01262012 - News Article - Federal judge tosses lawsuit by Porter County Jail inmates

Federal judge tosses lawsuit by Porter County Jail inmates

NWI Times
January 26, 2012 - 6:30 pm

nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/duneland/federal-judge-tosses-lawsuit-by-porter-county-jail-inmates/article_7a5a4012-defb-54c6-965b-f612c0ecebc2

HAMMOND - A federal judge has thrown out the complaints of eight Porter County inmates who filed a joint lawsuit alleging their constitutional rights were violated while behind bars.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen said Dustin McCowan, Joseph Ruwaldt, Arthur Gutierrez Jr., Corey Cardenas, Adam Massey, Jason Tabor, Dustin DaVaney and Keelan Wright failed to address deficiencies in their case.

The men and/or county jail were ordered to pay 20 percent of the money the men receive each month of $10 or more until the $350 filing fee is paid in full.

The men alleged the jail violated their constitutional rights when it denied them access to family visitation, phone privileges and time at the jail's law library.

Nine inmates in all had signed on to the original complaint.

01252012 - News Article - Housing fraud co-defendant explains scheme

Housing fraud co-defendant explains scheme

Post-Tribune (IN)
January 25, 2012

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A Schererville woman testified Tuesday about how she and seven other co-defendants used their knowledge that Gary housing prices in 2005 and 2006 were inflated by 400 percent to rake in almost $650,000 in a mortgage fraud scheme. 

Sheila Chandler, who has pleaded guilty in the case, also spoke about Randall Causey’s role in the scheme. Causey, 47, is on trial at the U.S. District Court in Hammond on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. 

Chandler said she first learned how to commit fraud as a mortgage originator almost from the start. 

“In the beginning, we were told the lenders didn’t check anything,” Chandler said about the loan applications. 

Fraud became so widespread, Chandler said, that about 90 percent of the mortgage applications she processed included fraud. A handful of others at the mortgage office she worked at, Challenge Mortgage, and another office all took part in it, she said. 

She and others would provide fake financial documents so buyers who normally wouldn’t be approved could get loans to buy rental properties. She worked with Gordon Rainey, who co-owned Netlink Construction with Causey, to find buyers for properties in Gary and Merrillville, usually people who had no knowledge of how real estate transactions worked. 

Chandler said she knew housing market prices in Gary were inflated from talks with local businessman Jerry Haymon , who has pleaded guilty in a similar case. 

“He told me he controlled the market in Gary,” she testified. 

Chandler and the others knew they could manipulate the prices of other homes by having their appraisals done in comparison to the other homes that were sold at inflated prices. All it took were three homes within a 2-mile radius sold for more than they were worth to justify the exaggerated price of another home. That’s how a home that Lake County had assessed for $20,000 could sell for $80,000, she said. 

“Gary had a really volatile market,” Chandler said. 

She used that information to find houses for the buyers to purchase. Causey found the buyers, she said, because he was known as a charmer. She admitted she did not talk to him during most of the scheme, though, and that most of what she knew about Causey during that time came from talks she had with Rainey.

01232012 - Response From Attorney General Zoeller's Office - Abbi's And Bailey's Deaths

VIDEO:

http://abbiandbaileyfromtheheart.blogspot.com/2012/10/two-years-since-unlawful-police-entry.html

In response to my January 19th FAX, [regarding Abbi's and Bailey's deaths], I received a voicemail message from Attorney General Zoeller's office. I was told to file a Consumer Complaint form. How cruel.

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01192012 - Hobart Indiana Humane Society - FAX requesting paperwork for Abbi and Bailey

FAX that I sent to the Hobart Indiana Humane Society on January 19, 2012, requesting paperwork my ex - James Thomas - signed to have Abbi and Bailey killed. I was requesting this information so I could have criminal charges filed against James. The Hobart Humane Society ignored my request, thus criminal charges could not be filed.

01192012 - Fax To Congressman Visclosky - Abbi's And Bailey's Deaths - Hobart Humane Society

VIDEO:

http://abbiandbaileyfromtheheart.blogspot.com/2012/10/two-years-since-unlawful-police-entry.html

01192012 - Fax To Senator Lugar - Abbi's And Bailey's Deaths - Hobart Humane Society

VIDEO:

http://abbiandbaileyfromtheheart.blogspot.com/2012/10/two-years-since-unlawful-police-entry.html

01192012 - Fax To Attorney General Zoeller - Abbi's And Bailey's Deaths - Hobart Humane Society

VIDEO:

http://abbiandbaileyfromtheheart.blogspot.com/2012/10/two-years-since-unlawful-police-entry.html

01142012 - News Article - Former Gary official pleads guilty to mortgage scheme

Former Gary official pleads guilty to mortgage scheme

Post-Tribune (IN)
January 14, 2012

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The former director of community development for the city of Gary admitted Friday morning in federal court to working with a local businessman in a mortgage fraud scheme that took in almost $200,000. 

Jacquelyn Drago - Hunter pled guilty to one count of wire fraud. 

Speaking softly throughout the hearing and wearing a black outfit with a white scarf, Drago - Hunter admitted under questioning by her attorney that she worked with Jerry Haymon to defraud a bank by jacking up the purchase price of a house in Gary. Drago-Hunter said Haymon, who has already pleaded guilty in the case, had originally convinced a woman and her son to sell him a house they owned in Gary for $36,000. However, he set up a side agreement with another man to buy the house for $74,000, far more than the house was actually worth. 

Drago-Hunter ’s role was to create two separate closing documents, one to fool the owners into thinking they were selling the house for the original asking amount, and another reflecting the $74,000 purchase price, which was given to the bank. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Bell showed the two documents, noting that the first one said the owners received just $2,300, the actual amount they were paid. The second one, however, shows them receiving about $36,000. That, Drago-Hunter said, was a lie. 

“What happened in reality is that the defendant and Jerry Haymon were scheming,” Bell said. 

Drago-Hunter said that Haymon collected the difference between the prices by filing a lien on the property. The bank wouldn’t have accepted the lien, however, because he had just filed it a few days before closing, and so she wrote out the disbursement to make it appear it was going to the owners. 

As part of Drago-Hunter ’s plea agreement with the government, another charge of wire fraud and two counts of identity theft are being dropped. She faces up to 20 years in prison. 

One of Drago-Hunter ’s other co-defendants, Sheila Chandler, also pleaded guilty in the case. A federal jury found the fourth defendant, Phillip Rucker, guilty in December. 

Drago-Hunter , who continued to work for the city of Gary for about a year after her arrest until October, is scheduled to be sentenced April 19. 

01112012 - News Article - Former official to plead guilty to mortgage fraud

Former official to plead guilty to mortgage fraud

Post-Tribune (IN)
January 11, 2012

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The former director of community development for Gary will plead guilty Friday to taking part in a mortgage fraud that took in almost $200,000, according to court records. 

According to a plea agreement filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond, Jacquelyn Drago-Hunter will plead guilty to one count of wire fraud. She faces up to 20 years in prison on the count. 

Drago-Hunter was charged in October 2010 along with local businessman Jerry Haymon and two other defendants of operating a mortgage fraud scheme that sold houses in Gary for tens of thousands more than they were worth. They would recruit buyers and provide them with false financial information, such as pay stubs, so that lenders would give them loans in the amount of the beefed-up home prices, according to the indictment. They would keep the buyers and lenders in the dark, however, by creating two closing documents and forging the buyer’s signature on the closing document sent to the banks. 

Haymon would pocket the difference by filing a construction lien against the homes for renovation work his company, Priced Right Construction, had supposedly performed but never did. He would then split the money amongst the defendants and other people who took part in the scheme. 

Haymon, who used grant money from the city to renovate one of the houses, pleaded guilty last year, as did one of the other co-defendants, Sheila Chandler. The fourth defendant, former Gary reserve police officer Phillip Rucker, was found guilty by a federal jury. 

