“READERS FORUM” MAY 4, 2019
We hope that today’s “READERS FORUMâ€Â will provoke honest and open dialogue concerning issues that we, as responsible citizens of this community, need to address in a rational and responsible way.
HERE’S WHAT’S ON OUR MIND TODAY
 It has been well documented that the Weinzapfel Administration saddled the incoming Winnecke Administration with an unholy trilogy of unfinished business.   In a couple of days, we will re-publish some classic “IS IT TRUE” articles that will prove to be particularly on point on how many problems that former Mayor Weinzapfel created for Mr. Winnecke when he became Mayor of Evansville. Â
WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND TODAY?
Commentary: The End Of An Era? It Doesn’t Have To Be
View the Emmy-nominated WFYI-Franklin College documentary about Richard Lugar
By Mary Beth Schneider
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS–The news Sunday came as a shock.
Former Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican icon in Indiana, had died at age 87. Only a couple weeks earlier, former Sen. Birch Bayh, a Democratic legend here, had died at age 91.
In some ways, it had a poetic symmetry. Their lives, after all, had mirrored each other in many ways. They rose from a state not known for political trailblazing to become two of the most accomplished men in the U.S. Senate. Lugar was a leader in both foreign policy and farm policy. Bayh authored two constitutional amendments — one on presidential succession and one lowering the voting age to 18— as well as Title IX, the legislation that made sports something women did, instead of merely watching.
Mary Beth Schneider
Both had short-lived plans to run for president. And neither got the chance to choose their own political curtain calls, instead of losing their final elections as some of the qualities that made them great became handicaps in a changing political stage.
Wednesday, in a memorial service at the Statehouse for Bayh, his son Evan— a former governor and senator himself — said: “It is not very often you can see a page of history turning and you can see the end of an era. But in the passing of my father and in the passing of Richard Lugar, that is what you see.â€
Yes, the chapter these two political giants wrote is over. But I doubt they’d agree with those who say the standards they represented — civility, bipartisan cooperation, thoughtful problem-solving — are now history, replaced by tribalism and name-calling.
There’s no question we are in a political black hole. But if every politician praising Lugar and Bayh this week would pay more than lip service to their example, there would be light at the end of our tunnel.
After his father’s service, I asked Evan Bayh whether the type of statesman his father and Lugar represented is an anachronism.
“Think about my father’s times,†Bayh said. “There were political assassinations. There were riots in all of our major cities. There was the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam. Those were difficult times… The country (was) coming apart at the seams. But we persevered and made it through with the right kind of leadership.â€
Those last five words, though, are what so many people fear is lacking: The right kind of leadership.
Where is the Birch Bayh or Richard Lugar of 2019? Would any of Indiana’s current members of Congress be eulogized with the same awe that has been bestowed on those two? Not today.
But I want to be an optimist. Bayh and Lugar certainly were. Bayh believed young people should have a voice and participate in their government; that’s why he made it possible for those being drafted into war to have the right to vote for the leaders who sent them. Lugar also believed in the future. It’s why he founded the Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series to launch more Republican women into politics. And it’s why after losing his Senate seat in the 2012 primary election he founded The Lugar Center, seeking thoughtful bipartisan solutions to global problems.
Former Sen. Sam Nunn, the Georgia Democrat who worked with Lugar to dismantle nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union, wrote in a Washington Post column that Lugar’s success was his “rare ability to combine strong conviction with a practical eye toward achieving results.â€
It was an ability Birch Bayh shared. Evan Bayh noted his father believed the adage that a man who refuses to take half a loaf goes to bed hungry.
“The message is: We need to look within ourselves and realize that we’re all Americans first and stop obsessing over our superficial differences,†Evan Bayh said. “They really are meaningless compared to the things that we have in common. I think that’s how my father always looked at things and that’s how Dick Lugar looked at things.â€
Still, Evan Bayh said his father noted that the Senate he served in was different from the one his son experienced.
