EVANSVILLE — The words "nude" and "38DDD" jump out in a stack of official credit card receipts filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office in 2020 and 2021.
A visit to Eastland Mall confirmed what cash register shorthand seemed to suggest: Items purchased with a county credit card at a women's store called Torrid included a "push-up T-shirt" bra, "goddess foxy tank," jewelry and other items.
The $262 bill was among thousands of dollars in questionable purchases the Courier & Press found in a two-year analysis of credit card spending in Prosecutor Nick Hermann's office. Charges ranged from the gourmet — a hundred-dollar order of drizzled strawberries — to mundane items such as a back scratcher and corn remover.
All charges were made on two credit cards issued to the prosecutor's office, many with no explanation. All were paid by the county auditor's office.
'I’d be pretty outraged'
Julia Vaughn, policy director at Indiana Common Cause, said Vanderburgh County residents are entitled to wonder about such spending.
"If I was a citizen of the community, I think I’d be pretty outraged and would be demanding a process that passes the smell test — a real accounting of what these expenditures were for and some sort of justification as to how they are related and a legitimate expense for this public official to make," said Vaughn, whose nonpartisan organization promotes government accountability.
Hermann, the county's top law enforcement officer, is paid $164,950 a year to run an office that employs some 70 people. First elected in 2010, he will face voters in a May 3 Republican primary election against challenger Diana Moers, an Evansville-based section chief in the Indiana Attorney General's Office.
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The office prosecutes local felony and misdemeanor criminal cases, conducts investigations, supervises grand jury proceedings, enforces child support orders, handles juvenile prosecutions and assists crime victims.
What is the prosecutor's office allowed to spend money on? That depends what pot it comes from. It has a county general fund budget of $2.6 million and receives at least half again as much money from grants, user fees and forfeitures.
Following a state audit of Vanderburgh County government for 2014 and 2015 that found some county credit card transactions didn't have itemized receipts or "adequately" itemized receipts and that others went against the county's usage policy, the county commissioners adopted a credit card use policy specifically for the prosecutor's office.
The resulting ordinance cites travel, training, legal research, equipment and expenses related to criminal investigation and prosecution as permissible uses of the prosecutor's credit card. It gets vague after that.
"Any activity or program that is intended to reduce or prevent criminal activity (is permitted)," the policy states. It also names "ancillary expenses required for the administration of the office."
'Not taxpayer dollars'
The credit card used at Torrid was assigned to Regene Newman, who was finance director for the prosecutor's office until last April. The receipt lists her as the customer.
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In an interview with the Courier & Press, Newman didn't dispute that she made the Torrid purchases but said the money came from user fees. The user fees are fines paid for infractions committed in Vanderburgh County, such as driving over the speed limit.
To her, that makes all the difference.
"What you need to understand is, none of that is paid with tax dollars," Newman said. "That’s really important. You need to know that. It’s not out of taxpayer dollars or general fund money."
Infractions money is still public money, Vaughn said.
"They may not have come out of the tax coffers, but they were collected by the government," Vaughn said.
The Torrid credit card receipt is one among many for about $4,900 in gifts Hermann's office purchased in 2020 for "Christmas angels." Included with the receipts from Amazon, Old Navy and other stores were the wish lists of 10 children and teens, which included items such as clothes, a superhero bed set and a Baby Alive doll.
Newman, who now works as a business director in Vanderburgh County Superior Court, conceded the Torrid purchases "may not have been for the Christmas angels."
"That could have been for — you know, it’s been two years. I don’t know. We donate a lot of things to a lot of different companies," she said.
Newman began in the prosecutor's office as a receptionist in the 1990s under then-Prosecutor Stan Levco, rising to become director of finance a few months later. She does not have a college degree, she said in her deposition in Hermann's settled sexual harassment lawsuit.
Newman said the majority of examined credit card receipts were in her name because "a lot of people" used her card.
"I’m the only one that had it in the office, that people could grab or use," Newman said. "Nick carried his."
In a news conference held Wednesday in response to this report, Hermann said the Torrid purchases were done "in conjunction with Christmas Angels program, which is done through Media Ministries Outreach." He said the nonprofit group helps people in need during the holidays and the prosecutor's office buys things for them.
"I think that may have been a situation where they (someone in need) had lost their housing or had been moved," the prosecutor said.
The bra was on sale for $43.05. The Torrid receipt also lists such items as celestial studs hoop earrings and other jewelry, two "supersoft crew" shirts and leggings.
"When you’re at the point that you’re asking for shoes and underwear and shirts, that’s something that I personally have never experienced and I can’t imagine, and so we’re more than happy to step forward and help fulfill that need," Hermann said.
Prior to publication of this story, Hermann responded to the Courier & Press' request for an interview with an email highlighting unspent funds the prosecutor's office has returned, its grant funding and reimbursed child support collection money. The email was not seen earlier because it went to a junk folder.
He said Wednesday that his office has done "a spectacular job" and has been "fiscally responsible." "In the last three years, our office has returned over three-quarters of $1 million of budgeted money to the county general fund," he said. "That's tax money that's been returned to this county."
Nick Hermann's credit card
The spending on Hermann's card included, among other equipment purchases, a karaoke portable PA speaker system for $267 on May 26, 2020. He said Wednesday that the office used it to amplify sound at community events.
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On another occasion, Hermann spent $139 at Variety Village 2, a produce and plant store. The receipt simply says "PRODUCE F."
Hermann's office also used a county credit card for floral arrangements costing $137, $135 and $62 in 2020 and 2021.
