Commentary: Gun Manufacturers Are Killing Their Best Customers
Commentary: Gun Manufacturers Are Killing Their Best Customers
By Michael Leppert
MichaelLeppert.com
I ran into a friend on Tuesday night who disagrees with me on gun policy. Plenty of my friends do.
Whatever.
To keep it fresh, I have new reasons this time.
Our gun laws need to be modernized. Most Americans agree. Pew Research published another telling report on the issue in October of 2018. More than two-thirds of Americans support banning assault rifles and high capacity magazines (67%); requiring background checks for all private sales and at gun shows (85%); barring gun sales to anyone on a no-fly or watch list (84%); creating a database to track all gun sales (74%); and, blocking those with mental illness from purchasing guns (89%).
At least half of those who consider themselves Republican or lean Republican support each one of these items, some by lopsided majorities.
With that kind of public support, our government should be able to do some of these things.
Death-by-gun is a public health crisis in America. I have been saying it for years, but only because of the overwhelming evidence.
The mass shooting problem in our country is obvious and internationally unique. There is no escaping it for any meaningful amount of time. We no longer have time to do much healing between them anymore. Virginia Beach is this week’s reminder. Twelve innocent people, mostly city employees, were gunned down by another last week for no immediately apparent reason.
The incident shares plenty of similarities to other mass shootings. Assigning a non-partisan research organization the task of learning about these numbing events would seem to be a simple and obvious thing for us to do. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention is available to do it for us. All we have to do is undo a congressional prohibition on it and fund the study.
We should want to know all about why these things keep happening here. I believe we do want to know. When I write “we,†I mean all Americans. That includes gun rights folks, confiscation advocates and everyone in between. There is no legitimate reason not to want to understand why these uniquely American massacres keep happening.
We should want to know all we can about every other type of gun death suffered by our country men and women too.
Now, before all of the usual objectors start crafting their rage-responses to my transparent ploy to impede their right to buy an AR-15 with no waiting, background check, or to have it delivered promptly to the shooter’s home like a pizza, read on please.
Legitimate gun owners, the distinguished “good guys with guns,†are the ones dying more than any other demographic in our country through the use of the very product they so adamantly defend. That’s right, gun manufacturers’ most loyal customers are buying guns and then using them to kill themselves at an alarming rate.
The people in this group who are dying would likely oppose my positions on gun policy. They would likely be in the minority of the polling groups reported by Pew in the report cited above.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in America. More than 47,000 people committed suicide here in 2017. Roughly 70% of them are white men. And to further narrow it down, the leading age group among those white men are those 46-64.
Have you ever been to a gun show or an NRA convention like the one Indianapolis just hosted? This is who is there.
While still nauseated by the murders at Virginia Beach this week, I found myself reading an in-depth piece in Rolling Stone titled “All-American Despair,â€Â written by my friend, Stephen Rodrick. This one focuses on suicide in the American West. Again, for those inclined to be enraged by my suggestion that our culture do something, anything, to try and turn the tide on our gun violence problem, please read this story. If you are a white man, between the age of 46 and 64, read it twice.
The largest number of those killed by a bullet each year in America do so via suicide. The guns being used are not stolen. They are being bought legally, often obsessively, by people who shouldn’t have them.
Gun control is not about inconveniencing Americans for me. It is about saving lives. Even the lives of those who tirelessly advocate for the right to buy a product that they eventually use on themselves to die.
Rodrick writes: “…the men who survived suicide attempts had one thing in common: They didn’t use guns. Pills can be vomited, ropes can break, but bullets rarely miss.â€
A great America would do something about this. Even when the most vulnerable object.
FOOTNOTE: Michael Leppert is a public and governmental affairs consultant in Indianapolis and writes his thoughts about politics, government and anything else that strikes him at MichaelLeppert.com.
This article was posted by the City-County Observer without opinion, bias or editing.
Father Of Mayor Winnecke Funeral Held Today
Funeral Service Held Today For Ralph Albert Winnecke
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. today at First Presbyterian Church, 609 SE Second St., with visitation preceding at 10. Services will be followed by interment at Park Lawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Dan Scism Golf Scholarship Award or First Presbyterian Church.
