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Death List Report For July

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Death List July 10, 2018 Agenda

VANDERBURGH COUNTY FELONY CHARGES

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 Below are the felony cases to be filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office today.

Taylor Barrington Danks: Unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon (Level 4 Felony), Maintaining a common nuisance – controlled substances (Level 6 Felony), Possession of marijuana (Class B misdemeanor)

Ledonis K. Johnson: Theft (Level 6 Felony)

Robin Gayle Stilwell: Battery against a public safety official (Level 6 Felony), Possession of a synthetic drug or synthetic drug lookalike substance (Level 6 Felony), Resisting law enforcement (Class A misdemeanor)

James Robert Austin Travers: Intimidation (Level 6 Felony), Intimidation (Level 6 Felony)

Meghan Michelle Garcia: Possession of methamphetamine (Level 6 Felony)

Michael Frank King Jr.: Theft (Level 6 Felony)

Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Meeting

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The Board of School Trustees of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation will meet in executive session at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, July 9, 2018, 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.

Adopt A Pet

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Iris is a laid-back “chill out” kind of girl! She’s a female Chow mix and is about 9 years old. She is very patient and tolerant with other dogs, although not particularly playful. But hey, a big fluffy girl with black fur can take it easy during the summer! Her adoption fee is $110 and includes her spay, microchip, vaccines, and more. Contact Vanderburgh Humane at (812) 426-2563 for adoption details!

Former Nursing Home Executive Handed 57-Month Prison Sentence

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IL for www.theindianalawyer.com

from Indianapolis Business Journal Staff

Daniel Benson, the former chief operating officer of American Senior Communities, was sentenced Friday to nearly five years in federal prison for his role in a massive kickback scheme at Indiana’s largest chain of nursing homes.

Indiana Southern District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt sentenced the 54-year-old Benson to a 57-month sentence after a plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail, wire and health care fraud; conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute; and money laundering.

Benson, of Fishers, was released after the hearing to await instructions regarding when and where he is to report to serve his sentence.

The sentencing comes one week after former ASC CEO James Burkhart was given a 9-1/2-year sentence for leading the fraud scheme.

Investigators said Burkhart and Benson, along with two others, took part in a criminal scheme between January 2009 and September 2015 that netted them $16 million.

Prosecutors say Benson used his position “to play an integral part in the sweeping conspiracy to defraud the victims in this case: the owners of ASC and Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County.”

Burkhart and Benson were indicted in 2016 along with associates Steven Ganote and Joshua Burkhart, who is James Burkhart’s brother.

Authorities say the four used shell companies and inflated invoices to enrich themselves. The victims of the fraud were Indianapolis-based ASC, which is owned by the Jackson family of Indianapolis; the Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, which hired ASC to operate its nearly 70 nursing homes; and federal health care programs.

The kickbacks covered all sorts of purchased goods and services, from landscaping and nurse call lights to American flags and pharmacy and hospice services.

EPD ACTIVITY REPORT

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EPD Media Report for 7-06-2018

Hill Vows To Stay In Office, Demands Investigation Into Groping Allegations

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Olivia Covington for www.theindianalawyer.com

Amid allegations of sexual misconduct against an Indiana lawmaker and growing calls for his resignation, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill vowed again Friday to stay put. Meanwhile, a Statehouse rally is planned for Saturday “to support victims of Curtis Hill.”

Reports that Hill groped and/or behaved inappropriately toward four women — including Democratic State Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon — came to light Tuesday when a confidential memo created at the request of state legislative leaders was leaked to the media. The memo, which was prepared by Indianapolis law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, records Reardon’s account of a drunken Hill sliding his hands down her back and under her clothes before grabbing her bare buttocks at an end-of-session legislative party in March. Though the memo says Hill repeated this conduct a second time, Reardon penned a column on Friday saying she was able to recoil before Hill could grope her a second time.

According to the memo, Indiana House and Senate leaders from both parties conducted an internal investigation when they learned of Hill’s alleged misconduct in May. Reardon wrote Friday that she initially intended to address the alleged groping with Hill in person, but chose to reveal the allegations to Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, after learning the Attorney General also behaved inappropriately toward legislative staffers, including one of her own.

