Prosecutor Misconduct No. 1700605967 - 1989743261

Reporting Authority

This complaint has been forwarded to the Indiana State Bar Association

Statement

4-26-2022 - Deputy Adam Richmond- Samantha Backfish / Rick Lewis- Community Correction case managers- Jordan Forquer executive director of Community Corrections- Kelsey Stearly Chief probation officer & Katheryn Bradbury Probation officer went to my daughter's house for a compliance home check because she's on house arrest. I live in my own house across with a fenced in yard between us- I pay rent & have the lease (which Community Corrections has a copy of because they insisted when they put my daughter on house arrest). The report from the Deputy States they were doing this compliance check because my daughter flunked a urine test she's been on house for us three years and never flunked one so that was a lie. While they were searching my daughter's house, case manager Rick Lewis decided to tell the deputy "the out building outside is locked" Rick Lewis knows this is my house so why he said the out building outside I don't know! Then he says that Mallery's over there all the time (but she's on house arrest & if that were the case she would have been violated for it). Rick also said there was somebody with a bomb in that out building so they really needed to get in & search. They asked Mallery if she had a key to it or could get in. She said NO, you know that's my dad's house. He asked Linda Burris/landlord & she said no that is Herschell's home. So, Rick Lewis calls the prosecutor and tells her that my house is locked she tells them (noted in the Incident report) to get a consent to search from the Linda Burris. The prosecutor knows that she doesn't have the right to approve a consent to search or warrantless search. The prosecutor violated my constitutional rights because I have a lease & pay rent that were already approved when my daughter got put on house arrest 3 years ago. 6 people to search? I'm pretty sure I was at target all along. In the last 1.5 yrs. The prosecutor had to dismiss 2 cases that should have never been brought in them either. The judge & prosecutor sit on the board of Community Corrections. The prosecutor is the chair. This is abuse of power- violation of my constitutional rights- malicious prosecution- prosecutorial misconduct- a conflict of interest so the prosecutor should'nt have brought criminal charges on me for this when she knows that she's guilty of using her power as a prosecutor & chair board member to solicit a coerced illegal search of a non-offenders home as well as using biased- unverified- unsupported facts- manufacturing evidence & incorrect information for probable cause to obtain an arrest warrant & criminal charges. The judge should have known this as well. The only evidence the prosecutor had against me was an incident report by a deputy that also should've known about involuntary & warrantless searches. Community Corrections and probation then distance themselves & the deputy took over the case when he was only there to assist! The whole thing is a mockery of the judicial system. Community correction had no right to call the prosecutor finding out how to get a consent to search my house. I am not on probation- not on house arrest & had no charges against me. I I for sure didn't give up my constitutional rights. After talking to the prosecutor Emily Clark Rick Lewis & Deputy Richmond then tell Linda Burris if she doesn't consent the search they're going to violate Mallery & arrest her. Feeling defeated Linda Burris gave them an Involuntary -Coerced consent to search with the stimulation that nothing gets broke to get in or otherwise. Samantha Backfish, case manager took screws out of my bedroom sliding glass door & yanked it out of the encasement breaking it where it won't lock or shut anymore or stay in the encasement. Just let him into my bedroom where Rick Lewis told Mary she had to go in with him they couldn't get out of my bedroom because the bedroom door was locked so they Rick Lewis broke my bedroom door to get into the rest of the house at this point the consent to search wasn't voluntary no good the consensus against my 4th amendment rights & the stipulation meant they should have stopped because they broke two doors to get in. Rick Lewis had Mallery open the front door to let everyone else in then told her to leave. So there was no one there during the search & I was at work. In the report it said they found 6 pipes- a weighing machine & a gold bottle with white residue in it. I can tell you they didn't find anything at my house I didn't have any pipes there I didn't have any drugs.. I had nothing!!! The deputy was just there to assist & he became the whole case. **Discovery provided no other reports from the prosecutor giving advice on how to create a consent to search- Community correction report on Mallory flunking a urine test the search of her home as well as mine- the drugs and paraphernalia that probation community found. It seem to me like that wouldn't have been a good probable cause because it was unsubstantiated just by one word of mouth I don't care if he's a deputy or not look what he did. I believe the reason they took the deputy with him is because this was set up before they even went to search my daughters that was their excuse cuz they only spent a few minutes there and I focus seem to be on searching my house which they had no right to do and all of them should have known that in their positions. So this isn't my house because they could get a consent to search from the landlord but yet I was arrested that night for what they found in that house because I was the owner of it you can't have it both ways. MISCONDUCT FOR SURE! I was arrested that night when I come home from work for F6 possession of paraphernalia- posted $700 bail 3 days later to get out of iail & appeared at my first hearing 5-2-2022 to plead not guilty. I was appointed Matt Effner indigent council. **The prosecuting attorney who shouldn't have even have been involved in bringing me up on charges (I feel like I was set up by the prosecutor abusing her power & using Community Corrections- probation & the Sheriff's Department to do so) because the only probable cause she could have but isn't substantiated would have been the deputies incident narrative that had so many inconsistencies- manufactured evidence & test results not backed up by any of the other people that were there- the chain of custody or by any other reason. The deputy stated that he followed Community Corrections & probation l to the house to do the search. Yet there's a 911 call log that shows that minutes after he was searching 911 got to call that they needed help with a search house from a deputy to do a probation search it's a lie either because they're who they gave the call to but he was already there. This is the discovery that was used also for probable cause. There are pictures that show a pipe in one picture the same area photographed in another picture of the same area & the pipe's not there- every picture in the incident report which is evidence of drugs paraphernalia weight of the drugs & bottle says original file number & there's a different number for the file then the deputy has for this file. I had no pipes- no white residue- no weighing machine- no bottles with white power in it. *The only Discovery I got from the prosecutor on my case was a one little page not filled out probable cause after they didn't order with just the F6 meth charge and the see misdemeanor for paraphernalia- the two page unsubstantiated incident report that has different file numbers for the evidence (which seems to me like it came out of somebody's file)- Deputy Richmond in the first part of the incident report about how he followed Jimmy Corrections of probation to the home to search for Mallery & the 911 call log that was found in the discovery showing a different time and that his presence was requested to help the search & it didn't show where they searched my house warrantless and involuntary consent to search which violated my Fourth amendment rights- it just showed a house arrest search- pictures of paraphernalia that didn't correspond with other pictures of the same area where items for missing & mishandling of supposed seized items with no chain of custody- inadmissible evidence. The prosecutor could have sent me items that would have exonerated me so she purposely committed a Brady violation. *8 days after my initial hearing there's an arrest warrant prosecutor because the prosecutor charged me instead with a F6/Possession of Meth/any amount under 5g & a C misdemeanor for paraphernalia. So I was arrested because she made the first case go away after I pleaded and I am not a flight risk misconduct and abusive power. I went to court on the charge I was arrested for on 4-26-2022. Supposedly the deputy had already finished testing the drugs with a field test after the supposed items that was seized from my house during illegal search at the Sheriff's dept.. So these charges could have been amended before my first hearing because they were done the same night they arrested me & I was in jail three days & then a week later attended my pretrial. Then that case disappeared & I'm arrested on a warrant for the new case she's filed. The prosecutor waits mostly on drug cases 2 - 5 - 11 months after the charges are filed so that the defendant is detained with an arrest warrant. This poor town & the towns people's rights are being violated. Someone needs to step up & stop this! It's always the same group- Prosecutor Emily Clark is the first to do whatever it takes for especially METH cases to file criminal charges- Judge Pell & he always appoints Matthew Effner as the court appointed attorney- Probation & Community Corrections & the Sheriff's Department. Then there's violations of probation & violations of house arrest soon after the sentencing hearing. Judge Pell sits on the board for community Corrections & Emily Clark,prosecutor is a chair for the board.. That's why they were more than happy to do an illegal search after they called and talk to Emily Clark, Prosecutor. *" It's always the same in Judge Pell's Court. Same court appointed attorney for all cases & always Emily Clark, prosecutor. Especially for all drug cases.. Filed 3-3-6 or more mths. later so that defendant can be picked up on a warrant. Next come the Agreement of parties- Motion for guilty plea hearing & sentencing recommendation filed after a pretrial hearing that the judge nor the prosecutor EVER came to (which is against the rules of professional conduct) The CCS for my criminal case shows that on 2-13-2023 I e-filed a motion for an Agreement of parties- guilty plea & sentencing recommendation. *I NEVER WOULD HAVE FILED THIS MOTION UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. I MAINTAINED TO THE COURT APPOINTED ATTORNEY FROM THE BEGINNING THAT I wanted an evidentiary hearing for a legal search fruits of a poisonous tree for the evidence and on the prosecutor for filing these charges after she told Corrections who had no right to search how to get a consent for a warrantless search which she does not have the power to do. His responses were.. "I already talked to the judge he would not deem this an illegal search so he said not to waste anyone's time by filing a motion on that". "I will not prepare for a trial because with this County you just don't do that you take pleas". If you don't take this plea agreement the prosecutor said she would file habitual offender for your driving on a suspended case that they supposedly put together with this felony meth case and I'm not even sure how that case came from being picked up on a warrant but I was being coerced and threatened into taking the plea agreement by the prosecutor & the court appointed attorney. I WASN'T GOING TO LET THEM RAILROAD ME I ALREADY LOST MY JOB AND MONEY. If ever a clean hands doctrine applied this would be the case. against the rules of professional conduct. The pressure cuter also pulled a fast one and the and the attorney they have ex parte communications all the time I was told by the attorney that he wouldn't go to trial because in Clay County there is no way that you will ever win and so this is the best I can get is one of your probation and 20 hours of community service and I better take it and this has been 6 months that he been telling me this and I keep telling him no I will file an appeal from from prison so then then all of a sudden there's a change of plea. I didn't do it he said he'd take care of it he said he talked to the judge and told him that I wanted evident legal so there's no reason to waste anybody's time expectations are against rules of professional conduct. does this all the time she has almost everybody with drug charges arrested because she doesn't charge until 2 months later she doesn't file because she couldn't file and take a case through sentencing by honesty to save her life. Well then attorney never took care of the hearing and so I should have put the hearing and I'm handed a plea agreement and the judge starts talking right away so I had no time to talk to anyone about how this plea wasn't the one that had been offered for the last 6 mths.. This one said 545 days Probation & 20 hours community service. First of all I'm innocent and second I would be doing 545 days of probation with the same people who legally search my house and stomped on my constitutional rights. Basically the prosecutor gives a good plea for 6 months- it has a court appointment attorney telling you it's a good deal & it's best you're going to get. Then when you go to court the prosecutor pulls a fast one & a switcheroo to 545 days and all meth charges that tells sentences everyone to regardless- it's not on the merits on the case it's a straight this is what he gives everyone which isn't fair 545 days- daily calling in for urine tests paying for three or more urine tests a week. I playef probation straight & they tried to violate me 3.5 weeks into probation for no reason. Today the job signed a warrant for the third arrest in this case which is ridiculous because this comes after I filed change of Judge and a post-conviction relief in the last week. The judge dismissed the court appointed attorney on day of sentencing instead of the attorney withdrawing. I'm only allowed to send you 6 documents. But I have more proof documents like I filed for a Post Conviction Relief petition 6-8-2023 & a change of JUDGE 6-13-2023. 3 days later I was charged fines & court costs of $1,265 plus they have my $700 bond money & I was deemed indigent So I don't understand how I owe this money but I was told I only had 60 days to pay it or I would go to jail for contempt. Everything's always the threat of jail with these people. 1.5:weeks ago which would have been my third week on my 545 days sentence of probation. The executive director, Jordon Forquer & Chief probation officer Kelsey Stearly who is my probation officer was having an argument because Jordan Forquer wanted to take me over to the jail because he said you know it's inevitable- you know he's going to jail because we're going to violate him anyways so I'm just going to walk him over there & get it over with. Because of this case where I'm innocent I've already been to jail twice & lost my job. Now I'm going to be arrested again because the judge signed the warrant yesterday to revoke my probation because the judge signed a warrant yesterday. I filed for Post Conviction relief & a change of Judge before the warrant was signed and nothing's been done on those two but the warrant is signed from the prosecutor & probation!! This is crazy I'm innocent!!

