This post is a must read to anyone interested in government
transparency especially as it relates to the normally secretive grand jury
process. The Dearborn County (IN) Superior Court II is refusing, in the absence
of any statutory reason, to release the audio from a grand jury proceeding
despite the grand jury exhibits and the transcription of the audio already
being public record.
I filed a
Formal Complaint to the Office of the Public Counselor for the State of Indiana
regarding the refusal of the Dearborn County Superior Court II to release the
audio record from a grand jury proceeding despite the transcripts of the
proceedings already being public record. [In case of any doubts as to the
record of the grand jury record being public, here
are the transcripts from the proceedings.] Special Judge Brian Hill has
issued three different orders regarding the release of the grand jury audio. In
response to prior requests for public records, on January 12, 2012, Judge
Hill ordered the court reporter to prepare compact disc recordings of the
grand jury proceedings of February 28, 2011, March 1, 2011, and March 2, 2011.
On February 2, 2012, Judge
Hill issued a new order stating the grand jury audio was not admitted into
evidence and since there were no audio recordings in the case, Hill rendered
the request “moot.” When I requested the grand jury audio on January 29, 2016,
Hill filed his February 4, 2016 order denying my request claiming “there’s
been no sufficient reason set forth which would necessitate the release of said
audio recordings”, despite Indiana statute requiring a public agency to “state the
statutory exception authorizing the withholding of all or part of the public
record.” The grand jury record is public because Hill admitted the transcripts
as evidence during trial. Even holding that somehow the release of an audio
record is different than the written record, Hill failed to mention how that
affected the release of the audio. He just said I didn’t give a “good enough
reason.”
The dirty secret is someone contacted Judge Hill and told
him not to release the grand jury audio. Why else would Judge Hill suddenly
remember three weeks later that no audio was admitted during trial? Hill also
claimed a pretrial hearing on July 18, 2011 did not take place. So what is the
problem? It appears that Dearborn County Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard instructed
Barbara Ruwe, court reporter for the Dearborn County Superior Court II, to transcribe
only witness testimony and what Negangard wanted her to transcribe. [Barbara
Ruwe is the court reporter for Judge Sally McLaughlin (formerly Blankenship).
McLaughlin is the same judge who set my bond at $600K because the prosecution
argued I did not respect the authority of the Courts.] There is no record of
interaction between the grand jury and Prosecutor Negangard. The transcripts depict
the jurors just appearing at the grand jury proceedings to listen to the first
witness without any instruction. Negangard instructed the court reporter to
prepare a transcript that was tailored to the advantage of the prosecution. A
problem lies in the fact that during a pretrial
hearing Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Kisor stated there was a complete
transcript of the grand jury proceedings. Even more suspicious is that the
pretrial hearing happened to occur on July 18, 2011; same pretrial hearing
Judge Hill claimed to have never taken place. The hearing was later “found”
when Judge Brian Hill was informed that people prepared affidavits attesting to
their presence at the July 18th hearing. This is clearly a situation
where if nobody has anything to hide then just produce the record. Stay tuned
for more details.
