up their investigations was on OmniSource's payroll. Even former Public Safety Director Scott Newman conceded a commanding officer in IMPD's ranks had provided favoritism in assigning work shifts to cops who worked for OmniSource, in effect putting OmniSource's needs ahead of the public's interest in having those cops working their respective beats at other times.

Curry quickly bought into the notion that there was no wrongdoing by any IMPD police officers. I say he reached that conclusion without even bothering to investigate the facts. That was one of my criticisms of the investigation from the beginning. Scott Newman announced at the time all IMPD officers had been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing long before all of the evidence had been gathered and a grand jury had been given the opportunity to see the evidence. That made the investigation suspect from the get-go. There should have been a special prosecutor brought in to look at the charges. It was incredible that the U.S. Attorney's Office didn't step in and take over the investigation given the implication of possible collusion between IMPD and OmniSource to put competitors of OmniSource out of business using the criminal justice system.

Ritchie did get a reaction from former Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi to Curry's decision. Brizzi had been accused by OmniSource's attorney, Larry Mackey, of grandstanding and engaging in a money grab, which is a bit ironic given that Curry's office is profiting from the outcome of the case.

Brizzi bristled at the news that Curry was dropping the charges and the civil forfeiture.

He said there was plenty of evidence, including videos and information from undercover officers, to show that OmniSource intentionally bought stolen property.

"It's disappointing," he said of Curry's decision. "Of course there was something there."

I said it before and I'll say it again. There are two forms of justice in this county. If you've got money and can hire the right attorneys or have the right political connections, you can pretty much buy your justice.

A Star editorial today, "The mystery of the closed case", echoes the concerns raised by Ritchie's story:

Let's be sure we have this straight.

A company is hauled through a criminal probe lasting more than two years, the charges get dropped, the authorities agree to return $279,000 in confiscated money, and the company's owners for all their righteous indignation donate $300,000 to the county.

Welcome to the strange case of OmniSource, large recycler of metals and target of a crusade against stolen-goods trafficking that embarrassed the police and divided prosecutors.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were forbidden to moonlight at OmniSource after allegations surfaced of purchases of stolen metals at six of its scrap yards, where 51 IMPD members did part-time security work.

Despite the cloud that hovered over the company and IMPD, Prosecutor Terry Curry said Wednesday there was too little evidence to substantiate the charges of corrupt business influence and attempted receipt of stolen property "initiated by grand jury indictment under my predecessor."

The predecessor, Carl Brizzi, rejoined that he and the grand jury were satisfied illegal deals took place. "What's different now?" he asked.

One difference, Curry said, was that a judge threw out the corrupt business charges. The theft counts, he said, lacked direct evidence that OmniSource employees knew the goods they accepted were stolen.

Not being privy to secret grand jury files, the public is left wondering why one prosecutor's high-profile pursuit is another's lost cause. OmniSource maintains it was shaken down to pad the law-enforcement budget under the forfeiture laws, a claim Brizzi dismisses. He says he had a case; Curry won't second-guess him directly; the rest of us speculate.

Nobody, meanwhile, can offer a convincing explanation for the "settlement" whereby OmniSource gets back its $279,000 and various property and then writes a $300,000 check to the agencies that investigated and prosecuted it. Since when does an exonerated defendant give a dime to the state?

The authorities prefer to let these questions rest in peace while they move on against the multimillion-dollar problem of metal theft. How will they get it right, however, if they can't tell us how two years of effort went into getting it wrong?

Curry's Office Cuts Lenient Plea Deal For Mass Shooter

It looks like Terry Curry is a criminal's best friend. After dropping charges against a giant scrap metal dealer that his predecessor claimed played a key role in aiding and abetting metal thieves who stole millions of dollars worth of metal from Marion Co. residents, Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry has struck a plea agreement with last year's lone gunman who shot nine teen-agers in Downtown Indianapolis who were attending Black Expo's Summer Celebration that will let the mass shooter off with a prison sentence of less than five years. Curry doesn't think a person who pulls out a gun and fires it in a crowd shooting nine people is committing anything worse than criminal recklessness. WRTV has more on Curry's outrageous plea agreement with Shamus Patton:

A teen who had been charged in a mass shooting after Indiana Black Expo's Summer Celebration last year has agreed to a deal in which he will plead guilty to most of the charges against him.

