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Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Ind. Courts - Further on "Lawrence County Judge Found Dead In Home"
Updating this ILB entry from Nov. 1st, today the Bedford Times-Mail is reporting a story by Laura Lane first reported late yesterday by the Bloomington Herald-Times:
Soon after Lawrence Circuit Judge Richard D. McIntyre was found dead in his garage last week from carbon monoxide poisoning the coroner ruled suicide, rumors swirled about an investigation into possible improprieties involving the highly respected judge and former state representative, who also was a colonel in the U.S. Army National Guard.Then on Saturday morning, those attending McIntyre’s funeral in the auditorium at Bedford Middle School heard about the investigation from McIntyre’s children, who spoke of it and read excerpts referring to the investigation from a suicide note their father left behind.
They defended their father from what his oldest son, Richard D. McIntyre Jr., called an overzealous investigation into the purchase or use of furniture obtained through military contracts. The son said he wanted to set the record straight. * * *
McIntyre’s wife of 27 years, Bedford attorney Meredith McIntyre, found her husband dead when she arrived home at 5:45 p.m. last Tuesday. He was in the front seat of his 2007 GMC Yukon, which was parked inside the garage of the couple’s Bedford home.
McIntyre was among 3,400 Indiana National Guard members from the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team preparing to deploy to Iraq early next year. He was scheduled to serve as a judicial advocate.
His suicide shocked people of Lawrence County and those in the legal world who knew and respected him.
“Rick and I were about as far apart politically as they come — he’s a Republican and big in the military and I’m a liberal Democrat,” said Owen Circuit Judge Frank Nardi. “But he was such a great guy. If I am upset about anything it’s that I did not notice anything was wrong, that he did not feel like he could come to me and say, ‘How would you deal with this?’ It’s so sad, for everyone.”
McIntyre, a Republican, served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1981 through 1984. In 1984, he lost by four votes in his bid to unseat 8th District Congressman Democratic Frank McCloskey.
He was appointed judge of the Lawrence Circuit Court in November 1988. He was popular, and was re-elected for three six-year terms without ever facing an opponent.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 6, 2007 11:29 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts