TUESDAY August 13, 2013
Inside Today
Our View
Gene Stratton-Porter birthday celebrated
Football
Scooter issues spark petition for new laws
Insert
Colts owner unhappy with loss
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Page B1
Weather A few clouds today. High 76. Low 53. Sunny Wednesday. High 73. Low 51. Page A6 Kendallville, Indiana
Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
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Police chief blasts WN superintendent GOOD MORNING Reagan adviser Clark dies at age 81 BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
William P. Clark, who rose from campaign volunteer to one of President Ronald Reagan’s most trusted advisers, has died. He was 81. Clark died Saturday at his ranch home in the central California town of Shandon after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, according to his son. “It’s been a hard fight for him, but we do feel he’s in a better place and he’s not suffering any longer,” Paul Clark said Sunday. The elder Clark began working for Reagan by managing the actor’s 1966 gubernatorial campaign in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles. He ascended to various political jobs as Reagan moved from the Golden State to the White House. Clark worked for Reagan in Sacramento, rising to the position of executive secretary, before accepting a judgeship with the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court. Reagan later appointed him to the state appellate court in Los Angeles, and then the state Supreme Court, before he moved to Washington to serve as deputy secretary of state and national security adviser.
School Resource Officer issue causes rift BY BOB BUTTGEN bbuttgen@kpcmedia.com
LIGONIER — Ligonier Police Chief Bryan Shearer told the city council Monday night that he is “very disappointed” with West Noble superintendent Dr. Dennis VanDuyne. The issue causing the chief’s concern is the possible hiring of a second School Resource Officer (SRO) for the West Noble campus on U.S. 33. Shearer and VanDuyne have had discussions and at least one face-to-face meeting on the subject, in the last two months. But now, Shearer is upset
because it appears the possibility of another SRO may be dead in the water. One possible scenario that could change that, is if the state of Indiana gets around to awarding grants to school districts for SROs and related equipment. Both Shearer and VanDuyne said the additional officer is something both the school and the police department want, but the financing of the SRO program made the addition “unworkable,” VanDuyne said after Monday’s meeting of the West Noble school board. “It is still something we want, but for now I would say
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Index
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Classifieds.................................B6-B8 Life..................................................... A5 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B4 Vol. 104 No. 222
that being salary and the other half being benefits, including health insurance and pension programs, plus equipment. Ligonier and West Noble have worked together on placing a SRO at West Noble Primary School, located in the central part of the city, for 13 years. That agreement has the school corporation paying for half of the total costs of the officer. In addition to the Ligonier police officer stationed at West Noble Primary, the Noble County Sheriff’s Department and West Noble have had a deputy for more than 10 years at the three buildings at the south campus. VanDuyne said it was the West SEE WN, PAGE A6
Major shift
Celestial Sight
Holder goes after mandatory federal drug sentences
Kerry still hopeful on Mideast peace talks BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday the recent flap over Israeli settlement announcements likely won’t derail Mideast peace talks, which are scheduled to resume this week. Kerry said at a news conference Monday in Bogota that he has talked about the announcements with the top Israeli negotiator. He is also trying to reach Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is recovering from hernia surgery. A State Department spokeswoman in Washington, Marie Harf, said that the U.S. had expressed its “serious concerns” about the announcement Sunday that Israel had approved building nearly 1,200 more settlement homes Sunday — the third in a week. It fueled Palestinian fears of a new Israeli construction spurt under the cover of U.S.-sponsored negotiations. Top U.S. negotiator Martin Indyk has arrived in the region for talks that begin on Wednesday.
it is dead,” VanDuyne said. “If we get the grant, then it may be resurrected.” “Of course I am disappointed,” Shearer said. “This is something that I thought was really going to enhance our security at the south campus, and the entire corporation, and more importantly the students.” Shearer said he came away from a July 9 meeting with VanDuyne with the impression the deal would go through. Shearer said VanDuyne told him he (VanDuyne) thought he could get the proposal passed by the school board. Shearer told the city council that a police officer costs the city $61,000 a year, with about half of
PHOTO BY TYLER MOORE
Star gazing at Pokagon Intermittent clouds passed overhead at Pokagon State Park’s Star Spectacular, but that didn’t stop some 200 spectators from enjoying one of the most active annual meteor showers, the Perseid meteor shower, late Saturday and early Sunday. The Star Spectacular, hosted by Pokagon’s Interpretive Naturalist Service and led by interpreter Fred Wooley, included astronomers from the Hillsdale (Mich.) Astronomical Society and the Fort Wayne
Astronomical Society, all outfitted with telescopes to observe celestial objects and educate participants. In addition to the telescopes, there were also star charts, and naked-eye observation where different summertime constellations were pointed out. Perseid activity and star trails are shown in a 38-minute exposure looking northeast near the Civilian Conservation Corps Shelter at Pokagon.
Investment adviser admits theft BY KATHRYN BASSETT kbassett@kpcmedia.com
AUBURN — With his eyes downcast and few words, a DeKalb County investment adviser quietly admitted the theft of $354,000 from four of his clients during a hearing Monday afternoon in DeKalb Superior Court II. Jeffrey Jarrett, 35, of the 2600 block of C.R. 56, Auburn, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft of more than $100,000, a Class C felony, and two counts of theft, a Class D felony, as part of a plea agreement. In the separate charges, Jarrett admitted to thefts of $10,000, $65,000, $100,000 and $170,000. Details of the offenses were not discussed during Monday’s plea hearing, other than Jarrett admitting that in each of the cases, he exerted unauthorized control of property — money — belonging
to four victims with the intent of depriving them of the use of the property. Sentencing is open to the court, and the court will establish the terms of restitution, including restitution in three charges that will be dismissed as part of the plea agreement. The charges to be dismissed are theft, a Class C felony; forgery, a Class C felony; and theft, a Class D felony. A Class C felony carries a possible sentence of two to eight years in prison, and a Class D felony carries a possible penalty of six months to three years in prison. Judge Monte Brown took the agreement under advisement and scheduled a sentencing hearing for Oct. 7. Jarrett is accused of taking money from clients to buy investments that never were purchased. Auburn Police Detective Stacy
Sexton investigated the case with enforcement investigators Charlie Williams and Aleksander M. Cirulis of the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Sexton said Jarrett Financial Services was organized in 2007 and was administratively dissolved Sept. 29, 2011. Its principal place of business was on North Main Street in Auburn. Two of the victims — Carol VerWiebe and Carol Reese — have filed civil lawsuits against Jarrett and his company, alleging he used their funds for his own benefit. VerWiebe filed her lawsuit in DeKalb Superior Court I, and Reese filed her suit in DeKalb Superior Court II. In the criminal case, Jarrett admitted the theft of funds from four clients, including Reese and VerWiebe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder announced a major shift Monday in federal sentencing policies, targeting long mandatory terms that he said have flooded the nation’s prisons with low-level drug offenders and diverted crime-fighting dollars that could be far better spent. If Holder’s policies are implemented aggressively, they could mark one of the most significant changes in the way the federal criminal justice system handles drug cases since the government declared a war on drugs in the 1980s As a first step, Holder has instructed federal prosecutors to stop charging many nonviolent drug defendants with offenses that carry mandatory minimum sentences. His next step will be working with a bipartisan group in Congress to give judges greater discretion in sentencing. “We will start by fundamentally rethinking the notion of mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related crimes,” Holder told the American Bar Association in San Francisco. There are currently more than 219,000 federal inmates, and the prisons are operating at nearly 40 percent above capacity. Holder said the prison population “has grown at an astonishing rate — by almost 800 percent” since 1980. Almost half the inmates are serving time for drug-related crimes. Holder said he also wants to divert people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expand a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders. The speech drew widespread praise, including from some of the people Holder will need most — Democrats and Republicans on SEE SHIFT, PAGE A6
Doctor donates special items for mission auction BY BOB BUTTGEN bbuttgen@kpcmedia.com
LIGONIER — The 14th annual Community Mission Auction is set for Saturday at the Noble County Community Foundation headquarters in Ligonier. Local history buffs may want to take a close look at a few of the many items on the auction block. Ligonier’s Dr. Robert Stone, who retired in May after 54 years of service to the West Noble community, has donated several items from his office to the auction that benefits missions selected by
the five participating churches. Stone has donated a pair of chairs that have been used by thousands of his patients over the decades. An old-fashion scale and his doctor’s stool also will be on the auction block Saturday. The auction, along with a flea market planned for Friday, is put together by a volunteer coalition representing five churches in the West Noble area — Ligonier Church of the Nazarene, Dios de Amor, Ligonier United Methodist Church, Strong Tower Worship SEE DONATES, PAGE A6
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Dr. Robert Stone, his wife, Lura, and granddaughter, Celeste Marshal, pose with some of the items up for bids at Saturday’s Community Mission Auction in Ligonier. The chairs the Stones are sitting on were in his Ligonier office for more than half a century before he retired earlier this year.