Shamus Patton was 17 when he was arrested in July 2010 on 14 adult charges connected to the shootings of nine people, all between the ages of 10 and 19.

As part of the plea agreement, Patton, now 18, will plead guilty in August to two counts of battery, criminal recklessness, criminal gang activity and carrying a handgun without a license. 

The state has agreed to drop a sentencing enhancement on the criminal gang activity charge. Under the deal filed Wednesday, the judge can sentence him to no more than 10 years in prison. He already has served one year in the Marion County Jail.

Because Patton has already served one year in jail, he will likely be out on the streets in no more than four short years where statistics tell us there is an overwhelming likelihood he will commit a criminal offense at least as serious as the ones he has already committed in his short life. Think about the younger teen in Martinsville who faces 50 years in prison for shooting one teen-ager compared to the light sentence this kid is getting for shooting nine teen-agers. Thanks a lot, Terry. Great prosecutor's office you're running there. This should place Curry high on the list of potential award recipients for next year's Indiana Black Expo.

OmniSource To Donate $300,000 To Indy Law Enforcement After Criminal Charges Dropped

Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry has confirmed that his office is dropping all criminal charges his predecessor, Carl Brizzi, brought against scrap metal giant OmniSource. Curry says the evidence doesn't support the charges against the company. Curry is returning the $277,000 seized from the company during raids on its scrap yards a couple of years ago. Because it is such a generous company, OmniSource will donate $300,000 to the Indianapolis Law Enforcement Fund. Oh, and those more than 50 IMPD officers who worked for the firm will get to resume their off-duty work with the company. From WRTV:

"The judge in the pending criminal case has ruled that OmniSource was improperly charged as a corrupt business enterprise under Indiana's law," Curry said in a news release. "Having now carefully reviewed the case … I can say that the evidence does not support those allegations."

Curry said there wasn't enough evidence to conclude that the company or its workers knowingly took part in unlawful transactions.

The money that was seized from OmniSource during the investigation will be returned, Curry said.
 
In October 2010, then-Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi filed eight felony charges against OmniSource, including corrupt business influence and attempted receipt of stolen property.

The prosecutor's office said it will work with OmniSource to "seek mutually beneficial ways to enhance the detection, identification and prosecution of metal thieves in Marion County."

About 50 Indianapolis police officers who worked part-time for OmniSource had their department-approved permits to work there pulled after the allegations surfaced.

"There is no evidence that any of the officers … were involved in any kind of criminal activity," Curry said. "There is no evidence that officers either condoned or facilitated the sale of stolen goods."

Former OmniSource president Mark Millett said he's pleased charges were dropped and that it will donate $300,000 to Indianapolis' Law Enforcement Fund.

"The issue has never been about the money that was seized from our yards, but rather our business reputation and the integrity of our employees," Millett said.

Wallace Says Federal Takeover Of Business' Major Investor No Problem

The federal government has taken over the controlling shareholder of the business GOP gubernatorial candidate James Wallace founded, TWG Capital, to help recover tens of millions of dollars it owes the SBA, but he says the federal takeover poses no problems to his business. The Star's John Russell has Wallace's reaction to a story first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, which has been closely tracking developments concerning Cardinal Growth because of its financial ties to former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's son, Patrick:

Just a few months after launching a campaign for the Republican nomination for governor, strongly touting his business experience, James Wallace is facing an unclear future for his company, TWG Capital of Indianapolis.

The company's biggest investor, Chicago venture capital fund Cardinal Growth LP, is being taken over by the federal government after failing to repay $21.4 million in loans from the Small Business Administration.

The ties between the two firms run deep. Cardinal Growth owns about 80 percent of Wallace's company, based on East 75th Street. Both of TWG's board members are principals with Cardinal Growth . . .

Wallace said his Indianapolis company, which provides money to insurance brokerages and agents, is not among the underperforming assets.

He said TWG is solvent, profitable and current on its financial obligations. But it declined to provide financial records to The Indianapolis Star and referred all such questions to the court receiver in Washington, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

"We're rather insulated from Cardinal's other portfolio companies, but my understanding is that they had eight or ten other companies, the bulk of which had already been sold, some at a profit, some at a loss, which triggered an audit by the SBA," Wallace said in an interview Tuesday . . .