OBITUARY OF RALPH ALBERT Winnecke
PIERRE FUNERAL HOME
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church, 609 SE Second St., with visitation preceding at 10. Services will be followed by interment at Park Lawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Dan Scism Golf Scholarship Award or First Presbyterian Church.
Ralph Albert Winnecke, whose joy and contagious affability exemplified Evansville’s best spirit, passed away on Friday, June 7 at Heritage Center. He was 89.
Father of Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, Ralph was born to Julius and Wilhelmina (Belo) Winnecke, the children of German immigrants. Ralph was a proud West Sider who loved golf, the Cubs and a fried bologna sandwich now and then.
Ralph died from complications related to diabetes. To the end, he retained his characteristic warmth and sense of humor, always ready with a joke and a hearty laugh to cheer his many friends, family members and all he encountered.
Ralph grew up on Lemcke Avenue and graduated from Reitz High School in 1948. In 1951, he enlisted in the Air Force, traveling to Morocco during the Korean War where he served as a security officer with his trusty German shepherd Dido. Upon his return to Evansville in 1955, he began a long and happy career at Mead Johnson & Co., working in the labs testing drugs under development and rising to help lead the animal testing division. He loved his work and rarely missed a day.
At a staff bowling outing one weekend, Ralph was introduced to a co-worker whose birthday happened to be the same as his. He and Shirley Ann Fink cherished 55 years of marriage, celebrating many Feb. 10 birthdays and sharing the rest of life’s milestones until her death in 2015. Ralph adored Shirley and often said that she was the smartest person he ever met.
Ralph and Shirley raised three children––Lloyd, Joycelyn and Lisa––of whom they were immensely proud. Devoted to both his family and his work, Ralph passed on to his kids his rigorous work ethic and an innate sense of duty to those around him. He glowed with happiness whenever he shared their triumphs and accomplishments. And Ralph loved Winky Winnecke, the family dog — so much in fact that Winky went to Dairy Queen each year on his birthday for a cup of vanilla soft serve.
Ralph was in the sixth grade when he got his first job, as a caddy at Helfrich Golf Course just up the street from home. “Did you know much about golf?’’, his granddaughter asked recently. “Only that you had clubs and you swung to hit a ball,†he responded jovially. That job was the beginning of Ralph’s lifelong passion for a game he mastered, scoring three holes-in-one over the years and forever displaying the trophies to prove it. After retiring from Mead Johnson, Ralph spent two decades “working’’ at Clearcrest Country Club.
He was secretary of his bowling league and president of the softball league, collecting friends and good stories at every turn.
Ralph’s two favorite spectator sports were the Chicago Cubs and Evansville government and politics. It was a Cubs jersey one day and a Winnecke for Mayor T-shirt the next — except during election season when it was all politics all the time. Ralph did not shy from asking the dedicated nurses and aides at Heritage Center if they were voting for his son.
Ralph and Shirley were vital members of First Presbyterian Church, never missing Sunday morning services and the Bible Bunch class. Ralph filled just about every role there — deacon, elder, Sunday school superintendent, usher, taking collection, serving communion, delivering flowers –– you name it, Ralph would step up to to it.
Ralph was a beloved member of many communities––he couldn’t help but collect new friends everywhere he went. He exuded a magnetic geniality that appealed to anyone and everyone, touching countless lives in ways large and small.
Ralph is survived by his three children, Lloyd Winnecke (Carol McClintock), Joycelyn Winnecke of Chicago, and Lisa Winnecke of Denver, Colo.; brother Robert Winnecke (Mary); grandchildren, Danielle Feagley (Stephen) of Tucson, Ariz., Grace Adee of Chicago, and Anna Rose Winnecke of Denver; great-grandsons, Holden and Oliver Feagley of Tucson; and many nieces and nephews.
His family gratefully acknowledges, in particular, the nurses, aides and hospice care-givers at the Heritage Center.