It's not uncommon for politicians to send flowers as a show of sympathy or congratulations. Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, for instance, has done so — but he paid for them out of his campaign fund, not government accounts.
Youth and charitable causes have benefited from Hermann's credit card spending of public money on occasion.
The prosecutor's office paid about $1,000 for 100 customized coloring books with saddle stitching. There's also a $250 donation to the 2020 Youth First Champions Celebration and money for pizza and makeup for kids' events. The office spent $1,853 from grant funds in October for books for students.
Nearly $1,000 went to fundraisers for Deputy Jason Cutrell, who collapsed while on duty and was diagnosed with metastatic lung and brain cancer.
Newman said Hermann "watches out for victims of crime and kids that are in need."
$10,000 worth of lunches
But his office's generosity toward victims didn't extend to food — at least not compared to the food Hermann and his staff ate.
Newman's county card paid $101 for two dozen "gourmet drizzled strawberries" sent four days before Christmas 2019. Ordered on a Friday, they were delivered to her home that Saturday with a card saying "Merry Christmas!"
Newman said the strawberries were for "some kind of community outreach meeting in the office on a Monday."
"The place I ordered from did not recognize our work address, so I just had them sent to my house, and then I brought them in on Monday," she said.
"We have all kinds of things that we order food and stuff for."
Prosecutor's office credit cards paid nearly $6,900 for 21 catered lunches from Panera Bread in 2020 and 2021, with several receipts stating the food was intended for 20 people. Newman said these were continuing education sessions for attorneys.
Between them, Hermann and Newman spent an additional $2,931 on 12 meals at The Rooftop restaurant in Evansville in 2020 and 2021.
Most of the Rooftop meal receipts came with no explanation, but Hermann referred to one in official correspondence as an "attorney luncheon." Another Rooftop receipt came with the words "CLE (Continuing Legal Education) luncheon."
In his news conference Wednesday, Hermann said CLE office luncheons are held monthly at "a fraction of the cost that the office used to pay to send people to Indianapolis and to other states to receive training."
Other restaurants and eateries also served the prosecutor's office. Two bills at McAlister's Deli each tallied more than $300. Nine charges at Papa John's added up to $1,200. A receipt for a Lamasco Bar and Grill to-go order for 10 pizzas came to $293 with tip.
When the office bought food for crime victims and witnesses, on the other hand, the spending was mostly in the single digits.
One March 2020 receipt gives as its purpose "lunch for a victim here for a deposition." The victim got an order of McNuggets for $8.20, paid with Newman's card.
"Lunch purchased for witness in State v. Bengert murder trial," says another receipt's handwritten explanation. It was a quarter-pound grillburger-cheese combo with a large Blizzard at Dairy Queen. The tab: $9.16.
"Dinner for a victim being interviewed at Holly's House" came to $9.66 — the cost of fries, double cheeseburger and a large Pepsi at GD Ritzy's.
One receipt was simply marked "victim food." It was a Filet-O-Fish with Coke at McDonald's, no tartar sauce. It was $6.69.
The victim lounge
Strawberries or strawberry-flavored food popped up again and again in credit card receipts filed by Hermann's office — at least 15 times in 2020 and 2021 — and not always with an explanation.
When there was an explanation, receipts typically stated sliced strawberries were being purchased for the "victim lounge" — a room where crime victims and their families can meet during trials and trial preparation. Two receipts citing the "victim break room" and one stating "victim asst." included the purchase of ice cream, also using Newman's card.
But Robyn Mastison, director of victim assistance at the prosecutor's office, told the Courier & Press that the victim lounge hasn’t offered sliced strawberries or ice cream or any other food that would require refrigeration or a freezer in the 12 years she has been in that position.
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Many other curious items were listed on receipts identified as being for the victim room, including a bottle of Hershey's Syrup, acid-reducing omeprazole tabs, a special edition of People magazine, maraschino cherries, 54 Reese's peanut butter cream Easter eggs, kosher salt, chunky applesauce, chicken salad and chocolate pudding. Newman's credit card was used for those.
Acid reducer? Easter eggs? Newman said those were "for the office."
The prosecutor's office has a break room of its own and a grand jury room where meetings sometimes are held, she said. Crime victims and grand jury members are sometimes around.
What about all those strawberries?
"It wasn’t that (un)common to have like a fruit tray or, especially if they had a breakfast meeting or something like that, to have snacks in there," Newman said. "We always did that for the staff."
The strawberry purchases stopped in late January 2021, 10 weeks before Newman left the prosecutor's office.
County auditor's judgment call
Brian Gerth, who became county auditor in 2015, told the Courier & Press he would prefer the prosecutor's office and other agencies not have credit cards. There's too much potential for problems to arise.
But Gerth, a Republican who is up for re-election in November, knows it's his job as the financial bookkeeper for county government to vet credit card claims and see that they are itemized.
Hundreds of millions of dollars go through the books in his office, Gerth said. He doesn't personally see every transaction.
"My claims people, you kind of get used to seeing some of the same stuff you get when you see (the prosecutor's office's) stuff monthly," he said. "You know what it is.
"Could the documentation be better? Sure. I really expect that, but this credit card statement is – I mean, it is a pain, everything that’s on there."
Questionable credit card claims put his office in a uncomfortable position, Gerth said. When the card has been used, the transaction has already happened.
"At some point, are you going to let it go unpaid?" he said. "Well, if you let it go unpaid, now the credit card’s going to accrue penalties or interest or both. Well, we don’t want that to happen. So you kind of got to make some kind of judgment call."