Todays winner was Dave Heng . Â HEÂ WON A $200 PHOENIX NIGHTCLUB AND EVENT CENTER VIP COUPON FOR 15 PEOPLE. Â Congratulations Dave!!!
We will be posting the information later about the next search contest to take place.
 Below is a list of felony cases that were filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday, February 04, 2014
Justin Brown Possession of a Narcotic Drug-Class C Felony
Possession of Methamphetamine-Class D Felony
Possession of a Schedule II Controlled Substance-Class D Felony
Resisting Law Enforcement-Class D Felony
Obstruction of Justice-Class D Felony
Criminal Recklessness-Class D Felony
Possession of Marijuana-Class A Misdemeanor
Jamar Hooser Felon Carrying a Handgun-Class C Felony
Possession of a Narcotic Drug-Class C Felony
Possession of Methamphetamine-Class D Felony
Possession of a Schedule II Controlled Substance-Class D Felony
Obstruction of Justice-Class D Felony
Criminal Recklessness-Class D Felony
Possession of Marijuana-Class A Misdemeanor
(Enhanced to D Felony Due to Prior Convictions)
Sarah Martin Dealing in Methamphetamine-Class A Felony
Possession of Methamphetamine-Class C Felony
Trafficking with an Inmate-Class C Felony
Demarco Minor Possession of a Narcotic Drug-Class C Felony
Possession of Methamphetamine-Class D Felony
Possession of a Schedule II Controlled Substance-Class D Felony
Obstruction of Justice-Class D Felony
Criminal Recklessness-Class D Felony
Possession of Marijuana-Class A Misdemeanor
Derek Clark Possession of Marijuana-Class D Felony
Resisting Law Enforcement-Class A Misdemeanor
Michael Witty Battery Resulting in Bodily Injury to a Pregnant Woman-Class C Felony
Domestic Battery-Class D Felony
(Habitual Offender Enhancement)
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 considered to be innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS – So much for being governor of all the people of Indiana.
A few days ago, not long after the Indiana House of Representatives voted to strip the controversial second sentence out of House Joint Resolution 3 – the proposed state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage – Gov. Mike Pence weighed in.
He told the Indianapolis CBS affiliate WISH-TV that he supported the HJR 3 in its original form.
That is, with the second sentence still part of it, the one that says Indiana not only won’t allow gay people to marry here, but also won’t recognize or consider valid any civil union, domestic partnership or other kind of social contract designed to protect and acknowledge same-sex committed relationships.
Pence’s stance on HJR 3 contradicted his inaugural address last year, when he said:
“I am humbled by your trust, honored that you have chosen me to serve, and I am eager to be the governor of all the people of Indiana – young and old, city and country, rich and poor.â€
It also undercuts the governor’s often-reiterated pledge that his focus in office would not be on social issues but instead would be on “jobs, jobs, jobs.â€
Right now, the Hoosiers who oppose HJR 3 – including the businesses leaders who were adamantly opposed to the second sentence because they argue it will make it harder for them to recruit and retain skilled employees – may have difficulty believing that Pence meant what he said.
The truth is that, in regard to HJR 3, Pence is in a box.
It may be a box he helped build himself, but a box nonetheless.
The last thing the governor wants is to have the debate over HJR 3 continue beyond this year. If the altered version of the measure is the one that goes forward, that would mean that HJR 3 wouldn’t go on the ballot in 2014.
Instead, the earliest the measure could go on the ballot would be 2016 – when Pence presumably will be running for re-election. If Hoosiers end up voting on HJR 3 in 2016, that will mean that businesses in other organizations will pour millions of dollars into the state to defeat a measure that Pence will be supporting.
That’s not a comforting thought for a Republican governor who won his office with less than 50 percent of the vote the first time around. The business community never has been completely convinced that their priorities are his priorities. His support of HJR 3 in its original form is likely to reinforce those doubts.
But acknowledging the business community’s concern also carried some risks. Pence’s base – social conservatives – see this issue as their Gettysburg, the spot where the outcome of the political civil war over social issues will be won or lost.
Social conservatives have sustained Pence through defeat and victory. Their support, in large part, put him in Congress and made him governor.
For him to abandon social conservatives now, when the issue about which they care most is front and center, would be to risk alienating his staunchest supporters.
No politician wants that.
Did it have to be this way? Did Pence have to put himself in this box?
No.