AG Curtis Hill Continues Efforts To Prevent Opening Of Unlicensed Abortion Clinic
Attorney General Curtis Hill on Monday asked a U.S appellate court to stop the immediate opening of an unlicensed abortion clinic in South Bend.
On May 31, a federal district court granted a preliminary injunction allowing the Texas-based Whole Woman’s Health Alliance to open a clinic for providing chemical abortions despite lacking the required license from the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH). In chemical abortions, one type of medication is used to kill the fetus followed by another medication to induce the woman to expel it.
On June 2, Attorney General Hill appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He also filed a motion with the district court seeking an immediate stay that would have prevented the unlicensed clinic from opening until Indiana’s appeal could be considered.
On June 7, the federal district court denied the motion for a stay – prompting Attorney General Hill to seek the intervention of the U.S. Court of Appeals in issuing a stay.
“The district court has declared that something as ordinary and fundamental as state licensing – which the state does for everything from nursing homes to daycares – can be invalidated in the name of the right to abortion,†Attorney General Hill said. “This ruling turns the right to abortion into a cudgel against state licensing laws that the Supreme Court long ago declared to be perfectly valid.â€
The ISDH previously has denied Whole Woman’s Health a license after the entity failed to provide such requested information as documentation about the safety record of affiliated clinics in other states.
“The preliminary injunction threatens irreparable harm to Indiana women because it allows Whole Woman’s Health to open an unlicensed and unregulated abortion clinic,†Attorney General Hill said. “Indiana has no way of ensuring that an unlicensed abortion clinic is complying with its other requirements or to ensure that patients are being given safe and proper care.â€
Further, Attorney General Hill noted, a licensed abortion clinic already operates west of South Bend in the town of Merrillville.
“The whole point of professional licensing regulation is to protect consumers from suffering injury,†Attorney General Hill said. “The risk of harm to women by allowing unlicensed clinics to dispense chemical abortions outweighs any speculative burdens faced by Whole Woman’s Health or women who must otherwise travel a mere 65 miles for an abortion.â€
Lawyer Suspended For Alleged Trust Thefts
Dave Stafford fr www.theindianalawyer.com
Despite repeated objections, an insurance company’s CEO has been ordered to personally attend an upcoming settlement conference in a contractor’s defamation suit against the insurer.
Nationwide Insurance CEO Stephen R. Rasmussen failed to persuade either a magistrate judge or the presiding judge that his presence was unnecessary at a settlement conference in a lawsuit brought by ARAC Roof it Forward.
ARAC claims Nationwide made allegedly defamatory statements about the contractor to its insureds. After an initial settlement conference proved unsuccessful, Indiana Southern District Magistrate Judge Mark Dinsmore wrote that Nationwide’s representative appeared to have a predetermined settlement position. Further conferences, he wrote, “would be futile without the presence of a high level member of [Nationwide’s] management, which is why the court ordered both parties’ CEOs to attend.â€
“Although Nationwide may be unhappy with the Magistrate Judge’s decision, Nationwide may not ask this Court to substitute its own opinion for that of the Magistrate Judge,†Magnus-Stinson wrote. “…Nationwide clearly disagrees with the Magistrate Judge’s evaluation of the proceedings and conclusion that the presence of both parties’ CEOs at the upcoming settlement conference would aid in the resolution in this matter. But Nationwide’s disagreement does not equate to clear or legal error, and the Magistrate Judge amply justified his decision with a discussion of relevant law and observations from the first, unsuccessful settlement conference in this matter.â€
Gov. Holcomb Makes Appointments to Various Boards & Commissions
Governor Eric J. Holcomb Announces New Appointments And Reappointments To Various State Boards And Commissions
21st Century Energy Policy Development Task Force
The Governor made seven appointments to the 21st Century Energy Policy Development Task Force, whose terms expire Dec. 2, 2020:
- Bill Fine (Greenwood), Utility Consumer Counselor for the State of Indiana
- John Graham (Bloomington), retiring dean of the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs
- Kay Pashos (Indianapolis), partner at IceMiller legal counsel, practicing in the area of energy and utilities law
- Philip Powell (Indianapolis), associate dean of academic programs, clinical associate professor of business economic and public policy, and Daniel C. Smith Faculty Fellow at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business
- Wallace E. Tyner (West Lafayette), James & Lois Ackerman chair and professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University
- Donna Walker (Bloomington), president and CEO of Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc.
- Juan Pablo Carvallo (Berkeley, CA), scientific engineering associate in the electricity markets and policy group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Capital Improvement Board of Managers of Marion County
The Governor made two appointments to the Capital Improvement Board of Managers of Marion County, whose terms will expire Jan. 15, 2021:
- Sarah Fisher (Indianapolis), retired IndyCar driver, CEO and business owner
- Earl Goode (Indianapolis), chief of staff for Gov. Eric J. Holcomb
Indiana State Egg Board
The Governor made five reappointments to the Indiana State Egg Board, whose terms will expire June 30, 2022:
- Bryan Johnson (Orleans), with Riverview Farms, representing the Indiana Farm Bureau
- Darrin Karcher (West Lafayette), with Purdue University, representing the Office of Agricultural Research Programs
- Blair Kriner (Indianapolis), with Delco Foods, representing the food service industry
- Thomas Lafferty (Noblesville), with Blackford County Foods, representing the Indiana Grocery & Convenience Store Association
- Alex Seger (Jasper), with Wabash Valley Produce, representing the Egg Council of the Indiana State Poultry Association
Integrated Public Safety Commission
The Governor made two new appointments to the Integrated Public Safety Commission, who will serve at the pleasure of the Governor:
- Hon. Jim Fulwider (Crawfordsville), president of the board of Commissioners of Montgomery County
- Hon. Michael Nielsen (Lebanon), sheriff of Boone County
Task Force for Services for Individuals with Intellectual & Other Developmental Disabilities
The Governor made the following appointments to the Task Force for Services for Individuals with Intellectual & Other Developmental Disabilities, who will serve at the pleasure of the Governor.
- Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch will chair the Task Force as the Governor’s designee
- Jonathan Burlison (Indianapolis), CEO of Bridges of Indiana
- Steve Cook (Brownsburg), president of INARF
- Kim Dodson (Westfield), executive director of The Arc of Indiana
- Shawn Fulton (Marion), president of Self-Advocates of Indiana
- Joe Langerak (Evansville), attorney with Jackson Kelly PLLC
- Kathleen McAllen (Indianapolis), senior consultant with G2 Group
- Jason Meyer (Roanoke), president and CEO of Passages, Inc.
- Danie’l Mize (Columbus), board member of The Arc of Indiana and Self-Advocates of Indiana
State Agency Representatives Based On Statutory RequirementsO
- Christine Dahlberg, director of the Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities
- Trent Fox, chief of staff for the Indiana State Department of Health
- Eric Heater, interim Deputy Director of Adult Services with the Division of Mental Health & Addiction
- Dr. Nancy Holsapple, special education director with the Indiana Department of Education
- David Reed, deputy director of Child Welfare Services
- Sarah Renner, deputy director of the Division of Aging
- Julie Reynolds, director of strategic initiatives with the Division of Disability & Rehabilitative Services
- Allison Taylor, director of the Office of Medicaid Policy & Planning
Is Your Family Complete?
By Erica Irish
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS — After Fort Wayne mother Laura Wheeler spent several years caring for her three children with her husband, she felt her personal family was complete.
With a husband who could support the family financially through his work as an attorney and with the help of benefits from time served in the U.S. Army, Wheeler spent years as a stay-at-home mom forging a personal connection with her children.
But that life left her unfulfilled. Desiring to escape the home and engage with her community, Wheeler took to the internet in 2009 and began browsing for volunteer opportunities in the Fort Wayne area.
With most volunteer positions asking her to sacrifice her day hours for training, Wheeler started looking for a more flexible option.
That’s when she stumbled across an online ad that, admittedly, she called “weird†at first glance.
Superimposed on a photo of a pregnant woman’s torso were the words “IS YOUR FAMILY COMPLETE? DO YOU STILL HAVE A UTERUS?â€
Wheeler’s curiosity soon overcame her unease. Now, one decade later, Wheeler uses her body to help infertile couples grow their families as a gestational surrogate.
