More Reasons For Doubt In Bisard Case

That's the heading for a Star editorial questioning the actions of IMPD's handling of blood evidence in the David Bisard case and the Ballard administration's reaction to Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry's fury over their actions:

The flagging hopes of victims and their survivors have suffered yet another blow in the tragicomedy of errors that is the David Bisard case.

While Prosecutor Terry Curry continues to vouch for the strength of his side, suffice to say that police mishandling of the episode amounts to a defense lawyer's dream.

Curry demanded the firing of Public Safety Director Frank Straub and Ellen Corcella, deputy chief for professional standards, after learning that members of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department had unsealed and examined a blood sample without informing the prosecutor . . .

The response from the Ballard administration borders on the cavalier. While mayoral chief of staff Ryan Vaughn says informing Curry's office would have been "the right thing to do," he asserts that the officers technically did not have to do so -- a gratuitous posture for an explosive case that has all of city-county government under scrutiny.

The mayor's office will not fire Straub, who is finishing out his tenure after resigning, nor Corcella. Considering that Corcella's predecessor was reassigned over the Bisard evidence mess (though cleared of wrongdoing), another change of the guard may be in order. Public trust -- what's left of it -- demands that much.

Meanwhile, Vaughn says the FBI has declined to look into the fiasco because criminal activity is absent. Given this bizarre string of events, no such conclusion can be drawn without further investigation. From outside.

Curry Asked Ballard To Fire Straub And Corcella Over Handling Of Bisard Blood Evidence

The Star's Carrie Ritchie has an interesting story today about a discovery Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry learned of concerning IMPD's handling of the blood evidence in the David Bisard case early last month based on a tip that so angered him that he wrote a letter to Mayor Greg Ballard demanding the firing of Public Safety Director Frank Straub and the department's chief of professional standards, Ellen Corcella. Here's what Curry learned happened after he had already told IMPD Chief Paul Ciesielski, who has since been fired, that his office discovered the blood evidence had been moved from a refrigerator in the property control room to another location where it was not refrigerated that angered him so much:

Records obtained by The Indianapolis Star show that on April 16, hours after Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry told former Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Paul Ciesielski that one of two vials of Bisard's blood had been improperly moved despite a judge's order that it be preserved, police officers took the blood samples out of their sealed envelopes to examine and photograph them.

Two other times that week -- April 18 and 19 -- officers returned to the property room to handle the blood.

In a scathing letter hand-delivered to Mayor Greg Ballard's office the next day, Curry called for the immediate removal of Public Safety Director Frank Straub and Ellen Corcella, deputy chief of professional standards, who directed officers to examine the blood samples and accompanied them to the property area. Curry said that as a former deputy prosecutor under Carl Brizzi, Corcella "should know better."

"After all of the controversy regarding the single most critical piece of evidence in what is probably the most high-profile case in Marion County, this was done with no notice to our office either before or after handling our evidence," Curry wrote in the letter, which The Star obtained through a public records request. "We will have no choice but to produce this information to counsel for Bisard, which will without doubt lead to additional arguments from the defense regarding chain of custody of the evidence and alleged tampering."

This happened just months after the Department of Public Safety announced that Corcella, a former New York federal prosecutor, had joined the department to head its professional standards department. In a January press release announcing Corcella's appointment, Straub said of her:

"Ms. Corcella brings extensive legal and prosecutorial experience to the Department of Public Safety," said Director Frank Straub. "I believe, under her leadership, DPS Professional Standard's programs, policies, procedures and practices will be strengthened, our service to the community enhanced, and our continuing efforts to re-engineer the department significantly enhanced."

Straub recently announced that he would be stepping down from his position in August after it became apparent the City-County Council would not confirm his reappointment as Public Safety Director. Corcella has not been fired. Ballard's chief of staff, Ryan Vaughn, claims the police meant no harm when they removed the blood evidence from a sealed envelope. Vaughn told Ritchie that they were simply trying to document where the evidence was located after discovering that it had been moved. Curry, however, isn't buying that explanation. Bisard's attorney has already sought to block the testing of a second vial of Bisard's blood because it was unrefrigerated for a period of five months after it was moved and chain of custody concerns. Prosecutors have been unable to use evidence showing Bisard's blood alcohol level at the time of a fatal accident after his police cruiser struck of a group of motorcyclists at an intersection to support drunk driving charges against him; however, the Judge Grant Hawkins has said prosecutors could use the evidence to support criminal recklessness and reckless homicide charges against Bisard.

Hite Not Certified To Serve As Police Chief In Indiana

Well, this doesn't look good. After announcing just yesterday that Public Safety Director Frank Straub's chief deputy, Rick Hite, a former Baltimore police officer, would assume the role of acting chief of police following IMPD Chief Paul Ciesielski's ouster yesterday after the latest snafu in the Officer David Bisard investigation was publicly disclosed, we learn today that Hite is not certified to hold the position of police chief in Indiana. WRTV's Rafael Sanchez reports:

The Indianapolis Metro Police Department's newly-named interim police chief is not certified to hold the position, public safety officials said . . .

Despite Hite’s experience, he’s not certified to work in Indiana, officials said.

Indianapolis public safety officials said that until Hite receives certification in the Hoosier state, an assistant police chief will take over the position.

Straub is being grilled by the Indianapolis City-County Council's Public Safety Committee as I write on whether the council should approve his reappointment. The Star's Jon Murray reports that one of the first questions fired at Straub by a councilor was this zinger from Councilor Frank Mascari: “Why is it that everybody at IMPD is accountable for their actions but you?” He added: “Every time something goes wrong, it seems like you throw somebody under the bus.” Ouch.

Straub Blames Lapdog Chief For Latest Police Screw Up

Mayor Greg Ballard says he's "angry and disgusted" by today's revelation that a second vial of blood drawn from Officer David Bisard in his deadly drunken driving case while driving a police cruiser has been mishandled, but he's not angry enough to blame his highly-criticized Public Safety Director, Frank "I'm In Charge Here" Straub, for the latest screw up. Instead, Straub's lapdog chief, Paul Ciesielski, has taken the fall, along with Valerie Cunningham, the police officer Straub previously lauded for her work in the Bisard investigation when he was throwing other members of Ciesielski's leadership team under the bus for mistakes none of them made. "Senior leadership failed," Ciesielski said of his senior leadership team back in 2010 when they were demoted and blamed for the failure of police to gather blood alcohol evidence from Bisard in accordance with a recently-enacted law, causing then-Prosecutor Carl Brizzi to throw out drunk driving charges against Bisard. WTHR's Steve Jefferson reports on today's announcement:

On Tuesday, Mayor Greg Ballard revealed that a vial of Bisard's blood investigators were going to test to determine if the officer was drunk at the time of the crash had been mishandled. The blood had been removed from a refrigerated and secure police property room and taken to an unrefrigerated police annex.

It's the second time in the case that proper procedures were not followed after the crash. The first time, Bisard was tested on the day of the crash, but because of concerns over where the blood draw occurred, the DUI charges against him were thrown out. That first test put Bisard's blood alcohol content over twice the legal limit, something Bisard and his attorneys have denied.

Both vials of Bisard's blood samples were originally stored in the property room. The second vial of blood was moved sometime in November 2011. When prosecutors received approval to have the second vial tested by Judge Grant Hawkins last week, that's when they discovered the mishandling of the evidence.

Straub says they know who moved the blood sample, but he says it's not the chief or Valerie Cunningham. He did not say who it was.

In the wake of the controversy, the police chief has resigned but remains on the force as a captain. Two other officers have been placed on administrative leave.

Any thought of feeling sorry for Ciesielski is immediately dismissed when one considers how he failed to stand up for his senior leaders when they were unfairly blamed by Straub for police failures in the Bisard investigation. Those senior leaders were all summoned from the scene of the deadly crash back to Straub's office for an emergency meeting with Ciesielski and Straub to discuss the public safety director's troubling public image, which revealed just how little Ciesielski and Straub failed to grasp or to care about the seriousness of the deadly crash involving one of their own police officers. While Straub spent enormous time and energy assigning blame to others within IMPD for their handling of the Bisard case, he apparently failed to ensure the balance of the investigation was being handled properly to avoid further screw ups. By placing the blame today on Ciesielski, Cunningham and others within the police department, Straub is able to accomplish what he set out to do from the beginning, which was to install in every senior management position within the police department persons totally beholden to him. Straub wasted no time in appointing his deputy director, Rick Hite, a high-paid import he brought to the Department from the Baltimore Police Department, as acting IMPD Chief.

Meanwhile, Mayor Ballard, who made it his number one priority when elected mayor to get control of IMPD, continues to gladly delegate responsibility for running the department to Straub and to keep his own hands as far away from the department as possible. Straub's shameless self-promotion was on display as Ballard stood behind him staring at his feet.  "The policies and practices of this department need to change. They need to be professionalized and we need to move forward and I am 100 percent committed to that. And you see these changes coming because of my leadership," said Straub. Yeah, more of that change in leadership that you can believe in.

More On Life In Straubville

Recently, I mentioned how budget woes for the Department of Public Safety under the leadership of Director Frank Straub meant no toilet paper, hand sanitizers and other basic supplies for IMPD's district offices. Today, there is a report that Indianapolis Power & Light workers showed up at IMPD's East district office on North Shadeland to disconnect the power because someone at DPS failed to pay the electric bill. This comes on the heels of news that IMPD lost out on a half million dollar federal grant for human trafficking because someone at DPS failed to file an application to renew the grant, and that it belatedly filed 2010 crime statistics for Indianapolis with the FBI many months late, raising questions about whether crime statistics were being manipulated to make things appear more rosy than they are to benefit Mayor Greg Ballard's re-election campaign.

Life In Straubville

There may have been plenty of money in the Public Safety budget for Indianapolis/Marion County to redecorate the offices of Public Safety Director Frank Straub and to hire a bevy of six-figure salaried employees to populate his newly-decorated offices, but police officers are told there is no money left in the budget for toilet paper, hand sanitizer, notebooks, pens and other basic supplies for the district offices. The image at left is a sign posted in a bathroom stall of the North East IMPD district offices warning users "there is no toilet paper" because "the city is out of funds." And despite Straub's top heavy staff, including his personal chauffeur, we learn that his staff neglected to file paperwork to renew a half million dollar federal grant for IMPD to combat human trafficking. Meanwhile, Mayor Greg Ballard continues to show he's in charge of Public Safety by hiding behind Straub's skirt pants.

More Unrest In Straubville

Indianapolis Public Safety Director Frank Straub is the subject of yet another animated creation taking aim at his leadership. The latest feature comes on the heels of the departures of Chad Knecht as Chief Paul Ciesielski's Chief of Staff and the department's spokesperson, Gene Rodriguez. The video suggests doctoring of crime statistic reports to make things appear better than what they actually are was part of the reason for Knecht's departure.

IMPD Officer Charged With Stealing From Hispanic Victims

Three years ago, a Westfield police officer was charged with bribery for shaking down Hispanic victims he suspected of being illegal aliens for money in consideration for not arresting them after making traffic stops. Now it appears a veteran IMPD officer went one step further and simply stole property outright from Hispanic victims he pulled over for traffic stops. The Star's Vic Ryckaert reports on the charges filed against Officer David Butler, a 23-year veteran of the department:

A veteran Indianapolis police officer was arrested Friday on accusations that he used his badge to stop Hispanic motorists and clean out their wallets.


Prosecutors charged officer David J. Butler, a 23-year veteran, with robbery and official misconduct, both felonies, after an internal investigation linked him to the robberies of two men on the Northwestside, authorities said. One of the traffic stops was captured by a gas station's surveillance cameras, they said.

Butler was booked in the Marion County Jail on Friday and held on $15,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear Monday in Marion Superior Court for an initial hearing.

Prosecutors say Butler, 52, stole cash from two men during traffic stops in September and January. Investigators think there might be more victims and have urged anyone with information to come forward.

Prosecutor Terry Curry credited the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for discovering Butler's alleged crimes and bringing the evidence to his office.

"Their investigation uncovered a repetitive pattern of behavior by officer Butler, a pattern of behavior which plainly violated the trust the public placed in him," Curry said in a statement.

Mayor Greg Ballard said Butler's arrest shows that officers who tarnish the badge will be held accountable. He stressed that the actions of a single officer "do not diminish the outstanding police work" of the entire department . . .

Ryckaert's story notes Butler's arrest is one of eight police officers with the department to face criminal charges in the last year alone. Butler admitted to taking money from the victims during the traffic stops after initially denying it to detectives according to the report.

On another note, state legislation that would have allowed state and local law enforcement officials to take a greater role in enforcing the nation's immigration laws was altered considerably before its final passage last night. The legislation authored by Sen. Mike Delph (R-Carmel) now focuses on businesses that "knowingly" employ illegal immigrant by denying them tax breaks. Provisions requiring police to question persons about their immigrant status during arrests by requesting proof of their status was removed from the legislation.

IMPD Handling Of Person In Distress Questioned

A couple on the City's southside are questioning the manner in which police responded to an emergency call at their apartment complex after they discovered a young man, Maxwell Harper, passed out in front of their door. WRTV's Rick Hightower showed video the apartment residents recorded of police and emergency responders mistreating Harper, who they placed in handcuffs, picked up by the throat and then drug him down a flight of stairs like they were dragging trash out to a dumpster to dispose of. The witnesses said police also dropped him several times.

Amber Owens said she heard something outside her door and when she looked out, she found Maxwell Harper, 19, laying unconscious on the ground.

Owens said Harper's brother called 911. When paramedics and police arrived, they treated him "more like a prisoner rather than a patient" by putting handcuffs on him and allegedly dragging him down the stairs, Owens said.


Owens called 6News after recording video of the incident on her cell phone.

"(In the video) you're going to see them pick him up by his throat," said Owens, commenting on the video. "They said the reason why they threw him on his head is that he was resisting, and there was no way he could have done anything. He was laying in front of our apartment complex completely passed out."

Harper's brother and girlfriend said they also think the incident was mishandled by police and paramedics.

"It wasn't a professional way to take care of a sick person. Even though he was underage and drinking, it was a very unprofessional way to take care of the situation," said Nick Harper, Maxwell's brother.

Nick also said his brother was dropped to the ground more than once during the incident.

"They dropped him again while they had the cuffs on him. Then they got him about three feet up off the ground and just dropped him right on his face while his arms were behind his back," said Nick Harper.

"We called for help and they beat him up pretty much," said Kirstin Brand, Maxwell's girlfriend.

Police claimed they handcuffed and treated Harper as they did because he was resisting arrest, but the witnesses say he was completely passed out and incapable of resisting, which seems rather apparent from the video.

Clifford Myers Departing IMPD

Only three months after IMPD announced the promotion of Clifford Myers to the rank of Deputy Chief in charge of the investigations division after William Benjamin was shuffled to operations, word comes that Myers is departing to take a new job at Roche Diagnostics. Are things still not well in Straubville?