TWG remains part of the Cardinal operation, as does one other company, a shrimp distributor in California.

Wallace said the overall impact of Cardinal's financial problems would be "pretty minimal" on TWG. He said the receiver could sell Cardinal's stake in TWG to another company. He said TWG was not on the hook to repay the SBA loan.

"We're not at all affected by one of our investors' liquidation," he said.

He added: "But for the hiccup on Cardinal's part, our business is doing fine."

Wallace rolled out his campaign for governor in May, saying his business experience could trump the star power of front-runner Mike Pence.

But some political observers say the business problems could become a campaign issue for Wallace. "Whether or not this financial problem is Wallace's fault, it won't help people from bringing it up," said Andy Downs, assistant professor of political science at Indiana University Purdue University-Fort Wayne.

Wallace, a former Hamilton County Council member, is largely self-funding his campaign. He told The Star last week that his campaign will report about $930,000 in cash on hand later this month.

Russell's story does not seek comment from Wallace on the role Patrick Daley has had with his firm. According to the Sun-Times, Daley has received payments from Cardinal Growth related to its investment in TWG. Daley's financial ties to Cardinal Growth has drawn the scrutiny of federal investigators because the company invested in at least two businesses that that won lucrative contracts with the City of Chicago while his father was mayor.

Obama Lied About Mother's Health Insurance Woes

Repeatedly during the 2008 presidential race, candidate Barack Obama told a story of his mother's battle with cancer and how she was denied health insurance coverage because her cancer was deemed a pre-existing condition before she had begun work for her current employer who provided a group health insurance plan for its employees. The tale of his mother's health insurance woes served as an argument for his ambitious, government-run health insurance plan. As with almost everything about his personal biography, however, the story was completely fabricated. His mother's health insurer in fact covered some of the best medical treatment available in the country at the time. Her insurance dispute was actually with CIGNA, the provider of a disability insurance policy also provided through her employer, and additional coverage she sought to cover for deductibles and expenses not covered by her group health insurance plan. Bryon York explains what Ann Dunham's biographer, New York Times reporter Janny Scott uncovered in her new book:

In January 1995 she left Indonesia to go home to Honolulu, where she was diagnosed with advanced uterine and ovarian cancer. She began a regime of surgery and chemotherapy.

That is the time during which Obama says his mother battled insurance companies to cover her illness. But Scott, who had access to Dunham's correspondence from the time, reveals that Dunham unquestionably had health coverage. "Ann's compensation for her job in Jakarta had included health insurance, which covered most of the costs of her medical treatment," Scott writes. "Once she was back in Hawaii, the hospital billed her insurance company directly, leaving Ann to pay only the deductible and any uncovered expenses, which, she said, came to several hundred dollars a month."

Scott writes that Dunham, who wanted to be compensated for those costs as well as for her living expenses, "filed a separate claim under her employer's disability insurance policy." It was that claim, with the insurance company CIGNA, that was denied in August 1995 because, CIGNA investigators said, Dunham's condition was known before she was covered by the policy.

Dunham protested the decision and, Scott writes, "informed CIGNA that she was turning over the case to 'my son and attorney, Barack Obama.' " CIGNA did not budge.

In September 1995, Dunham traveled to New York for an evaluation at the renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Returning to Hawaii, she began a new course of treatment. She died in November.

A dozen years later, her son turned her ordeal into a campaign pitch for national health care. But the story Obama told, Scott writes, was "abbreviated" -- the abbreviation was to leave out the fact that Ann Dunham had health insurance that paid for her treatment. "Though he often suggested that she was denied health coverage because of a pre-existing condition," Scott writes, "it appears from her correspondence that she was only denied disability coverage."

That's a different story altogether. One the president never told.

Dunham left it to her son, attorney Barack Obama, to handle her disability dispute with CIGNA. He was too busy with his community organizing to help the mother he had grown to despise. He not only didn't help her out with that issue, he refused to visit her as she lay dying in a hospital bed in Hawaii. The One then had the audacity to fabricate a lie about her illness and suffering to advance his health insurance reform cred in furtherance of his presidential bid. Has there ever been a more narcissistic, liar in the White House? His entire biographical narrative is built on a completely fabricated fairy tale (Bill Clinton's words) weaved by an anti-American terrorist ghost writer, Bill Ayers. God save us all.

UPDATE: I came across this little treasure from CNS News discussing a waiver the Obama administration gave CIGNA from the new Obamacare law:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has granted waivers to 10 health insurance companies, including giants such as Cigna and Aetna and divisions of Blue Cross Blue Shield, from the requirements of the new health care law, also known as ObamaCare.

The waivers allow these companies to impose annual limits on the health coverage they provide to their employees. Under Obamacare, companies that do not get special waivers from the administration must phase out their caps on annual health-care benefits between now and 2014 when they must offer limitless annual benefits. The Obama administration began granting waivers to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act last September.

The health insurance company benefiting most from a special waiver from the Obamacare provision is Cigna Corp., which has 265,000 enrollees on its health plan. HHS approved Cigna a waiver on Sept. 26, 2010, allowing it to cap the health insurance benefits for those 265,000 employees.

OmniSource Buys Its Way Out Of Criminal Case

[UPDATED] If you're a multi-million dollar company represented by a politically-connected law firm, you can buy your way out of any serious criminal charge in Marion County. That's the message Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry is sending out tonight in a deal he has reached with OmniSource, a company that employed more than 50 off-duty police officers and was indicted by a grand jury for conspiring to buy millions of dollars worth of stolen scrap metal. Under a deal struck with the giant scrap metal dealer, the company will pay $1 million $300,000 into an education unspecified fund and will [not] be allowed to once again employ your public safety officers at its scrap yards doing security work. Fox 59 News' Russ McQuaid had these details about this deal that stinks to high heaven, which have apparently been revised substantially after the details were first aired earlier today:

The case against a chain of OmniSource scrap yards has been resolved with no criminal charges. A seven-figure settlement hasalso been reached.

OmniSource buys scrap metal at six locations around Indianapolis.

In 2009, then Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi claimed OmniSource knew it was buying stolen goods and that off duty police officers helped. 

When he was prosecutor, Brizzi claimed OmniSource was knowingly involved in a criminal enterprise and guilty of buying millions of dollars of stolen metal throughout Indiana every year. A Marion County grand jury agreed, indicting the company on three counts of corrupt business influence and five counts of attempted receipt of stolen property.

A total of 51 metro police officers who worked part-time at OmniSource had their work permits pulled and were looking at possible criminal charges.

Now, a source indicates the cops will be cleared and OmniSource will establish a $1 million fund for education and a study and will be able to rehire and retrain the officers.

OmniSource claimed its prosecution was all about generating headlines and fueled by a possible money grab by Brizzi and his office. The Prosecutor’s Office would have received millions of dollars in forfeiture funds if the scrap metal dealer was shut down.

Brizzi's successor, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry is expected to announce the deal tomorrow.

The audacity of this corrupt deal is beyond anything Carl Brizzi was accused of doing during his eight years as Marion Co. Prosecutor. Let's remind folks of what went on here. The largest scrap metal dealer in the state goes out and hires more than 50 off-duty police officers to provide security work for its scrap yards. A commanding district officer provides preferential treatment to the scheduling of police officers who work for OmniSource, in effect putting the scrap metal dealers' time and use of our police officers ahead of their policing work for the public they are sworn to serve. Just by coincidence, one of the off-duty police officers working for OmniSource was heading up undercover investigations targeting competitors of OmniSource. Several of those small-time scrap metal dealers were busted, prosecuted and jailed for knowingly purchasing stolen metal products and put out of business. At the same time, a task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officers uncovers large volumes of stolen scrap metal purchased at OmniSource's scrap yards while there were off-duty police officers working at their facilities.

After a lengthy grand jury investigation, the company is indicted on multiple charges related to the purchase of millions of dollars worth of stolen scrap metal. The company's lawyer, Larry Mackey of Barnes & Thornburg, who once served as campaign chairman for former Marion Co. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, whose office brought the charges, attacked Brizzi for bringing the charges. OmniSource then filed a lawsuit against Brizzi seeking the return of assets of $277,000 seized during raids conducted on the company's scrap yards. OmniSource's lawyer accused Brizzi of bringing the charges against the company to grab headlines and as a money grab.