But Wheeler and others working in the field firsthand call Indiana’s existing surrogacy laws undefined, with few top-down regulations for the lawyers, physicians and private citizens immersed in the field.
Because of that, it’s been the responsibility of assisted reproduction lawyers like Michele Jackson, a principal for Harden & Jackson LLC in Carmel, Indiana, to uphold national recommendations for surrogacy arrangements.
There are important distinctions between the most common surrogacy procedures.
In gestational surrogacy, the surrogate does not share DNA with the child and instead serves as a vessel for the embryo. The intended parents work to create the embryo beforehand, either with their own egg and sperm or with help from donors, and then transfer this material to an approved surrogate.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), reports that the number of women carrying fetuses in gestational surrogacy arrangements increased from 727 in 1999 to 3,432 in 2013. Of all cycles between 1999 and 2013, gestational surrogates gave birth to more than 18,400 infants, according to the ASRM.
Traditional surrogacy arrangements involve cases in which the chosen surrogate does share DNA with the child. She uses her own egg that is inseminated with sperm from either a donor or the intended father.
There are virtually no data available to catalog the number of infants born in traditional surrogacy agreements, according to a report by the Council for Responsible Genetics, a non-profit that studies biotechnology and medical ethics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Each of these procedures are viable options for the one in eight couples who experience infertility. Of this number, the cause of infertility varies, according to research by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. On average, one-third of infertile couples cannot have a baby due to a disorder in the man, and, in another third, the woman is unable to carry a baby. Still another third of couples are unable to determine why they can’t have children.
Under current Indiana law, women are presumed to be the legal mothers of any child they birth. Even so, surrogacy arrangements still occur, forcing surrogates to file documents with the courts during or after the pregnancy to disprove their parentage.
Jackson called this language especially outdated for gestational surrogates because they have no genetic connection to the babies they birth, meaning the child was created from material provided by the intended parents. She said it’s essential that the Indiana legislature keep up with the times.
Rep. Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville, made that his mission during the 2019 legislative session through House Bill 1369, a bill that would have specified guidelines for contracts drafted in surrogacy agreements. The measure was quietly defeated after it was never heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee, though it passed out of the Indiana House in a 78-12 vote.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Randy Head, R-Logansport, declined to comment on the bill.
Among other provisions, the bill would have addressed everything from privacy to healthcare preferences and the surrogate’s future relationship with the baby, if there was to be one. It also clarified that intended parents in a contractual agreement have custody of the child upon its birth, even if they break the agreement with the surrogate.
Amanda Sapp, an assisted reproduction attorney operating her own law office and the first gestational surrogacy agency in Indiana, The Stork’s Nest, said a lack of clarity in the law can leave surrogates vulnerable to complicated situations. For example, if a baby is born with an unexpected genetic disorder or disability, the intended parents can abandon the child with virtually no consequences.
But for some groups, surrogacy represents a dangerous step that ventures into manufacturing human life for profit. Glenn Tebbe, executive director of the Indiana Catholic Conference, spoke to this perspective on behalf of the Catholic church, a lead organization against many forms of assisted reproduction technology.
In some states, including Arizona and New York, surrogacy arrangements are required to be “compassionate arrangements†in which the surrogate cannot make money from delivering a child to its intended parents. And on the international stage, a growing number of countries, including Denmark, France, Germany and Ireland, refuse to recognize the practice outright.
“Those that are interested in fostering and protecting the authentic interests of women would do well to avoid giving government sanction to a practice that clearly reduces women down to their biological parts and treats them as commodity,†Tebbe said to lawmakers reviewing HB 1369 in February.
Wheeler, however, said the idea that surrogates pursue agreements for easy money, or that intended parents use agreements to take advantage of vulnerable women, fails to capture the difficulty of each surrogacy journey.
“It’s not the quick payday people think it is,†Wheeler said, adding she would estimate she makes around $45,000 per agreement.
Not only does a woman have to sacrifice her body for a nine-month pregnancy, but she must also undertake months of pre-screenings, including background checks and mental health evaluations. Most agencies also require that surrogates not be on any form of government assistance, including Medicaid or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and that they subscribe to a health insurance provider that covers surrogacy.
Adria Reed, a nurse for the Midwest Fertility Specialists in Fishers, Indiana, who has worked in assisted reproduction since the 1990s, confirmed this. Reed said the average surrogacy arrangement requires a full year — and that’s only when the process is going well.
The procedure becomes especially complicated when a surrogate chooses to work with an international couple, a reality that defined nearly 16 percent of gestational surrogate agreements between 1999 and 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Jennifer Grumme, a Greencastle, Indiana, native, has spent the last six months working with an agency in California to receive her first embryo as a gestational surrogate. She’s set to make upwards of $50,000 by the end of the agreement.
The agency paired Grumme, 28, with a couple living in China, where surrogacy is restricted. Many families there find help in American surrogates through international agencies.
Grumme declined to identify the couple to protect their privacy.
In March, Grumme flew to California for several days with her sister to receive the embryo, created using genetic material from the couple.
And the stakes are especially high, Grumme said, because this is the only embryo the couple was able to create using their own egg and sperm. Should Grumme’s body reject the embryo, the couple will have to seek out a donor to assist in the surrogacy process instead.
Though Grumme is happy to help amid her life as a mother to a young infant and sommelier, coordinating what she said is a lifechanging procedure on the other side of the world is daunting and, at times, alienating.
“We did do a Skype call as an initial meet and greet,†Grumme said about her relationship with the couple. “Now that I’m this far into the process, I feel like if I did it again, I’d want someone that was more tangible. But I’m by no means upset with my decision. I was trying to be as open as I could.â€
Indiana University law professor Jody Madeira confirmed similar feelings of isolation among the hundreds of women she interviewed in her 2018 book on infertility, family, and assisted reproduction, called “Taking Baby Steps: How Patients and Fertility Clinics Collaborate in Conception.â€
Madeira’s principal finding in the research was that a majority of women seeking infertility treatment or engaged in assisted reproduction felt shame and, even when the procedures went well and produced the desired child, the majority of couples felt their physician-patient or agency-client relationship was “cold and formal.â€
The professor said her research served as personal exploration, too, saying she was inspired to launch the project after facing infertility in her own marriage. Madeira used in vitro fertilization to give birth to her three children — triplets — in 2007.
Madeira also noted that drafting laws to guide areas as sensitive as surrogacy can be a massive challenge for policymakers, whether in the Indiana General Assembly or beyond. Overall, she said HB 1369 “misses the mark†in key areas, such as expanding regulations for sperm donors, and is outright wrong in others, such as when the bill defines a “parent-child relationship†as a phenomenon that exists between an unborn embryo and the intended parents.
“That’s simply unconstitutional,†Madeira said, arguing such a definition violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s monumental Roe v. Wade ruling that protected women’s right to abortion in 1973.
Madeira, alongside her colleagues in the reproductive industry, said legal protections for surrogates will only become more necessary as the procedure becomes more common and affordable for families.
But what’s also essential, industry experts argue, is social visibility and acceptance.
“The area is just exploding, and it’s fascinating,†Jackson said. “It has to do with life and death and infertility and babies. It’s so interesting.â€
FOOTNOTE: Erica Irish is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
Editor’s note: This story has been edited to correct a statement about The Stork’s Nest, which is the first gestational surrogacy agency in Indiana but not the only one.Â
Lawyer Suspended For Alleged Trust Thefts Faces New Charges
Dave Stafford for www.theindianalawyer.com
A suspended lawyer already accused in three counties of stealing money from ex-clients’ special needs trusts has been charged in Indianapolis with allegedly stealing from another victim. The latest charges against Kenneth Shane Service include a count of racketeering.
Service — who already was facing court dates in Delaware, Franklin and Lawrence counties for allegedly stealing from his former special needs trust clients — was formally charged May 29 with Level 5 felony corrupt business influence and three counts of Level 6 felony theft.
The founder and former leader of Carmel-based National Foundation for Special Needs Integrity Inc. has not yet stood trial on any of the charges against him. But the accusations in Marion County assert he made unauthorized estimated withdrawals of more than $43,000 from the trust of a person who was subject to a guardianship.
Authorities say Service withdrew the money from the Marion County victim’s special needs trust between April 2014 and June 2016, including cash withdrawals via cashier’s checks for amounts from $6,500 to $22,100.
The amount of money Service has been charged with stealing from former clients now stands at more than $250,000. Additionally, Service also is accused in civil lawsuits with taking another $100,000 from clients’ trust funds in Allen, LaPorte and Wabash counties.
An attorney for Service was not listed in online court records in the Marion County case, and Service could not be reached for comment.
Indiana State Police have been investigating Service for more than two years, beginning with the alleged theft of $85,000 for a former special-needs trust client in Bedford. ISP investigators said at the time they feared the potential of “numerous victims in multiple states.â€
That initial case in Lawrence Superior Court is set for a jury trial beginning July 17, but Service’s defense attorney last month advised Judge John M. Plummer III that a continuance would be requested, according to online court records.
In Franklin County, Service is scheduled to stand trial beginning Sept. 4 after a May trial date was continued. Service was charged Sept. 18 with Level 5 felony theft and two counts of Level 6 felony theft for allegedly stealing a total of $102,564.27 from a Brookville man who was the subject of a guardianship.
No trial date has been set in Delaware County, where Service was charged last June with Class D felony theft for allegedly stealing $23,622 from a former client. A status conference is scheduled for next month in that case.
The nature of Service’s alleged crimes led attorneys to rush to remove him as trustee in estate cases after Service was suspended by the Indiana Supreme Court in June 2017.
McGuff Headed Back To Affiliated Baseball With Arizona Diamondbacks
Evansville Otters starting pitcher Patrick McGuff had his contract purchased by the Arizona Diamondbacks this week.
“Patrick picked up right where he left us last season,†Otters manager Andy McCauley said.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity the Diamondbacks are giving Patrick and wish him the best of luck.â€
Patrick McGuff is from Cincinnati, Ohio and joined the Otters for his first stint in Evansville at the beginning of the 2018 season.
This will be McGuff’s third stint in affiliated baseball. He was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 36th round of the 2016 MLB June Amateur Draft out of Morehead State University. McGuff spent 2016-17 in the Twins organization.
Then after five starts with the Otters in 2018, McGuff was signed by the Cincinnati Reds. McGuff re-signed with the Otters following the 2019 MLB Spring Training season.
“I’m happy as I can be to get another shot in affiliated baseball,†McGuff said.
“It’s always nice to be wanted and the Diamondbacks purchasing my contract made me feel like they want me to be a part of what they have going on there.â€
In 2018 with the Otters, McGuff was 3-1 with a 1.55 ERA and 26 strikeouts in five starts and 29 innings pitched. He also tossed one complete game shutout.
In six starts in 2019, McGuff was 5-0 in 43 innings pitched, posting a 1.04 ERA, recording 60 strikeouts, and tossing two complete games.
“This year, I was just trying to be as aggressive as I could in the strike zone, hunting strikeouts, and the aggressive mentality is what led to a lot of success,†McGuff said.
“I’m hoping to get outs and pitch as many innings as possible while putting up good numbers with my new organization.â€
In his last start with the Otters, McGuff went the distance in a 3-0 win against the Schaumburg Boomers, throwing a one-hitter in the process. The lone hit came with McGuff being one out away from tossing the fourth no-hit bid in Otters’ history. McGuff struck out 11 batters in the shutout win.
“Friday’s performance by Patrick was as impressive as any I’ve seen,†McCauley said. “He commanded both sides of the plate and all three of his off-speed pitches were working.â€
“I couldn’t thank the coaching staff and the Evansville Otters organization enough for everything they’ve done,†McGuff said. “From top to bottom, thank you to everyone.â€
McGuff is the second Otters player to be signed to an affiliated organization this season.
Utility position player Taylor Lane signed with the Mets organization in May after possessing a .348 batting average to start the season with the Otters.