Last night and early this morning, Indiana State Police conducted a saturation patrol targeting dangerous and impaired drivers in Vanderburgh County. Between 10:00 last night and 2:30 this morning, troopers issued 15 traffic tickets, 40 warnings, arrested two impaired drivers and cited one minor for transporting alcohol. Both impaired drivers were arrested and are currently being held on bond in the Vanderburgh County Jail.

ARRESTED:
• Constance Bennett, 28, of Evansville, IN
1. Driving While Intoxicated, Class C Misdemeanor

• Steven Magruder, 42, of Evansville, IN
1. Driving While Intoxicated with a BAC of .15% or more, Class A Misdemeanor

Arresting Officers: Trooper Korey Mauck and Senior Trooper Keith Schmitz

The Indiana State Police are committed to traffic safety and will continue to conduct saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints to apprehend impaired drivers and to deter others from drinking and driving.

Thursday, May 30, 2013, in Vanderburgh County Superior Court, a jury found Christopher Bell, age 23, Guilty of Murder as well as Conspiracy to Commit Robbery Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury – Class A Felony. Bell also pleaded guilty to a habitual offender enhancement to the murder conviction, an enhancement that will add on 30 years to his murder sentence of 45-65 years. Bell faces up to 20-50 years for the Class A Felony.

Bell is the accomplice to Ted Mueller Jr. who has been already found guilty of the same charges, for the shooting and killing of Cedric Watt in September 2012.

For further information on the case listed above, or any pending case, please contact Kyle Phernetton, Director of Public Relations 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.

Evansville, IN – Thursday, May 29, 2013, in front of a packed court room, Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Judge Kelli Fink sentenced Jack Perkins III, age 28, after he had previously plead guilty. Perkins had plead guilty to Child Molesting – Class A Felony and Criminal Confinement – Class B Felony. Judge Fink sentenced Perkins to 45 years for the A felony and 15 years for the B felony. Those charges were found to be run concurrently. Perkins is a credit restricted felon, and will serve 85 percent of his time behind bars.

In January 2012, Perkins kidnapped a nine year old boy from his backyard before committing the felonies. The boy escaped and reported the incident to Police who located and connected Perkins to the case. Perkins also faces Federal charges to be tried later this year on 10 counts of child pornography.

In court, Judge Fink heard testimony from EPD Detective Brian Turpin, who specializes in sex crimes. Turpin discussed his conversations with Perkins after his arrest and addressed his confession to both this crime and a similar crime from earlier in Perkins’ life. Police are still searching for the victim in the other crime.

After detective Turpin finished, the state called EPD Officer Brad Evrard to the stand, who testified that in a seizure of Perkins’ computer, there were several child pornographic videos and images downloaded to it, as well as a handful of CDs with images stored on them. The state used this as an aggravating factor in the case, contesting that this was not an isolated incident.

Before both sides went to final arguments, the Victim’s Mother and Father gave powerful pleas to the court, expressing that their son would be serving a life sentence, and Perkins should be as well. They were ready for this phase of the ordeal to be over and to enable everyone involved to be able to begin to move forward.

As Vanderburgh County Nick Hermann and Defense Attorney David Lamont went back and forth, Prosecutor Hermann said “Mr. Perkins faces time on two separate felonies. I am well aware of the range the court can sentence him but personally I don’t think any of them are acceptable. The only way to protect this community is to incarcerate him.”

After both sides rested, Judge Fink thanked everyone for their testimonies and went through what she believed to be the mitigating and aggravating factors. She sentenced Perkins to 45 years for the child molesting charge and 15 for the criminal confinement. Those charges are counted to be run consecutively. Due to the nature of the crime, Perkins must serve 85% of his sentence.

The Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office would like to thank the Evansville Police Department Detectives for their tremendous work on this case as well as the Officers who searched for and located Perkins after the incident. Also thank you to the citizens who helped officers locate Perkins, and to everyone who showed up in court to support the victim in this case.

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

Evansville, IN – Below is a list of felony cases that were filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday, May 29, 2013.

Jonathan Henderson Child Exploitation-Class C Felony
Possession of Child Pornography-Class D Felonies (Four Counts)

Christopher Thomas Dealing in Methamphetamine-Class B Felony
Resisting Law Enforcement-Class A Misdemeanor

John Bowen Possession of a Schedule IV Controlled Substance-Class D Felony
Disorderly Conduct-Class B Misdemeanor

David Copeland Theft-Class D Felony
Criminal Mischief-Class A Misdemeanor

James Pyott Theft-Class D Felony

Lawrence Reber Theft-Class D Felony
Criminal Trespass-Class A Misdemeanor
Public Intoxication-Class B Misdemeanor
(Habitual Offender Enhancement)

Mark Timmons Possession of Marijuana-Class A Misdemeanor
(Enhanced to D Felony Due to Prior Convictions)
Possession of Paraphernalia-Class A Misdemeanor

Marcy Wilhite Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated-Class C Misdemeanor (Enhanced to D Felony Due to Prior Convictions)

Jasen Yoder Dealing in Methamphetamine-Class B Felony
Maintaining a Common Nuisance-Class D Felony
Possession of Chemical Reagents or Precursors with Intent to Manufacture a Controlled Substance-Class D Felony

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.

The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch tags Chicago as the fifth most heavily taxed city in the country: Its sky-high effective sales tax of 9.75 percent makes the tax burden on a family earning $25,000 a year the fourth highest in the country. From 1991, two years after Richard M. Daley first took office as mayor, to 2011, the year Emanuel took the reins, the average debt per Chicagoan grew from $600 to $2,600, an increase of 433 percent. As Dick Simpson, a former reform Chicago alderman who now teaches at the University of Illinois, put it: “There’s a significant downside to authoritarian rule. The city could do much better.”

As we reported this morning Evansville currently has debts of $360 Million that corresponds to $3,076 for every person in town. The mandatory repair of the sewers will take that to somewhere between $7,000 and $9,000 per person depending on the plan approved. The combination of the downtown convention hotel, the Johnson Controls deal, and Roberts Park will add roughly another $1,000 in debt per capita bringing Evansville’s debt per capita to about $10,000 when projects already on the wish list are funded.

In 2003 Evansville’s population was over 121,000 and its debt per capita was under $2,000. Today we have passed Chicago for per capita debt and are borrowing like the world is about to end. Chicago of course is famous across the globe for excessive spending and institutionalized corruption. We know how Chicago got to the point it is today. What is not fully understood is how a small town on the bend of the river dug a deeper hole than of per capita debt than Chicago. What is now a given is that an EPA mandate that surprised no one and was sourced in years of neglect will raise Evansville’s per capita debt to triple Chicago’s. The question is why given the depth of the hole Evansville is in do our leaders keep digging deeper by borrowing money to do non essential things?