Hill has denied the allegations since they were first reported on Tuesday, but throughout the week a growing number of state leaders — including fellow Republicans Bosma, Senate President pro tem David Long and Gov. Eric Holcomb — began calling for Hill’s resignation. The former Elkhart prosecutor vowed to stay in office on Tuesday, then repeated that promise in a Friday statement.

“I now stand falsely accused of some of the same crimes I spent 28 years prosecuting,” the statement said. “Yet without a thorough investigation — without the right to face my accusers and review the evidence against me — I am convicted by public officials demanding my resignation. I believed that the standard in this country is that you are innocent until proven guilty – not guilty until proven innocent.”

“I am not resigning,” Hill said in the statement. “The allegations against me are vicious and false. At no time did I ever grab or touch anyone inappropriately. The lack of fairness and the failure to recognize my constitutional rights are a complete travesty.”

Hill also demanded the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office conduct a “fair and thorough investigation” of the allegations against him. When contacted by the Indiana Lawyer on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said no investigation against Hill had been presented to his office. If it were, the spokeswoman said Curry would have to appoint a special prosecutor because of Hill’s “statutory role as counsel for all elected Indiana prosecutors.”

Hill then went on to reference a statement Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law professor and sexual harassment law expert Jennifer Drobac made to media this week, in which she said the investigation “should be redone completely.” Drobac shared a similar sentiment with Indiana Lawyer on Thursday, saying, “The powers that be failed us 100 percent.”

Among the issues that Drobac identified with the investigative process was the fact that, according to the memo, Hill was not involved. Hill himself said as much on Tuesday, and a joint statement from Long and Bosma said he was only made aware of the allegations, which came to their attention in mid-May, during a conference call on June 29.

Bosma and Long then said they held an in-person meeting with Hill on July 2. The confidential memo was leaked later that day, prompting the chorus of calls for Hill’s resignation.

“Elected officials have called for my resignation without affording me any due process or conducting an actual, fair and independent investigation,” Hill said Friday. “… This fundamental lack of fairness and due process regarding this prejudicial so-called ‘investigation’ is in violation of the principles on which this country was founded.”

Hill’s statement also referenced the fact the Office of the Indiana Inspector General has agreed to open an investigation into the allegations at the request of Bosma and Long. The Attorney General took specific aim at Holcomb and his support for that investigation, saying that because Holcomb “has already determined the outcome of the investigation,” the Inspector General will not be able “to conduct a fair and independent investigation.” Holcomb publicly stated that he believed the stories of Reardon and the other victims, thus prompting his call for Hill’s resignation.

With the accusations against Hill looming, groups including the Indiana Victims Rights Coalition, Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and other groups announced a rally at 2 p.m. Saturday on the Statehouse Capitol steps “to stand as a community and call for Curtis Hill’s resignation.”

“This nonpartisan event is a way of standing together in solidarity to say, enough is enough,” the groups announced in a press release Friday. “The rally will continue as long as Curtis Hill remains in office. Time’s up, Curtis Hill.”

PRUITT FLUSHED OUT

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Apprentice jockey Edgar Morales off to fast start; American Alphabet provides memorable memorial

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Having begun his riding career only last October, apprentice jockey Edgar Morales is off to a fast start at Ellis Park, with three wins, a second and four thirds in 14 mounts so far this young meet.
The three wins tie Morales for the lead heading into Friday’s card with Jack Gilligan, another young jockey working hard to make a name for himself in Kentucky. (Note: James Graham won Friday’s first race to pull into a tie for the lead, with Jack Gilligan winning the third for his fourth win of the meet.)
“It’s a long meet yet, but we’re off to a good start,” said Julio Espinoza, the former jockey who is Morales’ agent. “I’m looking forward to having a big meet, maybe even leading rider.”
Said Morales: “This is my first year here. But with the good horses, the trainers giving me the opportunity and a good agent, we’re doing well and working hard. … It’s a tough meet here, too, but we’re working hard, paying attention and keep trying.”
Morales is the 20-year-old brother of Roberto Morales, a veteran jockey currently riding in Louisiana. The brothers are from Puerto Rico, known for its state-run jockey school that has launched greats such as John Velazquez and young standouts Jose and Irad Ortiz. Not that it’s easy getting started even with the training of that well-known school, but Edgar Morales said his family lived more than two hours away, he had no car or anyone to take him. Morales knew he wanted to be a jockey, but he was going to have to do it from the school of hard knocks.
He said he finished regular school and came to Louisiana two years ago to work at Evangeline Downs as a hotwalker and then groom, progressing into an exercise rider. He went to Miami with trainer Efren Loza, who also has horses stabled in Kentucky and who brought Morales to Kentucky.
“I wanted to ride races, but it was slow because I didn’t go to the school,” he said. “So I kept learning more and more.”
Morales launched his riding career at Keeneland on Oct. 6, winning for the late Jack Van Berg and his son, Tom, with his fifth mount. He won 17 races at Oaklawn Park over the winter and 11 this spring at Churchill Downs. Also riding at Indiana Grand and occasionally at Mountaineer Park, Morales has 49 victories overall, including a handful of wins at Churchill Downs and Keeneland.
“He’s come a long ways,” Espinoza said. “His brother sent him to me. He’s one of the smartest riders I’ve ever had. He listens, first of all, and he’s naturally intelligent anyways. He’s polite, quiet. Everybody likes him, and that’s a big key.”
Said trainer John Hancock, who teamed with Morales to win a race named for the trainer’s late mother on July 4: “Very talented young man. I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. He rides two for me (Friday), one Saturday and three on Sunday. He reminds me a lot when Rafael Bejarano got hot.”
Like Morales, Gilligan won two races on Wednesday then tacked on another one by taking one of the two held Thursday.
“A good way to get started,” Gilligan said after the races Wednesday. “I had a second and third opening day, and with two wins, great start to the meet. Hopefully it continues now. We’ve got a good bunch of mounts this week, and go to Arlington on Saturday and ride one for Michelle Lovell who has a big shot as well. Everything is going good.”
Gilligan rides Dubby Dubbie, a two-time allowance winner at Churchill Downs, in Arlington Park’s Grade 3 American Derby. The 3-year-old gelding is 5-1 in the morning line for the turf stakes.
The hot trainer is Chris Hartman, who is 3 for 4 with a third. Hartman won Thursday’s first two race and was in the paddock to saddle a third when the remainder of the card was called off because of extreme heat and humidity.
American Alphabet provides memorable memorial to Hancock’s mom
A year ago, trainer John Hancock’s barn surprised him with having an Ellis Park race named for his mother Bivian B. Hancock, who had died over the winter. Bivian was the matriarch of a prominent racing family, one of her son’s long-time clients and partner but also was revered in Henderson County for 50 years as a caring bus driver for the school system.
This year, Hancock carefully planned the memorial race, getting it as the third race on July 4, in which he had American Alphabet running. All that was left was for American Alphabet to win the $7,500 maiden-claiming race, which she did by a length, paying a surprising $10.60 to win.
“It wasn’t as easy to do as everybody thinks it was,” Hancock reflected Friday morning in his barn office, the blue horse blanket with his mom’s name in big white letters. “The people in the barn surprised me last year with sponsoring the race after my mom, because she meant so much to so many people and she meant so much to me. I knew this year I wanted to do it myself. So when the opportunity came up, and this filly was doing really well, I said, ‘OK, we’ll take a shot.’ When the (entries) came out, I thought this would be a good spot. It wasn’t going to be easy. There were two or three fillies in there as capable as she was, but I thought, ‘This is the spot to take a shot.’ It was a holiday and I knew there would be a lot of family members here. And we got lucky. We were really fortunate. I was just amazed that she paid $10. I couldn’t believe she was 4-1.”
So what would have that blanket presentation been like had American Alphabet not won?
“It wouldn’t have been any different,” Hancock said. “I looked at the entries and knew if I got beat, I was going to present the blanket to somebody I knew who would understand what it meant to me. Vickie Foley, we grew up back here on the backside together. It wouldn’t have bothered me if she had won it. To me, Vickie lives in Louisville but she group up here at Ellis Park, she and her brother, Greg. One of the other choices was a filly I bought as a yearling and broke. I sold her a couple of months ago to Rick Jordan’s owners. I pretty much knew if I got beat I’d be giving it to somebody who knows what this blanket means. It was special anyway it went. It just turned out to be better than I won.”
As it turned out, the Vickie Foley-trained Curlabella finished second.
“I was handling it really well when they turned for home and she made the lead,” Hancock said. “This filly has a bad habit of just kind of ‘hanging.’ I said, ‘Oh man, here we go. We’re going to have to ride this down the lane.’ Everybody was rooting for it. The (grandstand) steps were full and they were all screaming and hollering. And Jimmy Mac (announcer Jimmy McNerney), I’ve known him since he was born, and he got into it. You could tell it meant a little something to him, too. The last two or three calls, right before she got to the wire, was unbelievable. We were standing in the winner’s circle, and they were getting ready to present the blanket. I looked up and Jimmy said, ‘She was known on the backside as Ms. Punkin.’ I looked up at the tote board and said, ‘This one is for Ms. Punkin.’ And there was a picture on the tote board of myself, my wife and my mom.
“Then, it got me. My mom was my world. My mom not only had three sons, she had more people she called her kids than you could ever imagine. I got a phone call from a gentleman yesterday who said he wanted to be here but couldn’t. I knew this gentleman, but I hadn’t seen him in 15-20 years. I was getting those phone calls for two days.”
Hancock says the Bivian B. memorial race will be an annual tradition. “Every year there will be a blanket for my mom,” he said. “My grandson, he understands what it means, and my daughter. I’m sure if something was to happen, they’d carrying it on… If I don’t win another race this summer, I got the one I wanted.”
Hancock trains a 2-year-old named Bivian B., owned by Gatewood Bell (who owns American Alphabet with Ken Donworth) and Hancock’s wife, Donna. “That blanket will be on Bivian B. when she walks in the paddock” to run, he said.
Why we know Knicks Go is a good one: He won first out for Colebrook
The Korean Racing Association, which runs horse racing in Korea, owns Knicks Go, the impressive 2-year-old first-time starter that won Wednesday by 3 1/2 lengths under James Graham at Ellis.
“He goes, for sure,” Lexington-based trainer Ben Colebrook said in reference to the Painter colt’s name. “He’s been working really well. Then in the last work, I worked him with a filly that I love, and he outworked her. I was kind of like, ‘Wow, I thought she’d outwork him.’”
Knicks Go broke on the rail, which can be especially problematic for a horse that hasn’t raced before.
“I hate it first time out,” Colebrook said, adding of his five-time stakes-winner and top-class sprinter, “I say that, but Limousine Liberal drew the rail first time out. I don’t usually win first time out. Those are the only ones I can remember winning first time out, and both were from the rail. I mean, I hate to say this, but usually the ones who win first time out for me are pretty good.”
Colebrook says he has his young horses “ready to go” first time out, but not all the way cranked for a best effort, wanting to develop the horse for the long haul.
The $75,000 Ellis Park Juvenile on Aug. 19 is a possibility for Knicks Go, as is a stakes at Saratoga, Colebrook said. The dream goal is the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.
“James thinks he can go farther, which he obviously is bred to do,” he said. “The only concern I had was the rail and I thought five-eighths would be too short for him, honestly. But he’d done nothing wrong up to this point, so we had pretty high expectations. But any time Steve Asmussen has one in there, you always have to worry about him. We thought if we hit the board we’d be thrilled.”
Colebrook has other promising 2-year-olds that he expects to run at Ellis Park, including Claiborne Farm’s Heels, the Flatter filly who worked with Knicks Go.
“You get a good read on your 2-year-olds now at Ellis,” he said.