Definition of Offense(s)

Prosecutorial misconduct refers to actions by a prosecutor that are unethical, illegal, or violate the rights of a defendant.


Prosecutor misconduct involving bias refers to when a prosecutor allows personal opinions, prejudices, or other factors to influence their decision making or behavior in a criminal case.


Cooperative misconduct refers to a situation where the prosecutor collaborates or conspires with another party, such as the police, to commit misconduct. This type of behavior can include suppressing evidence, withholding information, or engaging in unethical tactics to secure a conviction.


Evidence that is favorable to the defendant (exculpatory) and could impact the outcome of the defendant’s case (material) is often called “Brady material” because of the seminal 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland.


Judicial proceedings type of prosecutor misconduct refers to unethical or illegal actions taken by a prosecutor during the course of a trial or other legal proceeding.


Obstruction of justice by a prosecutor refers to actions taken by a prosecutor to interfere with the administration of justice, such as hiding or withholding evidence, lying or making false statements in court, or engaging in other behavior that undermines the fairness and integrity of the legal


"Overcharging" refers to a prosecutor bringing excessive or unwarranted charges against a defendant in a criminal case. This can occur when a prosecutor deliberately or recklessly charges someone with more crimes or more serious crimes than the evidence supports.


Witness tampering is a form of prosecutor misconduct where the prosecutor intentionally tries to interfere with the testimony of a witness in a court proceeding.