Before this battle over same-sex marriage settled into the kind of trench warfare conflict it is now, Pence could have challenged his base to think again about that second part of the proposed amendment. He could have said that it not only troubled business and bothered many moderates who otherwise likely would be lining up to support HJR 3, but it undercut the message that proponents of the measure have advanced.
The champions of HJR 3 say the proposed amendment is not anti-gay but pro-family and pro-children. If that’s true – and the evidence suggests that most advocates for HJR 3 sincerely believe that families and children are imperiled – then why would the measure’s champions attempt to make it impossible for same-sex or other non-traditional couples ever to find a way to provide legal protections for their children and their families?
To challenge his supporters to think more carefully would have required foresight and, yes, courage on Pence’s part.
Instead, he chose simply to line up with his base and support HJR 3 all the way, however flawed it might be.
So much for being governor of all the people of Indiana.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits†WFYI 90.1 Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
By: John Poderitz
The Affordable Care Act, a k a ObamaCare, became law almost four years ago. It became operational last Oct. 1. Yesterday, Feb. 4, 2014, the ACA may well have been dealt its death blow.
The Congressional Budget Office released a major study of the government’s budget and its effect on the overall economy over the next 10 years. In dull bureaucratic language, it delivers a devastating analysis of the inefficiencies, ineffectualities and problematic social costs of ObamaCare.
The one-two punch: Virtually as many Americans will lack health coverage in 10 years as before the law was passed — but 2 million fewer will be working than if the law hadn’t passed.
One killer detail comes on Page 111, where the report projects: “As a result of the ACA, between 6 million and 7 million fewer people will have employment-based insurance coverage each year from 2016 through 2024 than would be the case in the absence of the ACA.†ObamaCare’s key selling point was that it would give coverage to a significant number of the 30-plus million Americans who lack it. Now the CBO is telling the American people that a decade from now, 6 million-plus of their countrymen won’t get health care through their employers who otherwise would have.
Even more damaging is this projection: “About 31 million nonelderly residents of the United States are likely to be without health insurance in 2024, roughly one out of every nine such residents.â€
Why? Because, in selling the bill to the American people in a nationally televised September 2009 address, President Obama said the need for ObamaCare was urgent precisely because “there are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.â€
Now the CBO is saying is that in 10 years, about the same number of people will lack insurance as before. This, after new expenditures of as much as $2 trillion and a colossal disruption of the US medical system.
If that’s not startling enough, there’s also the telling projection about ObamaCare’s impact on employment — “a decline in the number of full-time-equivalent workers of about 2.0 million in 2017, rising to about 2.5 million in 2024.â€
Overall employment will rise, the report says, but not steady, secure, long-term assured employment. The possibility of securing government-provided health-care without employment will give people a new incentive to avoid it. “The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply,†the report says.
Indeed, overall, between 2017 and 2024, the actual amount of work done in this country will decline by as much as 2 percent.
How come? Because of perverse incentives ObamaCare provides in the form of subsidies to some and higher taxes to others.
First, the report says Americans will “choose to supply less labor — given the new taxes and other incentives they will face and the financial benefits some will receive.â€
Here’s why: Poor people get certain subsidies, which disappear once a worker achieves a certain level of compensation. So it may be better to work less, or not work at all, rather than reach that higher pay level, because the pay increase won’t offset the loss of the subsidy.
This is the classic problem of a government handout: It can become more alluring to those who receive it than the prospect of a life lived without it.
As the report says, “If those subsidies are phased out with rising income in order to limit their total costs, the phaseout effectively raises people’s marginal tax rates [the tax rates applying to their last dollar of income], thus discouraging work.â€
There’s a problem on the other end as well — among those whose tax dollars pay for the whole shebang: “If the subsidies are financed at least in part by higher taxes, those taxes will further discourage work or create other economic distortions, depending on how the taxes are designed.â€
The White House hastened to do damage control yesterday, and the “senior official†who did the background briefing for reporters said a shocking thing: The projected decline in work is good news.
“It reflects the fact that workers have a new set of options and are making the best choices that they can choose to make for themselves given those options,†the official said.
Really? Really? You know, if that’s the best they can do, certain American workers — those elected to Congress and their staffs — might find themselves forced to make new choices regarding their employment come this November and November 2016.
For the past year, Obama and his supporters have taken to demanding that ObamaCare’s opponents quit trying to undo it because it’s now the law of the land.
Not so fast: With this and the other blows it has been dealt over the past six months, and undoubtedly with new blows to come, ObamaCare really and truly may no longer be the law of the land after the president leaves office.
The lady of the night arrested plying her trade offered some words of encouragement as Stacy Uliana, then a law student, and her professor prepared to defend the woman in court.
“You ladies go get ’em,†the prostitute said.
Recalling that client and her words still makes Uliana giggle. It is a funny memory, but it is also the point where she became assured of her career path.
“That’s when I knew I would like this,†Uliana said. “I had a skinny, crack-addicted prostitute saying, ‘You ladies go get ’em.’â€
Since that time, Uliana has spent much of her legal practice working as a defense attorney. A 1997 graduate of Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, she found criminal law to be the most interesting with its courtroom confrontations and constitutional issues. She confessed she ended up on the defense side partly because that was the job she was offered.
Much of her work is at the appellate level. She will take just about any case that lands on her desk, but she prefers cases that have a legal or factual issue in dispute, giving her something challenging to argue rather than falling on the mercy of the prosecutor to get a good plea.
“I’m not very good at that,†she said.
Freeing David CammÂ
Her biggest and most exhausting case has been fighting for David Camm. The former Indiana State Police trooper was arrested in 2000 and twice convicted for the brutal slayings of his wife and two young children.
Uliana and her mentor, Bloomington attorney Katharine “Kitty†Liell, became familiar with the case by chatting with Camm’s first attorney, Mike McDaniel. After the trial ended in a guilty verdict, Camm’s relatives approached Uliana and Liell for help.
That began Uliana’s 11-year commitment to a defense that would include two reversals, changing theories of the crime and two additional long and brutal trials. Uliana worked on the appeals and second trial with Liell. For the third trial, she worked with Indianapolis attorney Richard Kammen.
Camm was tried three times for the murder of his family before a jury in Boone County acquitted him in October. When the not guilty verdict was read, the defense table was overwhelmed while Stanley Levco, the special prosecutor appointed for the third trial, was devastated and certain he would forever be known as “the guy who lost the Camm trial.â€
Watching the closing arguments, Liell saw Uliana speak to the jury for one-and-a-half hours, summarizing evidence, cutting through the red herrings and appealing to the jurors’ common sense.
Like Uliana, Liell maintained Camm did not commit or have any involvement with the murders. She is not surprised that he was arrested, charged and sent to prison, nor does she believe he is the only wrongfully convicted individual serving time.
“I think there are more innocent people in prison than we would ever care to think about,†Liell said.
The third trial turned on forensic science and the testimony of convicted felon Charles Boney.
When she started the case, Uliana, who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, saw problems with the evidence. Part of her focus on the defense team was to separate the real science from what she called the junk science.
“If you look at the entire case, it is so clear he did not do it,†Uliana said of Camm. “And not one piece of evidence that has surfaced since the first three days when Dave got arrested, not one piece of evidence has shown guilt rather then innocence.â€
In fact, Uliana said, the defense discovered Boney, whose DNA was later identified at the crime scene, and exposed the state’s key expert, Robert Stites as, in her words, “a complete fraud.†He had, she said, never been to a crime scene, never testified before a jury and had little background in science.
Levco concedes that with hindsight, the state could have waited instead of charging Camm three days after the murders and should not have relied on Stites.
The defense contended Boney was responsible for the Camm murders and, Uliana said, during the third trial, the jury was able to see the type of person Boney really was and that he was playing games.
On the stand at the third trial, jurors saw Boney making hand gestures which Uliana said were to convey to Camm that he did murder his family. Also, the jurors saw Boney continually staring and nodding at Camm as if, Uliana said, taunting Camm.
Ten hours after getting the case, the Boone County jury had reached a verdict. Uliana was at home, starting to sort through a pile of household papers that had gotten put aside during the 11-week trial.
After the guilty verdict in the second trial, Uliana said she needed a couple of months before she could make the decision to continue helping defend Camm. Turning it over to the Boone County jury, she said the third trial was fairer. The defense felt they had done everything they could to win.
Levco credited the defense team for their work in the courtroom.
“They were really well prepared as any defense attorneys I ever saw,†he said. “I didn’t see them miss anything.â€
The verdict and her conversations with the jurors afterward led Uliana to believe the third jury may now view the criminal justice system differently after the Camm case. They may see the system is not always right or just and much comes down to hoping the people in power are right or they can see when they are wrong.
