The wife of 7th congressional district candidate Eric Dickerson says he never laid a finger on her or their children. Paula Dickerson is denying the allegations in a 15-year old police report that her husband, Eric abused her in 1991. Paula says the police did come to her house responding to a domestic disturbance, but there was no violence. According to the police report, Paula has bruises and a red marks on her neck. She says she and her husband were yelling at each other she looked red because of her light-skinned complexion. County prosecutors dismissed the charges against Dickerson. The entire affair came to light two days ago, when incumbent Democrat Julia Carson presented the information to the Indianapolis Star.

Domestic violence is a serious accusation. Many women are victims and the men who commit the crimes should be prosecuted. But in each case, the law requires we look at the facts. And here is what we know right now. We have a 15-year old police report. We have Eric saying he did not commit the crime. We have his wife saying he did nothing. We have a case that has been dismissed. We have a case file that has since been destroyed. We have an accuser (Julia Carson) who has disappeared off the radar screen.

Draw your own conclusions.

I sat down Tuesday night and spoke with Eric Dickerson’s wife, Paula. I asked her about her husband’s domestic violence arrest, the brusies she reportedly received and whether she thinks the bad news about Eric are politically motivated. I’ll have the interview in the morning between 7:30 and 9 a.m. I’ll post back here later in the day.

I’ve been doing some following up on Eric Dickerson’s interview this morning. Democrats are telling I didn’t have all the facts. A police report has been circulating the Internet this morning. It makes serious allegations that there was more violence that might have occurred than Dickerson let on this morning in the interview. He was originally charged with two class A and one class B misdemeanors.

The case was dismissed in 1992. But under the codes used in the Prosecutor’s office it was also to be re-filed, but was dropped. A spokesman for the current Prosecutor says it has been their policy, as well as the previous prosecutor, to try cases even without the victim.

I asked for a copy of the file, but the Marion County Clerk only keeps them for a few years, so the original file from 14 years ago has been destroyed.

However, as any lawyer knows you look at all the evidence in a criminal matter, not just a police report. This is not because police are prone to lie, but because you want to have something you can take to trial and get a conviction.
Which is why I think it’s rather odd that of all the possible information that could have been in the file, only the initial police report managed to make it to the media.

Something happened along that way. I plan to find out what it was.

Republican 7th Congressional District Eric Dickerson says police did the right thing when they arrested him in 1991 arrest on domestic violence charges. Dickerson told me today he had come home from a business trip to find that his son had wrecked the car. An argument ensued between him and his wife. The shouting was fierce and Dickerson says his 13-year old daughter called police. He was arrested and processed but the charges were dismissed, as there was no physical violence. Dickerson and his wife separated nine years ago, but he says they remain cordial.

The charges have resurfaced in the 2006 campaign. Dickerson says the Julia Carson campaign brought the allegations to the Indianapolis Star’s attention. And the paper interviewed him. Despite the bad publicity, Dickerson says he will not go negative, but instead promising to run a clean campaign.

I have to admit, I’m confused by what Dickerson’s opponents had hoped to accomplish here. It would have been one thing had there been a conviction or a pattern of domestic violence. Heck, it would have been one thing had the charge surfaced yesterday or in the past couple years. But it didn’t. It occurred 15 years ago and when confronted about it, Dickerson admitted it, said the cops did the right thing and that he bears no ill will toward Julia.

I’m not sure what anyone hoped to accomplish by this, but somehow I think they achieved the opposite.

The fun in the Marion County Prosecutor’s Race is off an running this week. The Marion County GOP took a swipe at Democrat Melina Kennedy’s record as former Deputy Mayor of Economic Development for the city of Indianapolis. According to the news release, GOP Executive Director Mike Bieberstein said Indianapolis experienced negative job growth from 2000-2005; suffering a net job loss of nearly 1.4 percent, while other areas like Fishers and Carmel had 30% job growth. The news release also says Indianapolis was also outdone by Gary, IN. If you read between the lines however, the more not so subtle point is that Kennedy is in part responsible for the rise in crime because “The economy is a major factor in crime rates.” Kennedy may have a good reason for what happened, but as we learned with her accusations about habitual offenders and domestic violence convictions, the allegation is often more potent than the explanation. A recent WISH-TV poll had Kennedy and Republican incumbent Carl Brizzi, in a statistical tie.

