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Thursday, June 18, 2009
Ind. Courts - "Jeffersonville attorney Larry Wilder found asleep in trash can" [Updated]
David A. Mann reports this afternoon in the Jeffersonville News & Tribune in a lengthy story - here are some quotes:
Jeffersonville attorney Larry Wilder was found asleep by police in his neighbor’s overturned city garbage can Wednesday morning, after neighbors called police when they woke to find their trash strewn on the ground and a man inside the receptacle.[Updated 6/19/09] Ben Hershberg of the Louisville Courier Journal also has a story. Some quotes:Jeffersonville Police Chief Tim Deeringer said Wilder was cooperative when police arrived at the home on Elk Pointe Boulevard and was able to walk back to his home — next door.
Wilder’s son and daughter, both adults, were home and able to take care of him from there, Deeringer said.
No arrest was made as a result of the incident. * * *
Wilder represents the Jeffersonville City Council and has acted as the city’s attorney on several high profile cases, including the legal wrangling regarding the city’s annexation.
He recently presented arguments before the Indiana Court of Appeals in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against Jeffersonville over a ban on sex offenders in city parks.
In 2008, he was the highest paid of Jeffersonville’s six city attorneys, receiving $107,000 in tax dollars. That’s four times more than the next highest-paid city attorney.
He’s also attorney for the Greater Clark County Schools system, as well as operating his own private practice, located on Court Avenue in Jeffersonville.
Jeffersonville City Councilman Ron Grooms said the incident was “an embarrassment.”
The president of the Jeffersonville City Council said she will call a special meeting next week to discuss the future of the council's lawyer, who was found Wednesday lying in a neighbor's garbage can after what he called a night of celebratory drinking.Larry Wilder was found by the neighbor around 7 a.m. Wednesday.
"It is really embarrassing," Connie Sellers said. But she said she sees the incident as a personal mistake and doesn't think it should affect Wilder's professional relationship with the council, while others saw it differently.
Wilder apologized for any embarrassment he caused. "I apologize to my children more than anyone," he said.
Officers helped Wilder walk across the street to his house after being called by a neighbor. No charges were filed.Police Chief Tim Deeringer said his officers used their discretion in simply helping Wilder home because he was cooperative and wasn't a threat to himself or anyone else.
Conrad Embry, 80, the neighbor who called police, saw his garbage can on its side and someone lying in it when he took is dog out for a walk about 7 a.m.
"If I'd known it was Larry Wilder, I wouldn't have called the police," Embry said. He said Wilder "has been a wonderful neighbor."
In an interview Thursday, Wilder acknowledged he went out Tuesday night with a group of friends to celebrate after one of them passed a real-estate licensing exam, and that he had been drinking. After dinner in Louisville, he said, the group went to Fourth Street Live.
"I was not driving," Wilder said. "It's a private matter, made public because I am a public person."
Wilder said he was driven home in a client's limousine. He declined to identify the client. He also said he remembered little of what happened after leaving Louisville.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 18, 2009 03:38 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts