Home Blog Page 5304

Intoxicated Motorist Leads Deputies on Early Morning Chase

0

Intoxicated Motorist Leads Deputies on Early Morning Chase

Shortly before 2:00 AM on Thursday, August 11, 2016, Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s deputies were in the area of Allens Lane and Grove Street investigating a narcotics complaint. While in the area the deputies noticed a light colored Ford Taurus parked strangely in the middle of the roadway. After spotting the presence of the deputies, the driver fled at a high rate of speed with two other occupants inside the vehicle.

The suspect vehicle was traveling so fast that it was seen ramping the railroad crossing on Allens lane just east of Grove Street. Deputies gave chase and pursued for nearly five miles before the suspect finally pulled over in front of the Academy for Innovative Studies (AIS) at 2319 Stringtown Rd.

During the course of the pursuit, stop sticks were effectively deployed on two seperate occasions, once by the Evansville Police Department and a second time by the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office. This contributed to the driver pulling over due to several of the vehicle’s tires being deflated.

The driver and two passengers were taken into custody without incident and were transported to the Sheriff’s Command Post for questioning. The subsequent investigation resulted in the arrest of the driver, Kelton Casteel (20 years old), for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, resisting law enforcement in a vehicle, reckless driving, operating a vehicle with a suspended driver’s license, minor consumption, and an unrelated warrant. The passengers, whom were both 20 years of age, were each issued a summons to appear in court for minor consumption of alcohol and were released from custody.
DRIVER: Kelton Casteel, 20, of Evansville

Vectren Reminds Customers to Call Before You Dig

0

Vectren Reminds Customers to Call Before You Dig

by Natalie Hedde

Evansville, Ind. – In an effort to remind residents to dial 8-1-1 before digging, Aug. 11 has been designated National Call Before You Dig awareness day. Not only does it ensure the safety of all involved, but it is the law to inform local utility companies regarding the intent to dig at least two full days prior by calling the national 811 free service. After telling the 811 operator where the digging will take place and the type of work involved, the approximate location of buried lines, pipes and cables will be marked.

Throughout 2015, Vectren Energy Delivery (Vectren) responded to roughly 1,000 damages to underground lines and pipes. Striking a single line can cause injury, repair costs, fines and inconvenient outages. Installing a mailbox, building a deck, planting a tree and laying a patio are all examples of digging projects that need a call to 811 before starting.

The depth of utility lines can vary for a number of reasons, such as erosion, previous digging projects, and uneven surfaces. Utility lines need to be properly marked because even when digging only a few inches, the risk of striking an underground utility line still exists.

“Calling 811 is easy, free and can ultimately save a life,” said Mike Roeder, Vectren’s vice president of government affairs and president of Vectren-North. “Failure to call before digging results in more than 60,000 unintentional hits annually across the U.S. We hope by educating our customers, together we can keep one another safe while driving that statistic down.”

For more details, visit www.vectren.com or www.Indiana811.org.

About Vectren
Vectren Corporation (NYSE: VVC) is an energy holding company headquartered in Evansville, Ind. Vectren’s energy delivery subsidiaries provide gas and/or electricity to more than 1 million customers in adjoining service territories that cover nearly two-thirds of Indiana and about 20 percent of Ohio, primarily in the west-central area. Vectren’s nonutility subsidiaries and affiliates currently offer energy-related products and services to customers throughout the U.S. These include infrastructure services and energy services. To learn more about Vectren, visit www.vectren.com.

More States Lift Welfare Restrictions For Drug Felons

0

More States Lift Welfare Restrictions For Drug Felons

STATELINE/PEW TRUST BY TERESA WILTZ

ATLANTA-Twenty years after a federal law blocked people with felony drug convictions from receiving welfare or food stamps, more states are loosening those restrictions — or waiving them entirely.