By now you’ve probably figured out that I am probably not the biggest fan of the current President of the Indianapolis City-County Council, Monroe Gray. To be frank it’s nothing personal. I did have an issue with the way he became President, which was after Council Democrats threw former President Steve Talley under a bus after he carried more water for them than Gunga Din (police consolidation and the human rights ordinance).
But I figured those are internal party politics and I’d give Mr. Gray the benefit of the doubt.

But lately there’s been a pattern I’ve found disturbing. This past summer Gray played politics with public safety by blocking a proposal by the Republican County Prosecutor for jail bed space at a time when crime was soaring through the roof. And when called on the carpet by the press, he said “what’s the point of having the ‘juice’ if you don’t use it?”

Fast forward a few months later, it’s revealed that Gray’s wife Teresa has a financial interest in 300 East (the bar in the government building at Fall Creek). Please note this is revealed after Gray tells a columnist he had no opinion nor interest in the bar. Another little bit of irony is that Gray takes pride in a January 9 Council news release that he kept alcohol out of city parks.

Now the latest controversy to stem from the Monroe doctrine is a quote concerning the bar in September 15 edition of the Indianapolis Recorder. To summarize the article, the investors (who are predominately Black) take the argument that there would not be as much opposition to the project if they were White. Gray says “We need something that we can call our own, a place where Black people can go and meet and greet in an upscale facility where we can feel comfortable and also a place where we can go and do business.” Take a second to reread that. Now take out the word “Black” and put in “White”.

If a politician said white people need a place where they can meet and do business, there would be blood in the streets. If a Phil Borst or Scott Schneider had made those comments they would be run out of town on a rail. Republican Jim Bradford has been called racist for opposing a hip-hop club in Broadripple. I wonder if the same will apply here?

As Council President Monroe Gray has a duty to see that the interests of all citizens of Marion County are addressed in a fair and thoughtful manner. It is not an easy job. However, Gray has a responsibility to not isolate segments and raise the tone of the political discourse in this town. And his comments to the Indianapolis Recorder don’t do that. If Gray cannot maintain a higher standard of political decorum as Council President then perhaps someone else should.

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi says his office is looking into whether a special prosecutor will be needed to investigate the deal that is putting a bar in the Carson Center. Brizzi says his office is conducting research to see if there were any statute violations concerning the agreement and zoning. If criminal charges have to be filed, Brizzi says a special prosecutor would have to fully investigate because he is a Republican and majority of the players involved in the bar are Democrats.

“The natives are restless!” I did some research on that famous Hollywood cliche line. It’s used when the main character in a film suddenly notices all those people he’s been taking for granted for all those years are unhappy – VERY unhappy – and there’s trouble brewing. But he doesn’t know when or where and by the time he figures it out, it’s too late.

Monroe Gray, Bill Mays, Carl Drummer, the natives are restless.

For anyone who has not been following the story, it’s pretty simple. In the Julia Carson Center on Fall Creek in Indianapolis, some folks decided to tear out a park/playground and put in parking space for a bar. Yes, a bar in a government building.

Now what’s gotten so many people in a tizzy is a perception that this was an inside deal done under cover of darkness, wrapped in a cloak of mystery.

Indianapolis Star Columnist Matt Tully has written about it this week and so has Gary Welsh, the author of Advance Indiana, a local blog. They both provide pretty good insight and summarize what has taken place; which essentially is a few politically connected folks used the system to their advantage to put a bar in a government building. I will not go so far as to say someone broke the law, but I can say the Marion County Prosecutor is researching the matter to see if a special prosecutor needs to be appointed.