Drago - Hunter says in her plea agreement she worked with Haymon to sell a house at 3829 Connecticut St. for $74,000, $35,000 more than the owner was asking. Drago - Hunter , who owned Maximillian Title, acted as the closing agent for the house and oversaw the two closings, along with giving Haymon the check for $35,000. 

As part of the plea agreement, Drago - Hunter will pay restitution to the victims. 

Her change of plea hearing is scheduled for Friday. 

01112012 - News Article - FBI agents pay visit to clerk’s office

FBI agents pay visit to clerk’s office 

Post-Tribune (IN)
January 11, 2012

http://infoweb.newsbank.com

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents visited the Lake County Clerk’s Office on Tuesday morning. 

Clerk’s Office Executive Chief Deputy Marilyn Hrnjak confirmed that agents visited the office, but she didn’t know why they visited, who they were investigating, or if they took any records. 

Lake County Clerk Mike Brown forwarded the call to Hrnjak since he was away from the office for a time on Tuesday. 

“Beyond that, I was at a meeting, so I didn’t have interaction with the (people),” Hrnjak said. 

Calls to the U.S. Attorney’s Office were not returned. 

Former Lake County Clerk Thomas Philpot is faces a federal indictment for paying himself, without approval of the Lake County Council Council, when he was the county clerk, from an incentive fund meant for employees who collect child support. He has pleaded not guilty in the case and had paid back the money before the indictment was filed. 

01062012 - Bill Warner Website Post - Murder of Petite Teen Amanda Bach in Wheeler IN

Murder of Petite Teen Amanda Bach in Wheeler IN 
Posted: January 6, 2012 
Friday, January 06, 2012 
Bill Warner PI 
pibillwarner.wordpress.com

Sunday, December 25, 2011, Amanda Bach murder suspect's trial pushed back, the murder trial for a Northwest Indiana man has been pushed back seven months. Dustin McCowan is accused of killing 19-year old Amanda Bach of Portage. He was scheduled to go on trial January 30th 2012, but now a judge has pushed it back to August 2012. 

Defense attorney Robert Harper had argued the prosecution had collected no evidence that tied McCowan directly to the murder. "There was no evidence where the body was found and no evidence found in the McCowan home when police searched it," Harper said. Police aren’t sure where Bach was shot, and test results have not come back from FBI laboratories, including DNA on a red spot found in the McCowan home. "They jumped the gun," Harper said. 
Cops are now re-investigating the execution style murder of petite teen Amanda Bach, cops are looking at other murder cases of petite females around the country to determine if there is any link.

In a phone conversation on Thursday 1/05/2012 with Law Enforcement in Indiana, I was asked if I knew how Karen Swift had been murdered, (shot, strangled, knifed?), was the body of Karen Swift moved from where her car was found, how close was Karen Swift’s body found near to a cemetery and was Karen Swift’s body found with or without clothes.

It appears the Amanda Bach was killed by a single bullet shot to the brain stem, execution style, it appears that Amanda Bach’s car was found with a flat tire just like Karen Swift, it appears that Amanda Swift might have been found with some of her clothes missing just like Karen Swift, it appears that Amanda Bach’s body was moved some distance from where her car was found just like Karen Swift and it appears that Amanda Bach’s body was found off of the road to the local rural cemetery in the weeds in Wheeler IN just as Karen Swift’s body was found in Dyersburg TN.

It is very, very unusual for Prosecutors in a murder case to postpone a case 7 months when they have what appears to be a "slam dunk" as in the Amanda Bach case.



Amanda Bach Murder Case
Friday, January 06, 2012 

Sunday, December 25, 2011, Amanda Bach murder suspect's trial pushed back, the murder trial for a Northwest Indiana man has been pushed back seven months. Dustin McCowan is accused of killing 19-year old Amanda Bach of Portage. He was scheduled to go on trial January 30th 2012, but now a judge has pushed it back to August 2012. 