In April, Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, signed a criminal justice reform bill that lifted the ban on food stamps for drug felons in Georgia. Alaska followed suit in July, although applicants must prove they are complying with parole and are in treatment for substance abuse. And in Delaware, a bill to lift cash assistance restrictions for drug felons passed out of committee in June. The legislative session ended before the bill could be put to a vote.

The changes come amid broader efforts in Washington and many states to reform drug policies and criminal justice approaches. And they reflect a growing consensus that helping people when they are released from prison can increase the chances that they don’t end up going back.

People who have been incarcerated need a leg up to successfully re-enter the community, says Roberta Meyers of the Legal Action Center, a nonprofit that fights discrimination against people who have been in prison, have substance abuse issues or have AIDS.

“Most have a hard time getting a job and initially need to rely on public assistance. And food is a basic primary way they need help,” Meyers said.

The federal ban was established in 1996, a product of the tough policies of the “war on drugs” and sweeping welfare reform that restricted recipients to no more than five years of government assistance in most states and required most recipients to work, do community service or enroll in vocational training.

It prohibits those convicted of felony drug crimes — but not other felonies — from receiving food stamps and cash assistance, but states have the option of relaxing those rules.

Today just seven states — Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia — still have full bans on drug felons receiving food stamps. A proposal to lift the food stamp ban failed to advance in the Nebraska Legislature in March.

States have been more reluctant to lift their restrictions on cash assistance, known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; but at least 11 states and the District of Columbia have done so, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Despite the movement to loosen the ban, some critics object to making the change at a time when states are being forced to slash their budgets.

“States should be looking for ways to shrink the welfare rolls and tighten eligibility requirements to families legitimately working to get back on their feet,” said Texas state Rep. Matt Rinaldi, a Republican who last year voted against lifting the state’s food stamps ban. “Expanding welfare benefits to convicted drug dealers and drug felons is a giant leap in the wrong direction.”

But Georgia state Rep. Rich Golick, a Republican who supported lifting the ban in his state, said the ban didn’t make sense on a number of levels.

“You had individuals who were coming out of the system convicted of a violent crime who had the eligibility to apply for food stamps whereas someone who went in on a drug charge, including possession, didn’t have that ability.

“You’re increasing the chances that they may reoffend because they don’t have the ability to make ends meet. Doesn’t this go against what we’re trying to achieve as they re-enter society?”

Loosening the Restrictions
About half a million people in the U.S. are incarcerated with a felony drug conviction. Most are not high-level drug dealers and have no prior criminal record for a violent offense, according to a 2015 report by the Sentencing Project, which advocates against racial disparities in sentencing and for alternatives to incarceration.

Sixteen percent of people in state prisons are being held on felony drug offenses; in federal prisons that number is close to half, according to the report.

Proponents of lifting the restrictions say the bans target poor people and minorities and drive people further into poverty, sending them in and out of federal and state prisons. A 2013 study by the Yale School of Medicine found that 91 percent of people recently released from prison didn’t have reliable access to food.

“One of the best ways that someone can move on after they’ve been released from prison is their ability to eat and take care of themselves,” said Marissa McCall Dodson of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

As states grapple with reducing their burgeoning prison populations, many are looking for ways to help former inmates as they return home.

“A lot of legislatures are starting to see it’s not beneficial to have these flat bans and indefinite restrictions imposed on people,” Meyers of the Legal Action Center said.

By 2001, eight states and the District of Columbia had completely opted out of the food stamps and cash assistance bans, while another 20 states had modified them, according to the Sentencing Project.

Last year, Texas removed its blanket food stamps ban, while Alabama eliminated its food stamps and cash assistance bans.

More rural states are less likely to lift the bans, because they aren’t as affected by large numbers of people with drug records being released into their communities, Meyers said. “The struggle is very different from urban centers if they’re moving back to rural towns where everyone knows them.”

Today, about a dozen states still ban felons from receiving welfare payments. About half of all states have modified the ban in some way.

At least four states — Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — have recently modified the cash assistance ban to require those with a drug record to undergo drug testing in order to receive cash assistance, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“There are higher hurdles to clear” to lift cash assistance bans, said Nicole Porter, director of advocacy for the Sentencing Project. “And that’s more about welfare and anti-welfare sentiment in this country.”

This year, several bills that would have lifted the cash assistance ban failed in the Virginia House and Senate. In May, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would have allowed childless drug offenders to receive cash assistance amounting to $140 a month. (Former offenders with children are eligible for cash assistance.) Christie said he was open to compromise if the bill was amended to exclude former drug dealers from receiving assistance.

Change in Georgia
Georgia has the country’s highest correctional control rate — that is, the share of people who are either incarcerated or on parole or probation. Each year, about 10,400 people are released from state custody with drug felonies, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Before the ban was lifted, approximately 555 Georgia residents were denied food stamps each month because of a drug felony, according to a report by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI), a nonpartisan research group, and the Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew also funds Stateline). Their children and anyone else in their household could receive benefits.

And each year, because of the ban, the state was losing as much as $10.4 million in federal food stamps, the study found. The federal government pays for food stamps through block grants to the states but splits the administrative costs with states.

“Once legislators understood that these are federal dollars that we are ignoring — that was a big selling point in modifying the food stamps ban,” said Melissa Johnson, senior policy analyst for the GBPI.

Doug Ammar, executive director of the Georgia Justice Project, a legal services nonprofit that lobbied to lift the welfare restrictions, recalls an elderly client who applied for benefits a few years back. The man, who’d served time for a drug conviction in the ’60s, moved a few miles across from the state line, from Florida to Georgia, and found that his change of address meant he could no longer receive food stamps.

“That [drug] record can haunt you and have real-life implications. It’s a lifetime of punishment,” Ammar said. “How long should your brush with the law impact you and your family?”

Patel Decision Restricts Feticide Prosecutions

0

Patel Decision Restricts Feticide Prosecutions
IndianaLawyer by Dave Stafford-August 10, 2016 

Lawyers who succeeded in persuading the Indiana Court of Appeals to reverse a Granger woman’s feticide conviction for taking drugs that resulted in an induced abortion hailed the decision they say restricts the misapplication of state law.

“I think it sends a very strong message to prosecutors,” said Indianapolis attorney Linda Pence, who drafted an amicus brief for the Innocence Network in Purvi Patel’s appeal and years earlier represented Bei Bei Shuai of Indianapolis in a similar case. “I think it does kind of put these kinds of prosecutions behind us. I’m just thrilled to death with this, because that’s the right outcome.”

patel-purvi-mug Patel
St. Joseph County Prosecutor Kenneth P. Cotter, whose office prosecuted Patel after charges were brought by former Prosecutor Michael Dvorak, said it would be unethical for a prosecutor to bring a feticide charge in a case such as Patel’s in light of the Court of Appeals ruling. “I don’t have the luxury of being able to charge something our courts are saying are not crimes,” Cotter said. “I don’t think any prosecutor ever would.”

Cotter said he hasn’t decided yet whether to seek an appeal, but he appreciated the policy determination the court made that clarified the Legislature’s intent. “If this stands, then we now have a framework in which to operate.”

Patel’s case was bolstered by more than two dozen friends of the court whose positions were submitted in briefs on her behalf.

“It generated a lot of interest, and that just shows why prosecutions like this are a bad idea,” said Greenfield attorney Kathrine Jack, who wrote an amicus brief in Patel’s case for the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, health and bioethics experts, and women’s rights and reproductive justice organizations.

Pence said that like Shuai, Patel became pregnant under difficult circumstances and, while in great distress, chose to end her pregnancy. Patel ordered RU-486 and another drug from an online pharmacy, took them and delivered a baby at about 25 to 30 weeks. She disposed of the baby in a Dumpster near a Mishawaka restaurant where she worked, then went to the hospital for treatment of severe bleeding. Hospital staff called police, and Patel was charged with Class B felony feticide and Class A felony neglect of a dependent. A jury convicted her, and she was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison.

A Court of Appeals panel last month reversed the feticide conviction, reduced the Class A felony neglect conviction to a Class D felony, and remanded for resentencing accordingly. Patel already has served one year and four months in the Indiana Women’s Prison.

“(W)e hold that the legislature did not intend for the feticide statute to apply to illegal abortions or to be used to prosecute women for their own abortions,” Judge Terry Crone wrote for the panel in a 42-page opinion in Purvi Patel v. State of Indiana, 71A04-1504-CR-166.

“Since the legislature enacted the feticide statute in 1979, it has been used to prosecute third parties who knowingly terminate pregnancies by using violence against the expectant mother without her consent. This is the first case that we are aware of in which the State has used the feticide statute to prosecute a pregnant woman (or anyone else) for performing an illegal abortion, as that term is commonly understood,” Crone wrote.

The judges found this case to be an “abrupt departure” from other cases, including Kendrick v. State, 947 N.E.2d 509 (Ind. Ct. App. 2011), in which the state used the feticide statute to prosecute a bank robber who shot a pregnant teller in the abdomen, leading to the death of her twins.

“The State’s about-face in this proceeding is unsettling, as well as untenable under Baird,” Crone wrote. The Indiana Supreme Court in Baird v. State, 604 N.E.2d 1170 (Ind. 1992), disagreed with a contention that the feticide statute is used to punish people who perform illegal abortions, not those who kill a pregnant woman with no intent to harm the fetus.

“Assuming the opinion stands, I think it’s a step forward because of all the public health reasons that are cited in our brief,” Jack said. “Women who are having any kind of medical issue in their pregnancy should be able to seek treatment without fearing arrest. Here we have a woman who went into a hospital bleeding, seeking medical care, and it ended up in a criminal probe. We don’t want women to be afraid to go to the doctor or hospital for any reason.”

The office of Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller would represent Cotter if the prosecutor asks for a rehearing or petitions the Indiana Supreme Court to grant transfer. “The Attorney General’s Office will review the Court’s opinion in the Patel v. State case and confer with its clients and decide on next legal steps, if any, by the appropriate deadlines,” spokesman Bryan Corbin said in a statement after the ruling.

Patel’s attorneys, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law professor Joel Schumm and Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Marshall, declined to comment.

Jack said she also was pleased with the decision’s language regarding the neglect charge the COA reduced. Crone cited Herron v. State, 729 N.E.2d 1008, 1010 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000), which held that an unborn child isn’t considered a dependent under the neglect statute.

While the state presented sufficient evidence to find Patel was aware the baby was born alive and that she endangered the baby by failing to provide medical care, the state could not prove her failure to provide care resulted in the death of the baby that weighed less than one-and-a-half pounds.

“The State chides Patel for ‘deliberately induc[ing] the premature delivery of her baby’ with no ‘medical supervision and in a setting where there would be no … medical help available for the child,” Crone wrote. “But these conditions are invalid under Herron, in which we stated that the plain language of the neglect statute ‘contemplates only acts that place one who is a dependent at the time of the conduct at issue in a dangerous situation — not acts that place a future dependent in a dangerous situation.”

“We’re pleased that the appellate court upheld the jury determination that she neglected the child,” Cotter said. He said the evidence leading the jury to conclude the child was alive when born was based on solid science.

While the COA decision makes a future feticide prosecution of a pregnant mother unlikely, Cotter said he would never second-guess his predecessor’s decision to file the charge against Patel. “I had zero problem going forward with the charges,” he said.

Pence said if lawmakers wish to charge women who induce abortions, they may do so by passing laws criminalizing that conduct after an argument on the merits. “But don’t take these statutes that were created without any of these prosecutions (of pregnant women) in mind and then misconstrue that statute. … Everything isn’t supposed to wind up in the criminal system.”•

UE Basketball Non-Conference Schedules to be Announced Next Week

0

Unique format set for announcement

 An exciting format is on tap as the University of Evansville men’s and women’s basketball teams will announce their non-conference schedules early next week.

