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VANDERBURGH COUNTY FELONY CHARGES

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 SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
 DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.

 Below is a list of felony cases that were filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday, January 21, 2015

John Brown                  Domestic Battery-Level 6 Felony

Battery-Class B Misdemeanor

Brittany Egan              Operating a Vehicle as an Habitual Traffic Violator-Level 6 Felony

Tracy Felker                Arson-Level 4 Felony

John Gahl                   Dealing in Methamphetamine-Level 4 Felony

Possession of Methamphetamine-Level 5 Felony

Possession of a Synthetic Drug or Synthetic Drug Lookalike Substance-Class A

Misdemeanor

Christopher Gill          Failure to Register as a Sex or Violent Offender-Level 6 Felony

Angela Sears          Operating a Vehicle as an Habitual Traffic Violator-Level 6 Felony

Richard Chaffin             Burglary-Level 4 Felonies (Four Counts)

Theft-Level 6 Felonies (Four Counts)

For further information on the cases listed above, or any pending case, please contact Kyle Phernetton at 812.435.5688 or via e-mail at kphernetton@vanderburghgov.org

Under Indiana law, all criminal defendants are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty by a court of law

University of Evansville’s Study Abroad Program ranked #1 in America

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The University of Evansville study abroad program at Harlaxton College, has been ranked number one in America by BestCollegeReviews.org.

International studies is a hallmark at the University of Evansville, with over 60 percent of students studying abroad.  In addition to offering a study abroad curriculum that allows students to graduate in four years, the programs are open to all majors and backgrounds. Moreover, financial aid packages travel along with students – which is not the case at many other universities.

Harlaxton College is a 150-room manor house set in the picturesque English countryside that provides a distinctive backdrop for the top study abroad program in the country. This historic home – which some say is UE’s own “Hogwarts” — is filled with energetic students and faculty that live together in a unique learning environment. Students can choose to spend an entire semester studying abroad, or may opt for one of the 5-10 week course offerings.

“Harlaxton’s physical location in Britain, paired with a Monday-through-Thursday class schedule, enables students to do extensive travel to nearby European landmarks,” says UE President Tom Kazee. “Students often find themselves standing in the very spot they discussed in British Studies class a few days earlier. Many groups travel to London, Paris, Ireland, Spain, and Italy—locations that offer ample opportunities for students to gain a global world view through first-hand experience”.

BestCollegeReviews.org chose the top study abroad institutions based on the following criteria:

  • The program is open to a limited number of students, 500 or less, providing a more intimate experience while abroad.
  • The program is at least a semester long.
  • Faculty from the university are involved with the students internationally, either traveling with the students, teaching abroad, or overseeing the program in the country.
  • The university has a specific location internationally, students are not simply enrolling at international universities.

For more information or to speak to someone about UE’s study abroad programs and Harlaxton College, please call 812-488-2241 or email uerelations@evansville.edu.

Justices: ‘Value’ threshold for workers’ comp liability not just direct monetary payment

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Jennifer Nelson for www.theindianalawyer.com

The “value” attributable to the performance of work that triggers secondary liability under the Worker’s Compensation Act includes both direct monetary payment as well as any ancillary consideration received for the work, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in a case of first impression.

The justices had to decide in Jason Young v. Hood’s Gardens, Inc., 29S02-1405-PL-314, whether Hood’s Gardens Inc. was liable for the injuries of subcontractor Jason Young, who was hired to remove a tree from the company’s property, and in the course of the work was severely injured and rendered a paraplegic. Hood’s Garden hired Discount Tree Extraction to remove the tree at a cost of $600. As part of the job, Discount Tree Extraction would keep the wood, which it intended to sell as firewood.

Hood’s Gardens did not verify that Discount Tree had workers’ compensation insurance, which it did not. Under I.C. 22-3-2-14(b), Hood’s Gardens becomes secondarily liable when a contract for work exceeds $1,000 in value. Hood’s Gardens argued that the contract price was $600, so it is not liable; Young, the injured worker, claimed the value of the contractor’s work also included the price of the firewood, which would be more than $400, setting off Hood’s Gardens’ liability.

Section 14(b), which the justices found is ambiguous, shows the legislative intent to enhance the availability of workers’ compensation benefits for workers injured during their employment with employers not providing such coverage, Justice Brent Dickson wrote. It also incentivizes people who hire companies to seek those who can pay workers’ compensation benefits.

“Failure to obtain a certificate showing that an employer is able to provide worker’s compensation by insurance or by the employer’s own financial ability to pay benefits exposes the person engaging the employer to full liability for worker’s compensation benefits for any of the employer’s workers injured in the course of the work. This legislative objective is best served by interpreting Section 14(b) to trigger secondary liability for worker’s compensation benefits at the lowest threshold, that is by permitting the $1,000 trigger to be satisfied by both direct monetary payment as well as any ancillary consideration received by the employer for the work,” Dickson wrote.

Because Hood’s Gardens failed to designate evidence that the value of the wood received plus the $600 paid did not exceed $1,000, and the plaintiff designated testimony that the value of the wood triggered the $1,000 threshold, summary judgment should not have been granted to the business.

The justices reversed summary judgment for Hood’s Gardens and remanded for further proceedings.

THE STATE OF THE BUBBLE ADDRESS

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Indiana and Texas Square off in a Civic Hackathon Challenge

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INDIANAPOLIS/AUSTIN – Today, Indiana and Texas announce the Indiana Texas Challenge, a battle for bragging rights for the best government application to serve citizens. The #hackINvTX Challenge is a contest for the residents of both states to create applications that support and inspire entrepreneurship and digital government innovation, encourage government transparency and open data and promote interstate collaboration and competition. Each state is presenting two challenges, four in total, with the winner from each state earning $4,000. A grand prize champion, that determines which state wins, will be selected by a national panel from the two challenge winners. The grand prize winner receives an additional $4,000.The competition will start on January 31 and conclude on February 23.

Civic hacking is an opportunity for citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate and create, build, and invent new solutions using code, technology and publicly-released data to solve challenges relevant to neighborhoods, cities, states or the country.

“This is a chance to encourage our citizens to use their skills to improve government services,” said Indiana State Chief Information Officer (CIO) Paul Baltzell. “I believe that the intelligence and skill of Hoosiers and Texans will shine through and they will develop innovative solutions to these problems and potentially turn them into full-blown products. My hope is that some of these teams that form will eventually turn into businesses and bolster the burgeoning tech-scene in Indiana.”

Todd Kimbriel, Interim CIO for Texas, said “We appreciate this Texas/Indiana challenge and welcome the opportunity to promote Open Data and Texas government transparency. We thank the Texas civic developer community for helping us provide citizen access to government information and services anytime, anywhere. Texans are known for their inventiveness and creating opportunities from challenges. I am confident the Texas team will bring forth ideas that are both innovative and useful.”

Challenge Entries:

Indiana Department of Environmental Management: Create a centralized, streamlined, and secure platform for receiving, tracking, and collaborating on permit applications. Significant time in creating permits is lost in the hand offs between the agency and its stakeholders. Any system that assists in streamlining the processes and is transparent for users will benefit all.

Indiana Department of Homeland Security: Develop a method to register and create a checklist of available/needed services for Hoosiers visiting a One-Stop-Shop after a disaster.

Texas Department of Family and Protective Services: Provide map-based results and associated information for child-care operations when using different search criteria.

Texas Department of Transportation: Develop a mobile application based on the www.my35.org approach that enables commuters to plan their travel more effectively along with the portability that comes with an ever-expanding mobile device market.

About Indiana:

The State of Indiana has partnered with the Indy Chamber and TechPoint to run the competition for Hoosiers.

The Indy Chamber is the voice of progress and improvement for the Indianapolis region’s business community. With membership of nearly 2,500 businesses representing 230,000 employees in the Indianapolis region, the Indy Chamber is leading the effort to strengthen the business climate, improve the state of education, revitalize neighborhoods and enhance the region’s workforce. For more information about the Indy Chamber, visit IndyChamber.com.

TechPoint is the hub and accelerator for Indiana’s technology ecosystems, connecting and amplifying the tech community via TechPoint.org and events throughout the year, attracting and developing talent via the Xtern and Xpat programs, accelerating startup growth and providing strategy and research.