During the course of the investigation, Mackey tried to use his clout to get the lead investigator on the case fired, if not demoted for revealing facts of the case to the media. In particular, Mackey was pissed off at a report that appeared in Platts Steel Market Daily.  IMPD Maj. Chris Boomershine told industry newspaper Platts Steel Markets Daily in February 2009 that OmniSource kept documents on how to avoid antitrust violations, hired off-duty IMPD officers to target competitors and bought cars altered to appear stolen from undercover police officers. Here's some of my earlier reporting on the details of what that investigation learned:

Four days before IMPD executed search warrants on OmniSource's scrap yards in Indianapolis in February, 2009, investigators learned that an OmniSource scrap yard in Marion County purchased 45,204 pounds of stolen lead ingots valued at $40,000. The lead has been purchased by Johnson Company, an Indianapolis-based company, from Gopher Resources, a Michigan company. The lead was supposed to be transported by Freight Master. Investigators learned that a Freight Master supervisor had noticed that the shipment was still on their lot and was long over due to be delivered to Johnson Company. The Freight Master driver, who apparently believed the shipment was so long over due that no one would miss it, took the load of lead to one of the OmniSource locations to sell it. At the OmniSource location in question, the driver presented a shipping receipt clearly stating that the shipment was purchased from Gopher and was to be delivered to Johnson. Because the driver was using a Freight Master truck, OmniSource cut a check for $8,100 for the $40,000 shipment to Freight Master.

What investigators say happened next is extraordinary. The Freight Master driver allegedly told the OmniSource employee to make the check out to him personally. Shockingly, the OmniSource employee is alleged to have done just that. By the time investigators served search warrants on all OmniSource locations in Indianapolis four days later for receiving stolen property, the stolen lead shipment had been moved to OmniSource's Ft. Wayne facility. The day after police served search warrants on OmniSource, all of the information, including pictures and copies of the shipping receipt and check written directly to the driver, was forwarded through the company's chain of command to the company's vice president in Ft. Wayne. Despite being made aware by this point of the stolen lead purchase, the vice president failed to notify police of the purchase or file a police report concerning the stolen lead. Instead, the vice president sent all of the information back down the chain of command to the company's head of security with a cryptic note, “FYI”.

The head of OmniSource's security also failed to make a police report. Instead, the security chief for the company allegedly told Johnson Company personnel that he could not make a police report because OmniSource was not "a victim." Unbelievably, the head of OmniSource's security allegedly told Johnson Company personnel that the company could not get back their shipment until OmniSource had been paid the $8,100 it had paid for the obviously stolen property. Later, as pressure on OmniSource picked up, the company reportedly allowed Johnson Company to pick up the lead shipment order without paying the $8,100. OmniSource reportedly fired the employee who purchased the stolen lead; however, a source close to the investigation says investigators believe OmniSource has a history of moving employees who commit these types of violations to another location instead of firing them. Bear in mind that all of these activities occurred undetected while your police officers were working within the company's scrap yards.

After all of this, the company and the police officers are actually being rewarded for their actions under the deal Curry has brokered. The criminal charges go away, and a new education fund is set up to be used to train police officers to work off duty once again at its scrap yards. You should come away from this entire ordeal with the absolute worst opinion of our criminal justice system. There are clearly two criminal justice systems in this country: one for the common folks and a special system for the wealthy and politically-connected. So much for Curry's pledge to restore public confidence in the prosecutor's office.

UPDATE: Fox 59 News pulled McQuaid's story on the deal reached with OmniSource just minutes ago after he first reported it during the 4:00 p.m. news broadcast. Apparently, OmniSource will pay $300,000, but it will get back the $277,000 in assets seized during the raids that the prosecutor's office sought to claim through a forfeiture action. McQuaid now says the company will not be allowed to re-employ off-duty IMPD officers. WRTV's Rafael Sanchez also reported on a deal being reached to drop the charges. His story says:

The Marion County Prosecutor's Office is expected to announce Wednesday morning it will drop criminal charges against the city's largest metal recycler, OmniSource.

The company has been at the center of controversy for the last two years after it was accused of profiting from the collection of stolen scrap metal, 6News' Rafael Sanchez reported.

In October 2010, then-Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi filed eight felony charges against OmniSource, including corrupt business influence and attempted receipt of stolen property.

6News has learned that some officials believe that there may not be enough evidence to pursue the case.

The office of the county's newly elected Prosecutor Terry Curry told 6News "it can't confirm or deny" the story.