Both will be announced on Facebook Live.  Head men’s coach Marty Simmons and Senior Associate Athletic Director Lance Wilkerson will announce the men’s schedule live at 10 a.m. on Monday.  The women’s schedule will be revealed in the same format on Tuesday with Coach Matt Ruffing and Wilkerson doing so at 1 p.m.

Follow all of the UE Athletic social mediums for full information on each show.  The features will each be roughly 10 minutes in length and contain the dates and opponents.  Game times are still being determined at this time.

Adopt A Pet

0

Presley is a 4-year-old female American Staffordshire Terrier. She’s a goofy, silly, submissive girl who LOVES everyone she meets! Presley would do well in just about any home. Since lots of insurance companies & apartment complexes won’t like the way her face looks and will judge her based on that, be sure you check the pet policy or homeowner’s insurance where you live. Her $100 fee includes her spay, microchip, vaccines, and more! Call the Vanderburgh Humane Society in Evansville at (812) 426-2563 or  visit www.vhslifesaver.org for adoption details!

 

Control Stake makes first start for new camp in tough turf handicap;

0

 The high quality of this Ellis Park meeting is on display in Saturday’s feature, a $42,000 handicap at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf that attracted stakes-winners Sharp Art, Control Stake and Latent Revenge. The dozen entrants includes 11-time winner Billy Two Hats needing a scratch to draw in off the “also-eligible” list and nine-time winner Helooksthepart running if the race comes off the turf.

The very speedy Control Stake won last November’s Thanksgiving Handicap at the Fair Grounds and the Houston Sprint Cup in February. After Control Stake finished fourth in a tough Churchill allowance race, trainer Philip Bauer and owner Rigney Racing plucked the 4-year-old colt out of a $50,000 claiming race. This will be their first race with Control Stake, who has never run on turf.

“If he runs well on grass, it’s just more options for us,” said Bauer, who had to scratch Control Stake out of a race at Churchill because of a lung infection. “The horse seems to really like that five-eighths to three-quarters (of a mile) distance. Many of the races come on the grass at that distance. Pedigree-wise he might not belong on the grass, but Richard and Tammy (Rigney) are game to try. If he runs bad, we’ll point toward September with him at Churchill.”

One doesn’t routinely see a recent stakes-winner in good form in for a $50,000 claiming price. Control Stake is a four-time stakes-winner who has won eight of 16 lifetime starts, earning $332,690.

“He’s a 4-year-old that has run hard,” said Bauer, who took Control Stake off the high-percentage owner-trainer combination of Maggi Moss and Tom Amoss. “Not that he didn’t come without any little issues, but we’ve been pretty happy with him overall. We tried to back off him a little bit and he had a really good work the other day, so I thought it was time to stab back at the races and figured this was a good place to start.”

When Control Stake was fourth at Churchill, the winner that day was W B Smudge, who won last week’s $100,000 Senator Robert Byrd Memorial at Mountaineer Park.

“He’s kept good company and run consistent (speed figure) numbers,” Bauer said. “I think that’s what attracted him to us as a claim. Tom does a great job, and every now and then one might slip through the cracks. I think also we had in the back of our minds that we are willing him to give him some time if he needs it. We got rewarded with Channel Marker doing that. Channel Marker showed us right away he needed time. This horse, it looks like we’ll be able to play with him for a while, see where he takes us.”

Channel Marker, off 10 months after being claimed for $62,500, won Belmont Park’s Grade 3 Jaipur in 2015 in his fourth start for Bauer and the Rigneys.

Trainer Greg Foley doesn’t usually run horses back in a week. But he’s doing that with turf sprint-specialist Latent Revenge, who was through early in a $100,000 dirt stakes at 4 1/2 furlongs last Saturday in West Virginia. Before that, Latent Revenge captured an overnight stakes on turf at Churchill Downs. Foley said he’ll scratch if the race comes off the turf.