Telling their stories
Uliana’s office is on the second floor of a massive brick building next to the railroad tracks in the tiny hamlet of Bargersville. Up the stairs and down at the end of the hall is her workspace, brightly lit and decorated with her children’s crayon-colored artwork on the walls.
She peers at visitors through plastic-framed glasses, holds her hands in her lap and turns her head to look out the window when she finishes answering a question. She is relaxed and smiles easily.
Uliana does not consider her approach to defense as pushing back against the state or “getting ’em.†Rather she wants to give a voice to the other side.
“I see it as everything in gray,†she said. “Nothing is really black and white. Well, sometimes it’s black and white … but most of the time it’s gray, and the defendant always has a story and they just need someone to tell it.â€
She remembered one client who came to her after he had been convicted and sentenced. He had a criminal record and a reputation from a courtroom outburst where he had yelled and cursed at the judge.
Uliana braced for what she expected would be a difficult client. She fought on what she thought was a good search-and-seizure issue but she lost. Her client, to her surprise, was grateful for her hard work.
“It made me understand what our role is,†Uliana said. “You’re not always going to win. Your clients most of time are not innocent, but there is a story and they do have something that needs to be heard.â€â€¢
Thompkins Science Teacher Bruce Wright is the February winner of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation’s Cause for Applause award. The award is given monthly to an EVSC employee who goes above and beyond his/her normal job responsibilities.
According to Thompkins Principal Bryan Perry, Wright puts all his energy and efforts into helping students succeed. In his nomination letter, Perry cites numerous ways Wright reaches students and goes beyond the school day and the classroom. Each year, Wright hosts a star gazing trip to New Harmony State Park so students have the opportunity to learn outside of school, he also takes students to fast food restaurants to have them gauge the caloric intake and fat in the choices they make as part of his walking club, which he hosts three days a week for students. Wright also coordinates the school’s annual Pumpkin Carving contest each year and involves students in gardening to beautify areas outside the school, along with many other activities.
“Bruce Wright can always be counted on to assist students and staff in any activity,†writes Perry. “He has taught for 30 plus years and still maintains his love of students and making school fun. When he decides to retire, he will be missed and impossible to replace.â€
Anyone can nominate an employee of the EVSC for the award. Deadline for nominations is the third Friday of each month. Go to http://www.evscschools.com/community/nominate-evsc-employees-exemplary-work for the nomination form. Paper forms are available at the schools for those without access to the Internet.
Â
            The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation is bringing its school family closer together through the formation of the new EVSC Friends and Alumni Association.
The organization is led by President Ben Shoulders, a 1996 graduate of Harrison High School and corporate relationship manager at Old National Bank.  Other officers include:  Vice President Andy Owen, a 1996 graduate of Central High School, athletic director and coach at Central; Treasurer Phil Rawley, a 1997 graduate of Mater Dei High School and CEO of Tri-State Orthopaedics; and Secretary Brenda Beeler, a 1962 graduate of Bosse High School,retired teacher and coach from Reitz.
The Friends and Alumni Association was created to connect and engage all EVSC graduates, alumni, supporters, and current students with others in the EVSC family.  Regular communication and  special events are planned.
            Information will soon be distributed explaining how to become a member. Watch www.evscschools.com/alumni for additional information. Members will receive newsletters, invitations and advance notice to special events, and possible special discounts from local area businesses.
STATEHOUSE (Feb. 4, 2014) — State Sen. Vaneta Becker’s (R-Evansville) bill requiring hospitals to diagnose and report neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) unanimously passed the Senate today by a 47-0 vote.
NAS occurs in newborns when the mother abused illegal or prescription drugs during pregnancy. It can cause newborns to experience drug dependency, seizures, slow weight gain and many other symptoms.
Senate Bill 408Â would task Indiana hospitals with reporting NAS cases to the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) so that research on prevention and treatments can be conducted.
According to the Indiana Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force, the overall rate of newborns being diagnosed with NAS has tripled over the past decade. In 2009, approximately one infant born per hour in the United States had signs of drug withdrawal.
“There is concern that drug abuse among pregnant women is rising and causing irreparable harm to newborns,†Becker said. “Today’s bill starts the conversation about how to prevent and treat this unfortunate condition, and makes sure our medical professionals are prepared to help keep both mothers and infants safe.â€
SB 408 now moves to the House of Representatives for further consideration.