And with all that as a backdrop, the Marion County Association of Neighborhood Alliances (McANA) is now up in arms. I spoke with group president Cathy Burton who told me they are upset because they feel the process was not done in the open. She said the group expects the public process to be open at all times and they plan to attend a hearing next month and make their concerns known.

Burton is concerned that once the proponents of the bar go to the economic development commission, they will try to argue that because they have spent so much money on the facility that it would be unfair for them to have to close up shop. This would set a very dangerous precedent. It would give a green light to any developer who wanted to build something over the objections of neighborhood residents could simply build and cry poverty if the project goes south.

Burton also issued a veiled warning that should this bar go through and the public is ignored, there will be repercussions at the ballot box next year during the city elections. The Mayor will be up and well as the city-county council. And although some folks may come from safe districts, there are at least four who could be vulnerable.

If I were an elected official, I would take McCANA seriously. If not, at least hide the can opener.

Well less than 24 hours after an in-house debate at the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce Hobnob, Democrat Melina Kennedy and Republican Carl Brizzi are going after each other. In a news release put out this morning, Kennedy accused Brizzi of being soft on crime by giving a “free pass to a habitual offender.” She’s referring to the 2004 case of Bilal Abdullah (no relationship). Abdullah was convicted in Marion County Court in 2004-05 on weapons charges and resisting arrest. He was also sentenced as a habitual offender, so he got 10 years. His sentence was overturned because a document necessary to certify his status as a habitual offender had not been signed by a judge.

Kennedy uses that fact to say Brizzi has dropped the ball. However upon closer inspection of the facts, the document used to certify Abdullah’s (once again no relationship) was made in 1995, long before Brizzi was prosecutor. And the judge who did the sentencing was Stephen Rubik, a pro tem, which is fancy Latin for temporary judge. Judges are usually the gatekeepers of these types of things and the document was admitted into evidence as part of the trial record. But as you can see the explanation takes longer than the allegation, so Kennedy wins this round.

They did make a mistake in their news release referring to Indiana’s “three-strikes” law. The problem is that Indiana doesn’t have one; it has a habitual offender statute which is different. Lawyers get it, but the public doesn’t, so once again a victory on this one for Kennedy.

I will also give them some free advice and recommend they back off the theme of “are we safer than four years ago?” I can tell you it was the Peterson administration who denied crime was on the rise earlier this year and only got with the program when people in this town were being shot like fish in a barrel. So by raising that issue, Kennedy may inadvertently be doing Bart some damage. Just some advice from your friendly neighborhood pundit.

Hobnobbing

I did the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce Hobnob Wednesday night. It’s a political event where candidates and the public get together. I came across a lot of people I know who listen to the program. I think the most interesting item though was the “debate” between Melina Kennedy and Carl Brizzi. Both looked good for the audience and both had somewhat snappy lines. However the underlying tone definitely shows this race is about to get ugly. Democrat Kennedy unveiled a new add, which the GOP says she’s going negative. Did Kennedy go negative? Did she cross into the Neutral Zone (apologies to Star Trek fans) Who knows? Who cares? Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.

Hold Your Liquor (License that is)

The folks who want the alleged bar and restaurant in the Carson Center at Fall Creek may only get half of what they want. A hearing on the bar’s liquor license is about a month away and at least one of the three voting members has said they will vote “no.” Which means the folks who want the bar would need all three remaining votes to get the liquor license. By the way to the best of everyone I spoke with, no one can think of a time when a government facility had a license to serve alcohol when it’s primary purpose was to provide government services. The RCA Dome, Conseco and other such places are primarily entertainment facilities so they don’t count. From my conversations with state and local officials, no one seemed crazy about setting this precedent. I think I know a few people who will probably need a drink about now.

Corner Incompetence

RTV 6’s Jack Reinhart has more today on more incompetence in the Marion County Coroner’s Office. With all the news coming out of the corner’s office lately, if you have loved one about to die, I recommend moving them out of Marion County. If they were already dead, I’d still do it.