When officers are charged — and when they aren't — with alleged crimes while on-duty
When Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry announced charges against the Indianapolis police officer accused of punching a Shortridge High School student, his top deputy said the case was proof that justice is meted out fairly.
"We are hopeful that this sends a strong message to the community that we take these allegations very seriously," Ryan Mears, Curry's chief trial deputy, said at a news conference Monday.
"These matters will be thoroughly investigated and ... it does not matter to the Marion County prosecutor's office who is the defendant or who is the victim."
But critics say when the accused is a cop in uniform and on duty, justice is not always applied evenly.
Robert Lawson is the sixth Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer since 2011, according to data provided by the Marion County Prosecutor's Office. Four of the cases resulted in convictions, while two, including the case against Lawson, are still pending.
Four officers from other agencies have also been convicted since 2011 for actions which were alleged to have been committed while on duty, according to the prosecutor's office. One case is still pending.
But some say it isn't enough.
"It is a rare occurrence and it has to be pretty egregious," said Stephen Wagner, an Indianapolis attorney who has represented families in high-profile police brutality cases.
"It's hard to understand why charges are brought in some cases and not others."
When on-duty officers are charged
Lawson was captured on video punching a 17-year-old boy during a disturbance at Shortridge High School on the north side on Aug. 29.
Prosecutors charged Lawson with misdemeanor battery for the punch.
Prosecutors further allege Lawson provided false statements about the incident that were contradicted by the video. They also charged Lawson with three felonies of perjury, obstruction of justice and official misconduct and misdemeanor false informing.
Peg McLeish, Curry's chief of staff, said the office has prosecuted 78 law enforcement officers since 2011.That number includes prosecutions of officers with other agencies in the county outside of IMPD, including sheriff's deputies.
Most charges reviewed by IndyStar stem from domestic violence incidents or drunken driving, and some involve officers accused of abusing their authority off the clock.
Only a handful of cases involving IMPD officers are connected to alleged crimes that happened on-duty or while seemingly representing the department, according to an IndyStar review of cases and media reports.
The cases are:
- Francisco Olmos, scheduled to go to trial next month for obstruction of justice and tampering with electronic evidence for allegedly deleting messages on the cellphone of an 18-year-old woman who had just committed suicide.
- David Butler who was convicted in 2013 of robbery and official misconduct for stealing $2,700 from two people he had stopped in vehicles.
- Michael Forrest, a sergeant convicted in 2013 of public indecency for exposing himself to a dancer in a strip club. The incident was captured on security video.
- Christopher Dickerson, convicted in 2015 of obstruction of justice for keeping firearms he was supposed to have turned over as evidence.
- David Bisard was convicted in 2013 in the drunken driving crash on Indianapolis' north-east side that killed Eric Wells, 30, and severely injured Mary Mills and Kurt Weekly. Bisard, prosecutors said, was on duty and had a blood-alcohol level of .19 when he crashed a squad car into a group of motorcyclists stopped at a traffic light.
Bisard's crash was among the highest-profile police misconduct case Indianapolis has seen.
Bisard was not going to face criminal drunken driving charges before Curry took over the prosecutor's office. Curry, the first Democrat elected to the prosecutor's job in 16 years, reversed his predecessor's decision and took on the prosecution in a case marred by mistakes in the investigation.
The case was Curry's first major decision made less than two weeks after he took office in January 2011. Curry vowed to restore confidence and integrity after what the Indiana Supreme Court's disciplinary arm called a "pattern of misconduct" involving two-term Republican Carl Brizzi.
Curry also personally assisted his deputies in the case against a Marion County Sheriff's deputy who was caught on video beating a handcuffed prisoner. David "Matt" Carrico was found guilty in May 2014 of official misconduct, battery and false reporting charges.
Carrico was later sentenced to one year of home detention followed by 180 days of probation.
The role of video
Video evidence has resulted in a string of brutality allegations against police across the country. An officer in Euclid, Ohio, was charged with misdemeanors after a viral video showed him beating a motorist in 2017. Videos led to "varying degrees of discipline" in two excessive force incidents in Mesa, Ariz., the Arizona Republic reported in February.
During his news conference, Curry highlighted just how critical video was in the case against Lawson even as he chastised those who posted it on social media.
"We need to emphasize how potentially damaging it is to an investigation when information regarding that investigation gets out to the public prior to the completion of that investigation," Curry said.
"I'll say again as we've said over and over. In the course of an investigation we need to be able to rely upon individuals who come forward that it's based on their personal information and not based upon something that they have seen on television or read in the paper."
Marshawn Wolley, a lecturer with the O’Neill School of Public Affairs and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said video and social media has been one way to put pressure on prosecutors to seek justice in police brutality cases.
"I think what you are seeing is the community respond by using one of the tools they have," Wolley said. "I don't see folks refrain from capturing incidents on video, although from the prosecutor's perspective it could be prudent to turn that over to the prosecutor's office."
Community members, Wolley said, also remember times Curry has declined to file charges against police officers in spite of compelling video evidence.
"If you look at his record, he can say he's prosecuted police officers but then we see these situations pop up where it didn't happen," Wolley said. "It undermines the integrity of the position he was trying to make."
Black residents in particular, Wolley said, are upset over Curry's decision in 2016 against prosecuting IMPD Officer Robert Chappell after he was caught on video slamming a handcuffed 17-year-old boy into a wall.
"The community remembers this," Wolley said. "It raises questions about what should we expect? We don't know what to expect.
"From the community perspective, we just want officers to not hit our kids inappropriately."
Trust and mistrust
The highest-profile case that didn't result in criminal charges also happened under Curry's watch. Special Prosecutor Kenneth Cotter declined to charge officers Michal P. Dinnsen and Carlton J. Howard in the June 29, 2017, fatal shooting of Aaron Bailey, an unarmed black man.
Curry requested the special prosecutor to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, because his office also had been prosecuting a man suspected of shooting another police officer.
A civilian police merit board voted against firing the officers who shot Bailey after a brief police chase. In May 2018, the city paid a $650,000 settlement to Bailey's family.
There was no video footage of the shooting that killed Bailey. IMPD did not have body cameras at the time. IMPD recently completed a test of body cameras, and Mayor Joe Hogsett's budget proposal includes funding for a program.
The Bailey and Chappell cases have sown distrust among many, Wooley said.
"Trust," Wolley said, "had been an issue within the criminal justice system. Mistrust in any one facet of the system impacts the entire system."
Contact IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at 317-444-2701 or vic.ryckaert@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.
Contact IndyStar reporter Ryan Martin at 317-444-6294 or ryan.martin@indystar.com. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter: @ryanmartin