01042017 - News Article - No charges against former Lake Station court clerk

No charges against former Lake Station court clerk
NWI Times
January 04, 2017
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/crime-and-court/no-charges-against-former-lake-station-court-clerk/article_52e94f13-0f3c-532a-8b38-ac962b78d359.html

LAKE STATION — A special prosecutor won't charge a former court clerk for letting hundreds of serious traffic offenders go unpunished.

However, LaPorte County Prosecutor John M. Espar states Miranda Brakley committed "gross malfeasance" for failing to report to state officials the reckless and drunken driving convictions taking place in Lake Station City Court between 2008 and 2012.

Espar's findings as a special prosecutor state Lake Station traffic convictions should have been sent to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles so officials in Indianapolis could assess penalties, including driving license suspensions on traffic violators.

Instead, Brakley stored them, unreported, in court files without the knowledge of local or BMV officials.

Espar said there is no evidence she or anyone else committed bribery, official misconduct or was a ghost employee.

Local officials finally sent records of 700 Lake Station traffic convictions last June to the BMV, which belatedly applied administrative penalties against the drivers.

Brakley and her attorney, Thomas Vanes, declined to comment Wednesday.

Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, who called for Espar's independent investigation last June, said Wednesday, "I'm satisfied with his findings."

Carter praised Indiana State Police investigators Sgt. Al Williamson, Detective Christopher Campione and Trooper John Holmen for "their thorough job in the case."

Scrutiny of Lake Station City Court began following the March 25 arrest of Randolph L. “Randy” Palmateer, business manager for the Northwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council, by Hammond police at a sobriety checkpoint.

The Lake County prosecutor's office originally charged Palmateer with operating while intoxicated, then let him plead guilty to the reduced charge of reckless driving six weeks later.

When The Times questioned why Palmateer had avoided an OWI conviction for the second time in five years, Carter said he didn't know Palmateer had received a similar plea-agreement reduction in Lake Station City Court in 2011.

Carter said his staff was misled, because it had checked Palmateer's record through the BMV and found no 2011 conviction, because the City Court never reported it to the BMV.

Carter then widened his search and found other OWI cases that weren't transmitted downstate from Lake Station. He called in state police and Espar to determine if a crime was committed and who was responsible for it.

Espar said state police investigators questioned numerous witnesses, including former and current city judges, clerks and deputy clerks, BMV representatives and technicians of the county's court database of traffic violation records.

Espar said the evidence established Brakley was primarily responsible for sending SR-16 forms, containing details of Lake Station City Court traffic convictions to the BMV.

He said they have city records that Brakley reported to work while at the court, discounting any suspicion she was a ghost employee.

He said there isn't any evidence Brakley solicited or accepted bribes to conceal the conviction to benefit violators.

He said the General Assembly changed the legal definition of official misconduct in 2011 to decriminalize a public official's failure to perform official duties.

He said any of Brakley's failures to report convictions to the BMV before 2011 is now beyond the state's five-year statute of limitations.