About Texas.gov:

Texas.gov is the official website of the state of Texas (www.texas.gov) and is a collaborative public/private partnership managed by the Department of Information Resources (DIR). Texas.gov helps state and local government entities Web-enable their services and operates without tax funds through a partnership between the state and Texas NICUSA, LLC. Texas NICUSA builds, operates, maintains, and markets Texas.gov and is part of eGovernment firm NIC’s (NASDAQ: EGOV) family of companies. Since its launch in 2000, Texas.gov has securely processed more than 201 million financial transactions and collected more than $30 billion on behalf of participating entities.

About NIC:

NIC Inc. is the nation’s leading provider of official government websites, online services, and secure payment processing solutions. The company’s innovative eGovernment services help reduce costs and increase efficiencies for government agencies, citizens, and businesses across the country. Our popular self-funded solution allows government to put in-demand services online without using taxpayer funds. The NIC family of companies currently provides cost-effective eGovernment solutions for more than 3,500 federal, state, and local agencies in the United States. Additional information is available at www.egov.com.

Event information:

The #hackINvTX Challenge will have a launch event on Saturday, Jan. 31 beginning at 10:00 a.m. The main launch event in Indiana will be on the campus of IUPUI, with satellite events across the state. The event at IUPUI will be in the Informatics and Communications Technology Complex, 535 West Michigan Street; Room 152

More details about the hackathon, including the location of the Texas event and rules and full descriptions of the challenges can be found at https://www.hackerleague.org/hackathons/texas-vs-indiana-challenge.

A complete schedule of events in Indiana, including locations of satellite launch events, can be found at www.TechPoint.org/Indiana-Hack-Series

Details of the hackathon, including rules and full descriptions of the challenges can be found at https://www.hackerleague.org/hackathons/texas-vs-indiana-challenge.

Additionally, the #hackINvTX Challenge in Indiana has been supported by the following entities:

Presenting Sponsors:

  • AT&T
  • Indiana Interactive
  • Interactive Intelligence
  • KSM Consulting
  • SAP

Supporting Sponsors

  • Netlogx
  • iLab
  • Perscio
  • Kronos
  • Indiana University
  • IUPUI

College Partners

  • Ball State University
  • Indiana University
  • IUPUI
  • University of Notre Dame
  • Purdue University
  • Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

In-Kind Sponsors

  • The Bureau
  • Eleven Fifty Coding Academy
  • Launch Fishers
  • The Speak Easy

IS IT TRUE January 23, 2015

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IS IT TRUE that Cheryl Musgrave, the newly appointed member of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission has wasted no time in instituting a welcome dose of transparency into this group that has worked in the shadows on behalf of their shadow bosses for way too long?…thanks to Ms. Musgrave we now know exactly how much money has been spent doing things on the downtown convention hotel project without having the financing in place to make the project happen?…the number spent to date is now $1,600,000 and except for Mayor Winnecke flipping some sand in an orchestrated deception, not a drop of sweat has fallen from actual construction work?…the people of Evansville can think of this $1.6 Million as a bet on getting THIS DEAL DONE, because if THIS DEAL does not happen, much of that $1.6 Million will have been squandered?…it would be interesting to know just how much of that $1.6 Million can be applied to a twin towers stick built hotel that would compliment Buckner Towers right next door very well?…Musgrave spoke the truth when she said that the plan for the future is what is of the highest importance?…as we should know by now, planning is not a function that the Winnecke Administration places much value on, so we suspect the plan is nothing more than hope that ONB and HCW will cut costs enough to close the financing gap?…former Mayor Weinzapfel started this legacy of hope and no planning when he triumphantly announced that “if we build an arena the hotel comes for free” back in 2008, and Mayor Winnecke has continued this legacy of no substance?

IS IT TRUE the subject of litmus testing for candidates for office in the 2015 City of Evansville elections came up recently and the CCO has been thinking about what would make good tests on whom to discard from consideration for elected or even appointed positions?…the one that sticks out like a sore thumb is perhaps the event that started the clown show and that was the Earthcare Energy LLC debacle?…as a reminder, the Earthcare Energy LLC debacle had all of the elements for a comedy show as it started with sneaking, took a path through deception, had a small herd of patronage people waiting at the trough for jobs and favors, was filled with lies and false claims, and cemented the fact that no one in Evansville’s governance except Councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley had the will or the brains to conduct a VETTING process?

IS IT TRUE there were claims of patents that didn’t exist that could have been verified in two minutes by someone competent in doing an online patent search that were not challenged before writing a $200,000 check?…there were claims of final testing that were not verified in a real world condition?…there was even a claim from a supposed graduated engineer that the technology was solid?…after three years and a coming to Jesus moment, Evansville is out $200,000 and NO ONE ELSE ANYWHERE HAS GOTTEN THIS WOOL PULLED OVER THEIR EYES?…litmus test number one is that no one who was duped by or participated in this ruse should be re-elected or re-appointed to any position?…the Earthcare Energy debacle more than anything created a carnival atmosphere of incompetence that has continued from failed project to failed project culminating in the cancellation of the convention hotel deal?…the ultimate insult is that the $200,000 debt owed to the people of Evansville was delayed willfully until after the upcoming election by an appointed commission?

IS IT TRUE that come March of 2016 that debt will be due again?…the insufficient contract language crafted and signed by the Winnecke Administration will be coming back to bite Evansville squarely on the rear?…this instance made the late Rick Davis look like a prophet, with his trademark READY, FIRE, AIM characterization of Evansville’s historical mode of operation?

IS IT TRUE in yet another dance with going back to the stone age, the State of Indiana is considering eliminating the net metering feature in billing for electricity?…net metering was put into place to promote the adoption of renewable energy by customers with solar and wind technology?…if net zero metering is eliminated, it will essentially kill the residential solar and wind industries in this state?…such an action may serve the utility companies well by eliminating the ratepayers from the competition but it will send a message to the other 49 states that Indiana is just fine with how things were in the 1960’s before technology advances were made and is going to work like the dickens to get back to the stone age though regressive legislation?

Please take time and vote in todays “Readers Poll”.

Copyright 2015 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

EPD Activity Report

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 SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
 DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.

Evansville Woman Arrested for Conspiracy to Commit Burglary

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SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.

Jeffrey Brooks, 41, was arrested on January 7 after a criminal investigation revealed he burglarized a residence located at CR 1675 West near Owensville.

On January 7 at approximately 9:25 a.m., an Indiana Conservation Officer stopped a Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck on CR 1675 West near Owensville for a license plate violation.  The driver of the truck was identified as Kendra Moranz, 26, of Evansville. Since the pickup truck matched the description of a vehicle that had been seen in the area of recent burglaries, Deputy Tim Coomer drove to a nearby residence to see if the home had been burglarized.  While inspecting the residence Coomer noticed an open window and other signs that indicated the home had been burglarized. Due to lack of evidence for an immediate arrest, an officer gathered Moranz’s information and she was released.  Indiana State Police Detectives Tobias Odom and Brad Chandler later found Brooks walking behind a house west of SR 165 on CR 875 South.  The investigation revealed Brooks allegedly enter the residence on CR 1675 West and took several items. He was arrested for burglary and taken to the Gibson County Jail.

Indiana State Police Detectives Tobias Odom and Brad Chandler along with Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Detective Joe Beckweth and Gibson County Sheriff’s Detective Chuck Finnerty continued to investigate Moranz’s connection to Brooks. Further investigation revealed Moranz used her pickup truck and allegedly drove Brooks to the residence on CR 1675 West knowing the residence was going to be burglarized. Moranz would then stay in the area until he needed to be picked up. Their operation was foiled when Moranz was stopped for a traffic violation.

Earlier today, the Gibson County Prosecutor’s Office issued an arrest warrant for Moranz.  Indiana State Police Detectives Odom and Chandler arrested Moranz at her sister’s house in Evansville at 11:50 a.m. without further incident. She was taken to the Gibson County Jail where she is currently being held on bond.

 

Arrested and Charges:

  • Kendra Moranz, 26, 1219 Louisiana, Evansville, IN
  1. Conspiracy to Commit Burglary, Level 6 Felony

 

EPD Activity Report

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SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.

EPD Activity Report

Vanderburgh County Recent Booking Records

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SPONSORED BY DEFENSE ATTORNEY IVAN ARNAEZ.
DON’T GO TO COURT ALONE. CALL IVAN ARNAEZ @ 812-424-6671.

http://www.vanderburghsheriff.com/recent-booking-records.aspx