An attorney for OmniSource would not comment on the story, saying "MCPO (Marion County Prosecutor's Office) will determine what is public when."

Best Excuse Ever For Driving Without A License

Thirty-year-old Richard Bombain had one hell of an excuse when he appeared before a city court judge in Gary to explain why he was driving without a license: "I'm blind."

A Gary City Court judge got a surprising answer when she asked a 30-year-old man charged with driving without a license why he didn’t have one:


“I’m blind,” replied Richard Bombain of Gary.

“How many people are you trying to kill?” Judge Itsia Rivera responded.

“I apologize,” Bombain said.

“I don’t want your apology. I want you to stay off the road,” Rivera warned.

Bombain said he is legally blind. Trial is set for Sept. 26.

What's A Public Nuisance?

Mayor Greg Ballard's administration proudly boasted yesterday of its efforts to close a small motel, a Traveler's Inn, which it says is a public nuisance because of numerous police runs to the business over the last several years. Many people live at the small motel because it is the only place they can afford to live with record high unemployment rates and the worst economic downturn in the nation's history since the Great Depression. As reported by Fox 59 News:

"We're all here for a different reason," said Kelli Benner, who has been living at the Traveler's Inn for more than a year. "Some because they can't get places but most it seems to be drugs."

Despite her concern about safety, Benner says she couldn't find any other affordable housing options for her and her kids. Now she says she may be forced to find someplace else or seek help from a shelter.

"Number one goal is to shut it down," said City Attorney Helen Marchal.

Marchal says that goal has come because from July 2008 through July 2011 there have been 114 violations of health and hospital code, and more than 12 hundred police calls involving more than 22 hundred officers. Marchal estimates the policing alone has cost the city between $200-250,000.

Reuse America, bought the Inn last fall with the goal of turning things around, but the Marchal says time is up.

"Nothing's changed and there comes a point when you realize that asking somebody to make a difference just isn't going to work and you have to take them to court," Marchal said.

Contrast the City's treatment of this small motel with the annual Black Expo Summer Celebration event downtown that requires the deployment of the City's entire police force within the Downtown area to combat the shootings and mayhem that accompany the event every year. Ten teens were shot at last year's expo. Shootings, rapes, assaults, drugs, prostitution, public intoxication, etc. have been associated with  the event every year. Downtown businesses don't even want to be open during the event because their employees call in sick to avoid working, and those who do show up for work have to deal with unruly teen-agers who scare away paying customers. For this event, taxpayers are not only required to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for the extra policing, hundreds of thousands of your taxpayers dollars are actually given to the organization to bring this mayhem to our Downtown every summer.

Mayor Greg Ballard, Indiana Black Expo, Metro Police and 10-Point Coalition officials will announce Tuesday morning their plans for keeping a lid on the kind of downtown violence that has marred recent Summer Celebration weekends.

In 2010, on the last full night of Indiana Black Expo, ten people were wounded in gang-related shootings, casting Indianapolis into the national spotlight just when the city was preparing to host the 2012 Super Bowl. 

“We just want to make sure we stay ahead of this thing,” said IMPD Deputy Chief Mike Bates, the commander in charge of more than 300 officers who will report for duty Friday and Saturday nights.

IMPD  has cancelled days off for every officer in the department, detailing forces to either their regular shifts at the district level or assigning them downtown.

In the wake of last summer’s shootings, Public Safety Director Frank Straub suggested that safe zones and metal detectors would be part of this year’s security plan. They are not. However, officers will enforce curfew restrictions for teenagers found wandering downtown streets after 11 p.m.

Talk to any downtown business owner any they will agree that Black Expo's Summer Celebration weekend activities create a public nuisance that actually harms the reputation of Downtown Indianapolis. Hotel operators actually tell people who call up from out of town who are making travel arrangements to the City to think about a different travel time because they've all experienced out-of-town visitors being shocked and disappointed by what they encountered during the second weekend of this event. Restaurant workers don't want to work because they can't earn tips and most of the customers they have are rude and unruly. Shop owners experience a rash of shoplifting and vandalism to their property. What does the City do to business owners who wish to close down during the event? It threatens them with legal action? I'm not kidding. Someone needs to ask the Ballard administration to rethink what it considers a public nuisance. And it's just not the general public doing the complaining. Many IMPD officers are less than happy with the way the administration is handling this event.