Prosecutor says union leader's OWI deal was mistake
NWI Times
May 5, 2016
CROWN POINT — The Lake County prosecutor said reducing charges pending against a union official was a mistake.
“That plea is not indicative of what we should have done in that situation. That just upsets me,” Prosecutor Bernard A. Carter said.
Randolph L. “Randy” Palmateer, 37, business manager for the Northwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council, avoided conviction of operating a vehicle while intoxicated Monday when he pleaded guilty to reckless driving. A Hammond City Court judge placed Palmateer on 180 days probation.
Carter said Thursday that deal wasn’t a favor to Palmateer, whose political connections extend to many Democratic municipal and county officials.
Hammond police said they arrested Palmateer March 25 at a sobriety checkpoint. The Times has requested any video recording Hammond police made of Palmateer’s arrest. Lt. Richard Hoyda said the city corporation counsel is researching the question.
The prosecutor’s office filed two misdemeanor counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated March 30. Hammond City Court records indicate Palmateer received the plea deal and resolved his case Monday — 34 days later.
Carter said when he heard Palmateer had been charged, he instructed his staff to ensure any plea bargain would be negotiated by a top administrator in his office.
“All my attorneys know if there is any high-profile case, you let us look at it before you negotiate it. If they had brought that deal to Crown Point, we would have picked up on the name quickly,” Carter said.
However, he said, by the time his instruction went out, “They said (defense attorney) Tom Mullins came in yesterday and pleaded him. Clearly, he was rushed into court,” Carter said.
Neither Palmateer nor his attorney returned calls for comment.
Carter said, “Edgar Rodriguez, our deputy in Hammond, negotiated the plea agreement. Edgar said he didn’t recognize the name. He doesn’t get involved in politics.”
He said Rodriguez made his decision under the impression it was Palmateer’s first offense and that the case would be difficult to try in front of a jury, because sobriety check points are unpopular.
The Bureau of Motor Vehicles on Thursday released to The Times a driving history for Palmateer indicating nine convictions for seat belt violations, speeding and disregarding a traffic signal between 1995 and 2008, and a license suspension for his arrest this March, but nothing in 2011.
Carter’s office charged Palmateer in 2011 with operating a vehicle while intoxicated and endangering a person, but dismissed that count after Palmateer pleaded guilty to reckless driving.
“Edgar tells me that when he looked at (Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles) records, it had no indication (Palmateer) had a prior,” Carter said.
Carter said, “I don’t know who would have to drop the ball. That (2011 plea) was in Lake Station. Judge (Christopher) Anderson was on the bench. I don’t know who his clerks were, but for whatever reason, it never got sent down to the BMV.”
Anderson, now Lake Station mayor, said Thursday, “I treated (Palmateer) just like any other defendant. No special treatment or singling him out because of who he was.”
Anderson said all traffic cases in his court were processed in open court and handed over to clerks, who entered them into the CourtView Online Court Records system, which is programmed to send an automatic signal of a conviction to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles for its record system.
“Without looking into the situation, I can’t tell you if it was a mistake by the clerk’s office, the BMV or by the computer,” Anderson said, adding the process needs to be simplified to avoid future problems.
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