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Sunday, July 12, 2009
Ind. Courts - "Judge wants local attorney to turn over drug-seizure records"
A long story in today's Vincennes Sun Commercial deals with drug forfeiture funds. (Readers will recall the long-running dispute in Terre Haute over such funds.) Some quotes:
A judge wants to see bank records that may contain information about missing money from the sheriff's department's drug seizure fund.More from the story:Judge William Weiker of Daviess County, who is presiding over the matter, wants records related to two accounts, one at Old National Bank and another at Regions, to be turned over to the court. The drug seizure fund is an account at Old National Bank; the judge wants records of transactions dating back to Jan. 1, 2003. Information from the Regions account dates from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2003.
Attorney Matt Parmenter, who was employed by the county prosecutor's office to handle some of the forfeitures and sales of drug seizure property, as well as money seized from drug arrests, has filed motions to block the release of any records kept in his office. Parmenter has cited attorney-client privilege because they pertain to work he did as a contractor with the Knox County prosecutor's office.
County officials believe some records in Parmenter's office hold information about missing money and property.
Judge Weikert has ruled that as a contractor with the government, those records are subject to review.
Parmenter has 30 days from the receipt of the court's order to provide the requested information.
The records being sought from Parmenter are the last of a large batch that in 2007 led to a lawsuit brought by the county council to force their release from the sheriff's department and prosecutor's office.The "long legal battle" resulting in the COA decision of Knox County Council v. John Sievers, et al., summarized in this Nov. 7, 2008 ILB entry.Council officials have recently been given digital copies of those records after a long legal battle that went all the way to the Indiana Court of Appeals and which the council won.
Council members Bob Lechner and Tim Ellerman began looking into transactions in the drug seizure fund after a State Board of Accounts audit turned up an overdraft of $52,000.
When the county council hired private accountant, Curt Coonrod, to determine why the account was overdrawn, Lechner said "doors started slamming shut."
A 23-page report prepared by Coonrod in 2007 detailed his findings to the county commissioners. Coonrod found that multiple transactions out of the drug seizure fund were unrecorded and that Parmenter, when acting as attorney to the county prosecutor, executed the sale of forfeited property seized by the sheriff's department in drug arrests and deposited the money from those sales into the drug seizure fund, not the county general fund, as required by state statute.
The report also found that Parmenter, in making payments with money from seized assets, did not itemize some payments, labeling them merely as "out-of-pocket expenses" with no other explanation.
Kurt Webber, an Indianapolis attorney who filed suit on behalf of the county council, said at the moment the only thing the council is trying to do is account for all the money in the drug seizure fund and Parmenter's private bank accounts to make sure the records match up.
"What we're trying to do is match up the money flow from the sheriff's department to Parmenter's office," said Webber. "For every check that Parmenter wrote there should be a record in both accounts."
Webber said no accusations of wrongdoing have been filed.
Numerous attempts to contact Parmenter about the report and the judge's request were unsuccessful.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 12, 2009 06:58 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts