IMPD Chaplain's Actions Ruffles Feathers

A controversial IMPD chaplain raised the ire of a number of police officers and fellow chaplains following his actions this past week. A reliable source tells Advance Indiana the chaplain in question verbally assaulted a beloved, long-time chaplain for the department, LaVerne Sanborn..The 69-year old chaplain became so distraught after the altercation, another chaplain felt compelled to drive her home and spend some time with Sanborn to comfort her.

After the fellow chaplain left Sanborn's home, the attention-grabbing chaplain called Sanborn at home to resume his verbal assault of her. A distraught Sanborn suffered a severe heart attack and died on Wednesday. Sanborn's funeral is scheduled for Monday, and Advance Indiana is told the chaplain who verbally assaulted Sanborn has been forbidden to attend her funeral. Sanborn worked as an accident investigator for IMPD for nearly 30 years prior to her retirement. She put in another 13 years of service in the chaplain's office.

It doesn't end there. Advance Indiana also learned the controversial chaplain is under investigation by the Special Investigations Unit regarding missing prescription drugs taken from several DOA scenes. Someone apparently didn't make sure the prescription medications found their way to the department's property control room after they were taken from decedents' homes.

Jail Inmate Escapes One Day After Staff Shake-Up Announced

Marion County's new jail commander, Lt. Col. James Martin, is off to an inauspicious start. A day after Marion County Sheriff John Layton announced a shake-up of the jail staff, including naming Martin as its new commander, an inmate managed to escape from the jail. The Sheriff's Department says 34-year old Jessica Stringer used another inmates identity to escape from the jail book-out. One of the reasons given for this week's shake-up of the jail's staff was the mistaken release of several inmates.

Top Deputy In Cook County State's Attorney's Office Out Of A Job Over Facebook Comments About Michelle And Hillary

The Better Government Association is reporting that a high-ranking member of Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's staff has been forced out of his $153,000 a year job after posting crass comments on Facebook about the physical appearance of Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton, and making derogatory comments about others, including the Rev. Al Sharpton.

David Gallagher, the $153,000-a-year chief of the state’s attorney’s civil actions bureau until he quit over the weekend following questions from the Better Government Association and FOX Chicago, posted a Facebook comment on a photo of the First Lady meeting Pope Francis in September. Referring to her weight and appearance, Gallagher wrote, "I think Moosechelle was hiding a secret service agent in the seat of her dress." 

Commenting on an article that accompanied a photo of Clinton, who is running for president, Gallagher wrote on Facebook, "As Eddie Murphy would say, ‘Da bitch ugly!’" 

On a Facebook link about Sharpton, a black minister, activist and commentator, Gallagher posted a comment that read, "Sounds like Black privilege to me." 

Gallagher posted a number of other stinging comments, including one that called the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a South Side priest and anti-violence activist, a "pfraud."

The BGA noted that a number of Gallagher's posts were time-stamped during regular working hours. Because he tendered his resignation, the State's Attorney's office will not be investigating his activities further. "We only became aware of Mr. Gallagher’s posts on his personal Facebook page when we were contacted by a reporter late last week," Alvarez's office stated. "In light of the troubling and inappropriate nature of these comments, Mr. Gallagher tendered and the State’s Attorney accepted his resignation this past weekend." It's rather incredible that a high-level aide working for such an important Democratic officeholder in Chicago would hold such contemptuous views of prominent Democrats that one would expect more from someone of the opposite political party.

Indianapolis Star's Lead Headline Boasts Of Alcohol Sales At Sunday's Colts Game

This is more for the benefit of readers who are not unfortunate enough to live in a city where the only daily newspaper is a Gannett-owned newspaper. In other words, you live in a city where there is a legitimate newspaper that does real reporting and analysis of the news. Today's headline in bold red print letters on IndyStar.com, the online version of the Indianapolis Star, reads: "Exclusive: Alcohol Sales May Exceed $500,000 Sunday At Lucas Oil Stadium." I kid you not. This is what a Gannett-owned newspaper believes is news.

The story opens by telling us that every Colts game at Lucas Oil Stadium is a sell-out this year but because the team is facing off against the New England Patriots, the "numbers suggest a spike will happen in another category: alcohol sales." So the newspaper is urging fans to head to the stadium Sunday and just get totally plastered and then hop in their vehicles and drive home drunk, hoping they won't get in a wreck and kill someone on the way home. 

Where is Mothers Against Drunk Driving? Why aren't they standing outside the front doors of the Indianapolis Star's office downtown protesting the newspaper using its news pages every day to encourage its readers to go out and drink? I look at this newspaper's online edition every day. There is not a day that goes by that there is not an article pushing alcohol consumption in one form or another. Would someone please explain to me why Gannett wants its readers all to become alcoholics? 

Today's story goes on to note the only reason it knows what alcohol sales are is because the Capital Improvement Board is required to pay the profit from the stadium's concessions to the greedy, billionaire NFL team owner, Jim Irsay, who pays zero rent on the stadium that will cost taxpayers billions before it's finally paid off and keeps virtually every revenue it could conceivably generate in income. Beer sales alone at the stadium last season generated $4.1 million for Irsay compared to the $1.4 million he earned from soft drink sales. The pertinent question to the public is why Mr. Irsay isn't required to pay property taxes on the stadium since it is used 100% for his personal corporate profit? That's a question the sports-happy newspaper won't dare to broach. 

Indianapolis Municipal Election Drawing Little Interest From Voters

Give the voters no real choices and you can't be surprised that they are showing little interest in this year's municipal election in Indianapolis. Only 485 people took advantage of early walk-in voting during the first week the voting center at the Indianapolis City-County Building opened for business. A little more than 2,000 people requested absentee ballots.

I held my nose and cast a ballot for two candidates I don't particularly favor for mayor and city-county council last week, realizing that regardless of which candidates win in this year's election, there will be no demonstrable difference in policy. The same self-dealing corporate insiders will be calling all the shots and getting richer at the expense of the rest of us.

Things aren't looking good for Republicans in this year's election. Their ace in the whole is a rumor they're spreading that black voters are sitting out the election this year as a form of protest against the Democratic Party's leadership. The Democratic candidate for mayor traditionally takes about 90% of the black vote in Marion County, while a Republican requires close to 65% of the white vote to win county-wide.

Hastert Will Agree To Plead Guilty To Illegal Hush-Money Payments

The man who once held the third highest office in America as Speaker of the House has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges he made $1.7 million in illegal hush-payments to a former wrestling student with whom he allegedly carried on an inappropriate relationship decades ago when he was a high school wrestling coach in Yorkville, Illinois according to the Chicago Tribune. Dennis Hastert, who allegedly agreed to pay the man $3.5 million as part of the scheme to obtain his silence in the matter, will change his not guilty plea to guilty at a hearing a federal judge has scheduled a change of plea hearing for October 28 where his formal written plea agreement will be offered to the court assuming his lawyers and federal prosecutors agree to the terms by then. Hastert was originally charged with one count of currency evasion and one count of lying to federal law enforcement. Some reports indicate that federal prosecutors are insisting that Hastert agree to serve at least one year in prison as part of any plea agreement, although the terms of the plea agreement under discussion have not yet been agreed upon.

Pence Appoints Alicia Gooden To Marion Superior Court

Gov. Mike Pence announced this morning he has selected Alicia Gooden to fill the Marion Superior Court vacancy created after he named Judge Robert Altice, Jr., to the Indiana Court of Appeals. Gooden, a family law mediator with The Mediation Group, is married to City-County Councilor Will Gooden (R), an attorney with the law firm of Clark Quinn & Moses.

Larry "Trash Can" Wilder Now Representing Katina Powell, Denies She Pimped Out Underage Daughters

The adult escort who co-authored a book with Dick Cady accusing the University of Louisville basketball program of paying her and other escorts to provide adult entertainment to the team's basketball players and recruits is now represented by Larry Wilder, a Jeffersonville, Indiana lawyer once found passed out in a trash can following a night of heavy drinking in Louisville. Wilder tells the USA Today that none of Powell's daughters were underage at the time they were used in their mother's adult entertainment business despite claims made in her book to the contrary and her book makes no such claims despite news reports to the contrary

Wilder told the newspaper Powell decided to retain him because of concern she could face criminal charges based on statements she made in her new book, "Breaking Cardinal Rules." “The book does not indicate that any of her daughters were not of legal age to undertake the activities they undertook,” Wilder told USA Today. The national newspaper raised Wilder's past drinking episode in the article. "Wilder was found passed out in a trash can in 2009, and photographs were leaked to the News and Tribune in his home of Jeffersonville, Ind," USA Today reported. "As a result, Wilder lost jobs as an attorney for the Jefferson City Council and the Clark County, and he told the Louisville Courier-Journal that he'd been out for a night of celebratory drinking."

Wilder told the paper he had represented other prominent clients as a criminal defense attorney, including University of Louisville athletes. One of Wilder's former clients was former Clark County Sheriff Danny Rodden, who pleaded guilty one year ago to lying to the FBI and witness tampering regarding allegations he had paid for sex with a prostitute in a Louisville hotel room. Rodden admitted that he met with a prostitute in a hotel room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on May 29, 2013 in which he paid $300 to the prostitute for oral sex and also provided the prostitute with a uniformed shirt and other clothing bearing the insignia of the Clark Co. Sheriff's Department. Rodden was accused of telling the prostitute to get rid of the evidence and lie about his involvement with her. Indianapolis criminal defense attorney Jim Voyles also represented Rodden in that criminal case. Do you think there's any connection to that case and Ms. Powell's allegations against the Cardinals' basketball program?

Powell's own book appeared to implicate her in the human trafficking of her daughters. Quoting from her book, the Courier-Journal wrote on October 5, 2015 of Powell's daughter's involvement in her adult escort business: "She admits, for example, that she pimped her three daughters — the youngest when she was only 15 — and she makes no apologies for it. "People may think that I expose my kids,” she writes. “But ----, they enjoy themselves, they meet new people. ... For those who have a problem with it, kiss my ---." Wilder is saying something quite different now. "Based on the facts, none of those daughters were underage at the time they engaged in conduct involving Mrs. Powell, involving all of these folks who are up in a hornet’s nest."

East Chicago City Council Member Charged With Murder

E. Chicago Council Member Robert Battle (D)

UPDATED: East Chicago City Council member Robert Battle (D) already had his hands full with legal problems after he was arrested in Porter County last month after a police stop led to the discovery of marijuana and $100,700 in cash in the vehicle he was driving. Today, Battle was arrested for the murder of a 31-year old East Chicago man he allegedly shot in the back, along with federal drug charges related to his arrest in Porter County last month according to the Northwest Indiana Times.

Battle, who is running for re-election in next month's municipal election unopposed, admitted to police through his attorney on Monday that he had shot Reimundo Camarillo, Jr. in an alley following an argument during which Battle claimed Camarillo pulled a knife on him. Battle later told his attorney there was no struggle between the two men. Police were unable to find either the gun or the knife where Battle suggested they could be found. Federal authorities also filed charges against Battle for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. At the time of Battle's arrest last month, he had allegedly visited a house in Michigan where cocaine was being dealt.

The Northwest Indiana Times says investigations related to the criminal charges filed against Battle uncovered the fact he was using several addresses as his residence but not residing at the residence he was using for purposes of representing the district he represents as a member of the East Chicago City Council. Let me take a wild guess that he won't be charged with vote fraud or theft as former Secretary of State Charlie White was. East Chicago Council members earn over $45,000 a year for their part-time jobs, more than five times the average salary of council members in other municipalities. That salary includes a $25,000 discretionary stipend the members can spend as they please or pocket as income. They also receive health insurance, pension and other benefits valued at more than $12,000 a year.

The Northwest Indiana Gazette has a post on the lovely home on the cul-de-sac Battle owns in Merrillville versus the small, very modest home in East Chicago he uses for voting residency purposes. It's pretty easy to figure out where Battle really lives.