Defense attorney Robert Harper had argued the prosecution had collected no evidence that tied McCowan directly to the murder. "There was no evidence where the body was found and no evidence found in the McCowan home when police searched it," Harper said. Police aren’t sure where Bach was shot, and test results have not come back from FBI laboratories, including DNA on a red spot found in the McCowan home. "They jumped the gun," Harper said. 

In a phone conversation on Thursday 1/05/2012 with Law Enforcement in Indiana, I was asked if I knew how Karen Swift had been murdered, (shot, strangled, knifed?), was the body of Karen Swift moved from where her car was found, how close was Karen Swift’s body found near to a cemetery and was Karen Swift’s body found with or without clothes.

There has been a series of abduction, kidnappings, missing person cases and murders of petite females since early 2009, all the cases appear, now, to be unsolved.

1). Amanda Bach 

2). Lauren Spierer is 4′ 11′ tall and weighs 95 lbs she is 20 years old she has shoulder-length blond hair, missing/abducted June 3rd, 2011. 

3). Holly Bobo is 5′ 3″ tall and weighs 110 lbs she is 20 years old she has shoulder-length blond hair, kidnapped April 13th, 2011. 

4). Paige Johnson is 5′ 1″ tall and weighs 110 lbs she is now 18 years old she has shoulder-length blond hair, missing Sept. 23rd 2010. 

5). Crystal Hall, 27, is very petite at 5′ 3″ tall, weighs 105 pounds she has shoulder-length red hair and brown eyes, missing March 3rd, 2009. 

6). Karen Swift was 44 years old (looked younger) 5′ 5″ tall 130 lbs and had shoulder length blond hair, murdered October 30th, 2011. 

7). Katelyn Markham, 22, is 5′ 3″ tall 130 lbs and has shoulder length blond/brown hair, missing August 13th, 2011.

01052012 - News Article - New mayor in Gary reassigns key players from Clay administration

New mayor in Gary reassigns key players from Clay administration

Post-Tribune (IN)
January 5, 2012

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GARY — Two former department heads who were let go last week have been brought back into new positions. 

And the city’s new public works director, attorney Cloteal LaBroi, insisted her legal experience will serve her well in the new role and promised changes in the way the city does business with contractors. 

Marianetta “Dee” Barber, public works director until last week under former Mayor Rudy Clay, is now the city’s human resources director, while former Chief of Staff Arlene Colvin will now run the beleaguered Community Development Department. 

Last week, the Post-Tribune reported Barber and Colvin were dismissed by then Mayor-elect Karen Freeman-Wilson. 

“One of the things I think the mayor has been pretty articulate and vocal about is seeking talent generally to fill key posts,” said newly hired Chief of Staff Bridgette “B.R.” Lane about Barber’s and Colvin’s returns. “(Freeman-Wilson) did think about staffing, and she is very thoughtful about things at a very granular level, and this is the result.” 

Last week, Freeman-Wilson announced Celita Green, the controller from the Clay administration, will remain. Lane said the new mayor will announce more key appointments, including a communications director, key economic development posts and LaBroi’s hiring. 

LaBroi, a Gary native who returned to the area from Atlanta, said she will work closely with the Board of Public Works and Safety to ensure the way contracts are awarded will not be “business as usual.” 

Under Clay, the board — made of the deputy mayor, the controller and a city attorney — regularly handed out professional services contracts at weekly board meetings without any bidding, a process accepted under state law, a former city attorney said. 

LaBroi said the bidding process will be enforced much more often. She said her legal experience will help as she reviews dozens of city contracts the board awards for a wide variety of city services and projects. 

The department needing the most stability may be Community Development. Former director Jacquelyn Drago - Hunter was removed from her post by federal U.S. Housing and Urban Development officials for being under federal indictment. 

Another manager was accused of wrongdoing but cleared her name with the city’s personnel committee. Former Interim Director Carl Jones, who was also a former assistant city attorney, was sentenced to wear an ankle bracelet following a misdemeanor conviction and still faces action from the Indiana Supreme Court’s disciplinary commission.