Zapperini lives up to Foley’s belief in Ellis feature; Pretty Greeley steps up: Go Away wins first time out

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Trainer Greg Foley long has held a high opinion of Lloyd Madison Farms IV’s Zapperini, but felt the horse was decidedly underachieving last year.
Foley got the 5-year-old Zapperini’s attention by gelding him over the winter in New Orleans. The way Zapperini was going, he wasn’t going to be a stallion anywhere anyway. The hope was to get him back on track as a very good racehorse. Zapperini showed the plan is working as he bested a very nice field in Friday’s featured $44,000 allowance/optional claiming race at Ellis Park, beating co-favored Chocolate Ride by 1 3/4 lengths while running the mile over the firm Wright Implement turf course in 1:33.66, the fastest time at the distance of the young meet.
“This has been a good horse,” Foley said. “He was a real nice 3-year-old, then we kind of were disappointed in him for awhile. He had a lot of seconds and thirds, just kind of ‘hanging’ and that. Anyway, we castrated him this winter at the Fair Grounds and freshened him a little bit.
“I started him back sprinting, and he came flying that day in a (second-level) allowance at 5 1/2 furlongs, third or fourth and just came from last. Another three jumps and he wins and he galloped out like an eighth-mile in front. I thought, ‘Maybe that’s what this horse wants.’ You see on his form we tried sprinting him a couple more times and he just didn’t have enough gas to sprint. Anyway, we put him in the mile today. The horse worked great last week, and he ran big today. He likes this turf course. He’s won two with a third in three starts. He had run on his mind today and got the money.”
Ridden by Gabriel Saez, Zapperini tracked front-running Chocolate Ride in second, angling off the rail on the far turn and edging away at the wire to finish 1.06 seconds off the course record. Zapperini paid $15.20 as the fourth choice in the field of five 3-year-olds and up. Italian Charm finished third while edging Saham, the technical favorite over Chocolate Ride with both horses 8-5 in the betting.
“I got a good trip,” said Saez after winning his third race of the meet in 12 starts, while leading in purse earnings at $74,435. Saez returns to Ellis after a couple of years back East. “I’m glad to be back at Ellis. Hopefully we continue the momentum we’ve got. Knock on wood everything stays safe and we go from there.
“This was a nice race. There were a few scratches. I got him into the position I wanted to be. When it was time to get the job done, we did it.”
Zapperini now is 3-2-4 in 22 starts, earning $174,113 with the $26,950 paycheck. It was his first win in 16 starts, dating to his allowance victory two years ago at Ellis in his first start on turf.
After the then-colt won on his second attempt, Zapperini ran a respectable fifth in the Fair Grounds’ Risen Star Stakes. Opting to duck Gun Runner, who would go on to be 2017 Horse of the Year, Foley scratched Zapperini out of the Louisiana Derby to run in Keeneland’s Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass. He didn’t run well, but it shows you the respect the barn had for Zapperini’s talent. The horse went on to finish second, third and fourth in three turf stakes but then never got over the hump as a 4-year-old.
Zapperini, a son of 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, has the same mom (the Smart Strike mare Bobby’s Babe) as May Lily, whom the stable is running in Sunday’s $50,000 Ellis Park Turf Stakes.
Foley said Zapperini could run back in a third-level allowance race at Ellis or even go in the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile on Aug. 5. “I wouldn’t be afraid to try him,” he said. “He ran nice today.”
Pretty Greeley gives Morales fourth win of meet
Edgar Morales won his fourth race of the meet when Pretty Greeley captured the fifth race, an entry-level allowance, by a neck over favored Sworn Silence. Pretty Greeley, a 5-year-old daughter of Greeley’s Conquest, paid $20.20 after covering six furlongs on dirt in 1:10.12.
Pretty Greeley earned her fourth win in 22 starts. She was eligible for the allowance condition because her prior wins came in a maiden and two claiming races, including for $16,000 when she was claimed by owners Mark Moore, William Simon and Brent Gasaway this past winter at Oaklawn.
Turned over to John Ortiz, Pretty Greeley won two of four starts, with two thirds, in claiming races, including winning for $30,000 in her last start at Churchill Downs.
“She’s training really well in the mornings,” said Morales, who has ridden Pretty Greeley since she was claimed “She’s getting better and better. When they claimed her, she was a little bit lazy. John Ortiz is a really good trainer. I’ve won three races with her, for $20,000, for $30,000 and now an allowance race. She’s got heart.”
Go Away comes away with victory in first start
Go Away, a first-time starter trained by Eddie Kenneally, drove to the lead in the stretch to win the 2-year-old maiden race by five lengths over 16-1 shot Mr Zydeco. Go Away, who covered the mile on the Wright Implement turf course in 1:35.91, paid $6.40 to win as the second choice under Declan Cannon.
“He’s a lovely son of Scat Daddy,” said Cannon, referring to the deceased Ashford Stud stallion who also sired Triple Crown winner Justify. “He’s a big, good-looking colt. He’s going to get better as time goes on. He was very green today. But he’s got a lot of potential, a lovely mind on him. He did everything right, just having a look (around) when he got to the front, which is understandable with a first-time starter. He’s a nice colt with a big future.”
Go Away is owned by Andrew Farm, Lewis Lakin and Jose Singer.
It was Cannon’s second win, but he also has five seconds and a third in 16 mounts. “If those seconds were wins, I’d be really happy,” he said. “But I won’t grumble too much. I’m blessed to ride for people who have some nice horses. It really makes my job easier.”
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