“But I think that will pass,†Bayh said. “And it will pass when the American people insist that it does. And let’s hope that that’s sooner rather than later.â€
FOOTNOTE: Mary Beth Schneider is an editor at TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
Domestic Battery, Confinement Convictions Upheld Against Abusive Boyfriend
A man who severely beat his girlfriend and held her hostage for several hours has lost his appeal of his domestic battery and criminal confinement convictions.
Mark Thevenot and M.B., who have a history of domestic violence in their relationship, lived together in December 2016. After a night of drinking, Thevenot became angry at M.B. for waking him up and slammed her into a glass coffee table. Shards from the table cut deep wounds into M.B.’s back, but Thevenot refused to take her to a hospital for treatment because he would “get 40 years in prison for it.â€
Two days later, an intoxicated Thevenot again battered M.B., ultimately leaving her unable to feel her legs after he knocked her to the ground, kicking her and beating her with broken piece of wood. As he hit her, Thevenot said that he was beating her because she “throwed [sic] him in jail for six months, so he was going to beat six months.â€
When police arrived at the home a few days later and asked M.B. to step outside for a welfare check, Thevenot slammed and locked the door. Police and SWAT surrounded the home for several hours before Thevenot came outside. He was ultimately convicted of Level 5 felony domestic battery and Level 6 felony criminal confinement and was found to be a habitual offender.
During trial, Thevenot unsuccessfully opposed to the admission of Evidence Rule 404(b) evidence regarding his prior convictions of beating M.B. and Evidence Rule 702 expert opinion evidence regarding domestic violence. On appeal, Thevenot first argued the evidence of his prior conviction was inadmissible under Rule 404(b), but the Indiana Court of Appeals noted Thevenot himself provided the motive behind his actions as he was committing the crime when he referenced the six months he spent in jail.
The court also found that because motive serves as an exception to Rule 404(b)’s prohibition of admitting evidence of prior crimes, the Jefferson Circuit Court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the evidence of his prior conviction.
“Nor can we say the trial court abused its discretion in determining the evidence also cleared the Evidence Rule 403 hurdle, despite the five years that passed between the first and second trials, in light of the fact that Thevenot referenced the prior conviction as he was beating M.B.†Judge Melissa May wrote for the unanimous panel. “The admission of the prior conviction is being used by the State to shed light on what motivated Thevenot to commit the current crime. It is not being used to shine a negative light on Thevenot’s character.â€
Similarly, Thevenot’s Rule 702 argument failed because “there was no chance the expert could be seen as vouching for the victim,†May said.
Thevenot’s also unsuccessfully argued on appeal that prejudicial error occurred during the state’s closing argument. He challenged the deputy prosecutor’s citation to Brown v. State, 497 N.E.2d 1049 (Ind. 1986), on the issue of the meaning of “substantially interfere.†Specifically, the prosecutor told the jury that “the Court stated that the fact that the victim later freed herself does not negate the fact that the jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that a confinement took place.â€
“Thevenot does not assert that statement is incorrect law or a misstatement of Brown,†May wrote. “The prosecutor made it clear she was reading from Brown, and then she discussed M.B.’s testimony about the times she wanted to escape the situation with Thevenot, but she was unable to leave.
“We cannot say the trial court abused its discretion in allowing the prosecutor to read that sentence from caselaw during its closing argument.â€
The court, thus, affirmed Thevenot’s convictions in Mark E. Thevenot v. State of Indiana, 18A-CR-546.
Board of School Trustees of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Meeting
The Board of School Trustees of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation will meet in executive session at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, May 6, 2019, in the John H. Schroeder Conference Centre at the EVSC Administration Building, 951 Walnut, IN 47713, Evansville, IN. The session will be conducted according to Senate Enrolled Act 313, Section 1, I.C. 5-14-1.5-6.1, as amended. The purpose of the meeting is for discussion of collective bargaining, (2)(A); initiation of litigation or litigation that is either pending or has been threatened specifically in writing, (2)(B); purchase or lease of property, (2)(D); and job performance evaluation of individual employees, (9).
The regular meeting of the School Board will follow at 5:30 p.m. in the EVSC Board Room, same address.