The State of Indiana prosecuted me for criminal defamation of court officials. I was given a $600,000 bond, denied
charging information, denied evidence, and denied the ability to consult legal
counsel prior to trial. The Indiana Supreme Court upheld my convictions based
on a hidden threat argument never made by the prosecution. Several years later,
I discovered that Barbara Ruwe, Chief Court Reporter for the Dearborn County
(IN) Superior Court II, altered grand jury transcripts to assist Dearborn
County Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard in his unconstitutional prosecution
against me. (Negangard is now the Chief Deputy Attorney General under Indiana Attorney
General Curtis Hill.) When the Indiana Office of the Public Access Counselor
deemed the grand jury audio in my case to be a releasable public record, the
Dearborn Superior Court II modified the grand jury audio to ALMOST match the
transcripts but came up a little short. In modifying the audio, the “official”
copy of the audio does not contain the same amount of information as the
transcription of the same audio. Page one of the grand jury transcripts is void
of any instruction from the prosecutor and begins with witness testimony. This
gave Negangard the freedom to request indictments for any alleged conduct
regardless of truth, because Negangard knew such instruction would be omitted
from the official record. As such, I have refiled my public records lawsuit
seeking grand jury audio and I have filed a motion for Post-Conviction Relief
to have my convictions thrown out.
Here are links to my Petition
for Post-Conviction Relief, my refiled Lawsuit
Seeking Public Records, and a letter
to the clerk of the Dearborn Superior Court II. It is important to note
that Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is aware of the above information
because I included the above information in a letter
to Attorney General Hill sent via certified mail. Feel free to contact the
Office of the Attorney General with any concerns about Negangard’s abuse of the
grand jury process.