An increase in armed attacks on police has prompted a policy change at Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt's office.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Greg Ewing says he's perfectly happy to incarcerate weapons offenders, but Vigo County must deal with the problem of its inadequate jail.
In response to a May 17 plea from Terre Haute Police Chief John Plasse, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rob Roberts has issued new instructions to police and deputy prosecutors involved in firearms cases.
The change comes after a violent felon released from jail to pre-trial work release shot at a city policy officer May 16 while the officer was trying to make a traffic stop.
Two weeks earlier, Officer Rob Pitts was shot and killed by homicide suspect Christopher Wolfe as Pitts and other officers approached Wolfe. Wolfe was free from jail after a plea deal for possession of a handgun without a license.
“Regardless of the reasons,” Roberts said in his email, “we have experienced a shift in our community with an increase in violence that needs to be dealt with swiftly and aggressively. This is our response to those that use or possess handguns while committing crimes.”
In the past, firearms-related cases have been resolved with jail overcrowding being considered, Roberts said in the email.
“But with the current environment surrounding firearms, there is no longer room for accommodation,” he wrote.
Deputy prosecutors have been advised to do the following:
- Oppose bond reductions, pretrial release from jail or placement in community corrections for anyone charged with possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, or felony possession of a handgun without a license or for anyone arrested for any felony while in possession of a gun.
- Request higher bonds for every offender arrested with a firearm possessed illegally, with a minimum of $5,000 bond for a misdemeanor, and $25,000 or higher for a felony charge.
- Use a firearms sentencing enhancement on appropriate cases involving use of a firearm.
- Call for prison time for any serious violent felon charged with possession of a firearm.
Along with those changes, police are being asked to do additional investigations on all firearm-related arrests.
- Evidence technicians are asked to:
- Collect and process those firearms for DNA analysis.
- Get DNA samples from each arrestee.
- Send the evidence to the Indiana Sstate Police Lab for analysis.
Sheriff responds
The new instructions have been welcomed by Sheriff Ewing, who said the increase in violence against local police is startling.
“If we are not dealing with violent offenders in a pro-active fashion, the next violence we will see is going to be worse,” Ewing said Thursday.
The increase in violence that has swept through other parts of the nation seem to now be coming to Terre Haute, he said.
It's true that non-violent or low-level offenders are not being held long in the Vigo County Jail, Ewing said.
Those held for any length time must be because of the nature of their criminal charges, the sheriff said.
Vigo County, per a lawsuit settlement, can house no more than 268 inmates. Any inmates beyond that number must be housed at other jails.
Ewing said of the 284 inmates in his care as of noon Thursday, 247 were at his jail, while 37 were at other jail facilities.
Paying other counties to house Vigo County inmates will cost an estimated $800,000 to $1 million for 2018, Ewing said.
The sheriff, in the final stretch of his second, four-year term, said he agrees with Chief Plasse's frustration. And he says county officials have not come together to resolve the jail overcrowding and deterioration issues.
The jail was too small when it was built about 30 years ago, Ewing said. Expansions since then have only been temporary fixes, he added.
Many other jails around the state are seeing the same overcrowding issues, Ewing said. For instance, he said he spoke to the Vanderburgh County sheriff last week and learned the jail in Evansville has about 126 inmates housed at six other facilities, That annual bill is going to cost taxpayers there about $2 million.
Ewing said the law requires him to house or to arrange housing for all offenders arrested in Vigo County, regardless of overcrowding.
“We will take anyone remanded to my custody and we will deal with it -- and the taxpayers will pay for it, all because of the poor planning on previous elected officials over three decades.”
County officials under legal pressure from two class-action lawsuits have acknowledged that conditions at the overcrowded Vigo County Jail have diminished to the point they have become unconstitutional.
Commissioners favor a new jail at an estimated cost of more than $60 million, not including financing.
But funding for a new jail hit a snag last fall when the Vigo County Council decided not to vote on the commissioners’ request for a 1 percentage point increase in the local income tax to help fund jail construction and other public safety efforts.
Judge's response
Vigo County Chief Judge Lakshmi Reddy on Thursday said she and other judges cannot comment on Plasse's plea for their help in keeping weapons and drug-dealing offenders off the streets for as long as possible.
Reddy's comment came in an email to the Tribune-Star:
"The Code of Conduct prevents judges from talking about open cases. We have been asked to respond to Police Chief Plasse’s recent newspaper piece which concentrated on local criminal issues before the courts.
"It is simply improper for us to comment. Regarding policy, we encourage readers to learn more about multi-branch state efforts already underway to ensure evidence based decision making is used to protect public safety while insuring a constitutionally sound pre-trial process. See this information https://www.in.gov/judiciary/iocs/3721.htm.
"Balancing jail overcrowding, bail reforms, and public safety is a collaborative effort. The judges are engaged in this process and are grateful we have the participation of key stakeholders including police, sheriff, prosecutors, public defenders, probation, community corrections, county council, commissioners, and mental health professionals who are all thoughtfully advancing the discussion on how to best serve our community."