Today's proof of the "person who acts as his own lawyer has a fool for a client" adage:
An Evansville man who insisted on defending himself and was sentenced to three years in prison is continuing acting as his own legal counsel and has filed a complaint about the presiding judge in his trial.
Why do people who generally take care with most dangers get so stupid around the water?
Indiana authorities say two teenage boys are presumed dead after they were swept away by strong currents in Lake Michigan.
The boys ages were swimming with one teen's father and another man in an area without lifeguards near a Michigan City pier when they were pulled into the choppy water Sunday afternoon.
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A lot of people in Indianapolis seem to have trouble believing that colleagues of police officer David Bisard -- experienced DUI investigators -- would "botch" the case so badly that the most serious acolohol-related charges had to be dropped against him in the crash that killed one motorcyclist and critically injured two others. But they did, letting the blood be drawn by a technician not certified for criminal cases. So:
Those lovable goofballs of the Westboro Baptist Church, who have graced Indiana with their presence a few times, have been set free to again roam the land in search of military families to counsel. A federal judge has ruled that church members have a First Amendment right to picket military funerals with signs and chants railing against homosexuals.
The votes have been tabulated, so now we can give out our coveted Crime Watch Awards.
Criminal genius of the week:
On July 29, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in Allen Superior Court, Anthony Dwight Laster and another person followed several victims into their apartments and forced them to lie on the ground at gunpoint while one of the men ransacked the dwelling.
The robbers took cash, GPS units, laptops, cameras, videogame systems and several cell phones.
A little quiet corruption (Shhh! We wouldn't want to upset anybody) apparently accepted as "business as usual" throughout the Indiana legal system: Civil asset forfeiture is, at best, a morally questionable practice by authorities in seizing the property of people not even convicted of a crime (who then find it almost impossible to get their property back even if they're cleared).
Those country songs just keep bubbling up from Indiana news:
A reunion between an ex-con and the woman he was jailed for beating ended with the woman's arrest this morning, on the Northeastside, police said.
Bertha Sanchez, 44, was arrested on charges of felony battery and criminal recklessness for stabbing her boyfriend after he looked at another woman.
Fort Wayne is one of several Indiana jurisdictions considering a ban on the synthetic marijuana know variously as K2, Spice and Mr. Smiley, and pressure is building for Indiana to join the eight other states that have banned it. But South Bend Prosecutor Michael Dvorak says the substance fits the description of an "analog drug" and is therefore already illegal under state law:
We do not need to wait for a legislative fix in Indianapolis," Dvorak said during a news conference in May.
Well, here's a headline you don't see every day: "IMPD arrest 2 after post-baptism brawl." Freddy Hernandez and an accomplice, Adea Picasso, punched Jaun Rangel in the face after harassing his wife at the ceremony and chasing him and his children down with their car:
Police, responding to a call, pulled Picasso over in the 8500 of Madison. When he refused repeated warnings to show his hands police doused him with pepper spray.