“I wouldn’t normally do this, but he came out of that race like he didn’t do anything,” Foley said. “I mean, he didn’t do anything. He didn’t run a quarter of a mile, three-eighths. He just didn’t handle that racetrack. He came back, licked his tub. He’s a big, good-looking tough horse anyway. He sure didn’t look tired or drawn up from the ship. I wouldn’t run him if he did. I entered him kind of playing around myself. I had no intention of running him. He just came out of it like it was nothing. I told the owners the day after he got home (from Mountaineer) that 90 percent we’re not running unless he bounces back strong and acts great. And he is. He’s good to go, so we’re going to take a shot at it. Really nowhere else to run him for a while.”

The field also includes Tanner’s Popsicle, third in a tough edition of Ellis’ Don Bernhardt; allowance winner Woodland Walk; eight-time winner Shadow Rock and the stakes-placed Mongol Bull.

“I know it’s good for racing, but it’s been tough as nails down there, every race I’ve entered in,” Bauer said. “You kind of hope to give your horse a little bit of an easier spot during the summer months, but you can’t find them. It’s really crazy.”

The Brad Cox-trained Sharp Art in his last two starts won an Oaklawn allowance race and a $50,000 stakes at Will Rogers Downs. He’s expected to scratch, however, after getting in a starter-allowance race Tuesday at Indiana Grand.

St. Julien hopes Groupie Doll helps rekindle career

Jockey Marlon St. Julien found out on Thursday that his mount, which he’d picked up last-minute at entry time, for last Saturday’s $100,000 Groupie Doll was going to be scratched.

“I didn’t think I was going to ride the race,” St. Julien said recently at Churchill   Downs. “We were driving to Ellis that Saturday morning and ‘Rocco’ (Robert O’Connor III), my agent, called me and said, ‘You’re 90 percent going to ride the Groupie Doll anyway.’”

That’s because Jon Court had to move to Improv, when that filly got in because of another scratch. On race morning, trainer Eoin Harty named St. Julien as the substitute rider on Innovative Idea, upon whom he won by a half-length over Emmajestic.

“Going in, I thought I had just as good a chance as anyone else in the race,” St. Julien said. “I just rode with confidence, and things worked out.”

It was St. Julien’s first graded-stakes victory since he took Keeneland’s 2001 Fayette aboard Connected. The Louisiana product has won, 2,395 races with his mounts earning more than $44.8 million in purses in a career dating to 1989. That includes eight years when he captured at least 100 races, capped by 183 in 1994. But his career also has been checkered by zigging when he should have zagged — or simply stayed put instead of switching around circuits while reeling from personal problems.

Now he hopes the Groupie Doll helps him get entrenched again on the Kentucky circuit, which he left about 10 years ago to ride in Chicago before returning to Louisiana. He returned to the Midwest five years ago, winding up with more business at Indiana Grand. A badly broken leg didn’t help matters.

“It was a long haul,” he said, adding of his close friend Robby Albarado, “Robby and I had been talking. I started coming here, working horses, seeing people.”

Living in Albarado’s house, he rode the winter at Turfway Park to make inroads with Kentucky outfits. “I’d been going back and forth to Indiana, but my business was starting to fall more here. It’s working out. I’ve been working my butt off. I’m not stopping until I get almost there, anyways. It’s starting to pay off.”

Kentucky horses, horsemen, jockeys at Arlington Park

Kentucky will be well-represented on Saturday’s Arlington Million card at Chicago’s Arlington Park. You can watch and bet the stakes-laden card at Ellis Park.

The one to beat in the $1 million Arlington Million is the Mark Casse-trained World Approval, who was second by a neck in Churchill Downs’ Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic and comes in off victory in Monmouth Park’s United Nations (G1). He’s ridden by Florent Geroux, who could have a huge day, also riding Skychai Racing’s favored Da Big Hoss in the $300,000 American St. Leger.

Midwest Thoroughbreds’ Roger Brueggemann-trained The Pizza Man tries to regain the form that saw him win the 2015 Million. The 7-year-old gelding has been no better than fourth in three starts this year, including Churchill Downs’ Wise Dan (G2) and Arlington’s Stars and Stripes (G3), which he lost by a total of a neck to Million entrant Greengrassofyoming. That horse was making his first start since being claimed for $62,500 at Churchill by trainer Mike Maker for owner Michael Hui.

The $450,000 Secretariat for 3-year-olds includes Preakness runner-up Cherry Wine, trained by Dale Romans and co-owned by Frank Jones of Louisville; the Robby Albarado-ridden American Derby (G3) winner One Mean Man, trained by Louisville’s Bernie Flint; Turfway’s 2016 Spiral winner (and Kentucky Derby 17th-place finisher as a $200,000 supplemental entry) Oscar Nominated, trained by Maker for Ken and Sarah Ramsey and ridden by Corey Lanerie; the Ben Colebrook-trained Surgical Strike, third in the Spiral and most recently fifth in the Belmont Derby in New York after winning the Arlington Classic (G3).

In the $700,000 Beverly D for fillies and mares, Maker, the Ramseys and Lanerie team with longshot Al’s Gal in the 1 3/16-mile turf race. Al’s Gal was second in Arlington’s G3 Modesty in her last start after winning Churchill’s Keertana. Personal Diary runs for Lexington-based trainer Vicki Oliver off a third in the Ellis Park Turf.

Da Big Hoss, winner of Keeneland’s Elkhorn this spring and last fall’s Kentucky Downs Turf Cup winner, can earn his sixth stakes victory for Maker since being claimed for $50,000. Maker also entered the Ramseys’ Generous Kitten and Rocket Professor, a $25,000 claim who appears to be in to guarantee a good pace in the St. Leger. That could be a problem for Peacock Stable’s Romans-trained O’Prado Ole, who lost the Stars and Stripes by a nose.

Finish lines

Steve Asmussen, Ellis Park’s leading trainer with 12 wins out of 45 starts heading into Friday’s action, was to be formally inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Friday morning at 10:30 ET. Also being inducted was the Asmussen-trained 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, who beat boys in the Preakness, Haskell and Saratoga’s Woodward. Rachel Alexandra won the Kentucky Oaks by a record 20 lengths for trainer Hal Wiggins and owners Dolphus Morrison and Mike Lauffer before being sold to the late Jess Jackson. The program was to be streamed at racingmuseum.org.

Sobrino fourth in the Aug. 6 Ellis Park Juvenile, has been entered back in an allowance for 2-year-olds Tuesday at Indiana Grand. Sobrino, sold for $1,000 at Keeneland’s 2015 January sale as a “short” yearling, won an Indiana Grand maiden race in his debut for trainer Genaro Garcia.

Catch the Latest Edition of “The Indiana State Police Road Show”

0

Catch the latest edition of the “Indiana State Police Road Show” radio program every Monday morning at your convenience.

This week’s show features Indiana State Police Sergeant Jason Miller. Sergeant Miller discusses the recent training Indiana State Police troopers have received on administering Narcan to people suspected of a drug overdose.

Download the program from the Network Indiana public websites at www.networkindiana.com.  Look for the state police logo on the main page and follow the download instructions. The ISP Road Show can also be viewed via YouTube.

Go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu5Bg1KjBd7H1GxgkuV3YJA or visit the Indiana State Police website at http://www.in.gov/isp/   and click on the YouTube link. This 15 minute talk show concentrates on public safety and informational topics with state wide interest.

The radio program was titled “Signal-10” in the early sixties when it was first started by two troopers in northern Indiana. The name was later changed to the “Indiana State Police Road Show” and is the longest continuously aired state police public service program in Indiana.

Radio stations across Indiana and the nation are invited to download and air for FREE this public service program sponsored by the Indiana State Police Alliance and Cops for Kids, a subsidiary of the Indiana State Police Alliance.

Majority: Attempt to collect stale debt not deceptive

0

Jennifer Nelson for www.theindianalawyer.com

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals was divided Wednesday over whether debt collectors violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when they attempted to collect stale debts in Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceedings.

In each of the three consolidated cases before the federal appellate court, the debt collector filed a proof of claim for a time-barred debt in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceeding. The debtors in each case successfully objected to the proof of claim and then sued the debt collectors, alleging the act of filing a proof of claim on a stale debt violates sections 1692e and 1692f of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The district courts in each of the three cases granted the debt collectors’ motions to dismiss.

A claim in bankruptcy can include a stale debt, as the statute of limitations doesn’t extinguish the debt, but merely limits the avenues of collection, the majority of Judges Joel Flaum and William Bauer held. “The Bankruptcy Code contemplates that creditors will file proofs of claim for unenforceable debts – including stale debts – and that the bankruptcy court will disallow those claims upon the debtor’s objection.”  Flaum noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that Congress intended for the term “claim” to have the broadest possible definition. Filing such a proof of claim is not inherently misleading or deceptive.

The 7th Circuit, in Phillips v. Asset Acceptance LLC, 736 F.3d 1078, held that filing a state court lawsuit to collect on a stale debt violates the FDCPA. The plaintiffs in the instant case contend that Phillips is applicable for their claims in the bankruptcy context.

Flaum acknowledged the circuit split on the issue of whether filing a proof of claim on a stale debt in bankruptcy is a misleading or deceptive act prohibited by the FDCPA. The majority sided with the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, citing its decision in Simmons v. Roundup Funding LLC, 622 F.3d 93, 94 (2d Cir. 2010), in which the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected a debtor’s request to extend the FDCPA to time-barred proofs of claim.

Flaum wrote the concerns identified in Phillips regarding the deceptive or misleading nature of the conduct are less acute when the proof of claim is filed in bankruptcy as opposed to a lawsuit filed in state of federal court. The proof of claim must inform the debtor of the age and origin of the debt, so the consumer doesn’t have to have a memory of it or records documenting it to file an objection. Also, debtors filing for bankruptcy usually are represented by attorneys who are familiar with the statutes of limitations for various debts.

The majority declined to follow the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals’ approach, which has held that the act of filing the proof of claim created a misleading impression to the debtor that the debt collector can legally enforce the debt.

Chief Judge Diane Wood dissented, writing she would align the 7th Circuit with the 11th Circuit. She would hold that the scheduling of a proof of claim on a debt that is undisputedly no longer collectible through judicial proceedings because the statute of limitations has expired violates the FDCPA.

The consolidated case is Alphonse D. Owens v. LVNV Funding, LLC; Joshua Birtchman v. LVNV Funding LLC, et al., 15-2044, 15-2082, 15-2109

VANDERBURGH COUNTY FELONY CHARGES

0

 Below is a list of the felony cases that will be filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office this week.

Gregory Mason Gunn Unlawful possession of a syringe, Level 6 felony

Carolyn Elizabeth Barron  Unlawful possession of a syringe, Level 6 felony

Alisha Ann Oldham Battery against a public safety official, Level 6 felony

Battery against a public safety official, Level 6 felony

Scott Dean Barthel Domestic battery, Level 5 felony  

Morgan Tayler Fravel Dealing in methamphetamine, Level 2 felony

Dealing in methamphetamine, Level 2 felony

Kendra Kimberly Landrum Domestic battery, Level 6 felony

Resisting law enforcement, Class A misdemeanor

Disorderly conduct, Class B misdemeanor

Martin Nolan Harmon-Pressley Dealing in methamphetamine, Level 2 felony

Dealing in methamphetamine, Level 2 felony

Intimidation, Level 5 felony

Jeremy Wayne Hill Attempted burglary, Level 4 felony

1...5,3035,3045,305...7,168Page 5,304 of 7,168