Indiana: Law firm sues prosecutors over seized assets
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indianapolis law firm has sued 78 county prosecutors around the state who it says are breaking the law by not turning over assets seized from criminals to a state school fund.
The Indianapolis Star reported that the lawsuit unsealed Friday in Marion County Superior Court seeks $17 million that attorneys at Roberts and Bishop estimate should have been paid to the common school fund over the past two years.
State law allows law enforcement agencies to keep a portion of seized funds to cover “law enforcement costs” and give the rest to the common school fund, which helps pay for school construction.
But a recent investigation by the Star found that what constitutes law enforcement costs depends on the prosecutor and that many are keeping all of the assets seized and circumventing regular oversight procedures.
The suit accuses the 78 prosecutors of willfully flouting state law by hoarding seized asset funds designated for schools.
“Schoolchildren are being deprived of money that the Legislature intended to go to them,” said Paul Ogden, the lawyer assigned to the case. “It also creates a very bad incentive for law enforcement to be policing for profit as opposed to policing to stop criminal activity.
“These are people who are supposed to be enforcing the law, yet they’re taking property, taking money, keeping money that doesn’t belong to them,” said Ogden, a blogger who has written about the issue.
The firm expects school districts could join it in the lawsuit, filed under a whistleblower provision of state law that allows citizens to file suits that are generally intended to draw support from the attorney general’s office, the Star reported.
But Attorney General Greg Zoeller hasn’t yet decided whether to join the lawsuit, or which side to join. The suit was filed in July but sealed for 120 days to allow Zoeller time to decide whether to intervene.
Spokesman Bryan Corbin said the attorney general’s office is still reviewing the lawsuit. It wasn’t clear whether the agency might step in for or against the prosecutors. None of the prosecutors has asked Zoeller to intervene, Corbin said.
“We don’t have a client yet,” he said.
The lawsuit names Roberts and Bishop lawyer Adam Lenkowsky as plaintiff. Lenkowsky, and the law firm, could receive up to 30 percent of the funds reclaimed if he wins, the Star reported. Ogden said that money would be used to finance other public interest work.
The Star investigation found that different prosecutors used different definitions of “law enforcement costs,” with some itemizing expenses and others defining the costs as the overall cost of enforcing the law.
Chris Gambill, a Terre Haute attorney who handles forfeitures for seven counties named in the suit — Clay, Greene, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Vermillion and Vigo — said prosecutors, even those who don’t itemize law enforcement costs, don’t willfully violate the law. He said they need guidance, not litigation.
“If they acted ignorantly or in good faith, then it isn’t fraud,” he said. “What I think has always happened is they tried to use as much of this money for law enforcement purposes as they thought they could legally do. . . . The problem is there isn’t a clear instruction on costs of investigation.”
Some lawmakers — among them Sen. Brent Steele, R-Bedford, chairman of the Senate Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters Committee — are considering tightening the law’s provisions next year.
“There’s just not a lot of law out there on it. That’s why we’ve got all this controversy going on,” Steele said.
Tennessee: Family must share rights to ‘I’ll Fly Away’ gospel song
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Family members in a bitter dispute over the rights to popular gospel song “I’ll Fly Away” all own a piece of the work, a federal jury has decided.
“I’ll Fly Away,” which was featured in the movie “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou” and is one of the most recorded gospel songs of all time, has been the subject of a nearly two-year court battle between the heirs of Albert Brumley Sr.
Brumley first conceived of the song about glory in the afterlife in 1929 while picking cotton on his parent’s Oklahoma farm. He died in 1977.
Three of Brumley’s children, four grandchildren and a daughter-in-law filed a lawsuit against one of Brumley’s sons and two music companies, arguing that they should be able to get a share of the royalties from the song. They asked the court to terminate the copyrights to the song, which was being held by a company owned by son Robert Brumley.
Jurors had to decide whether the older Brumley composed the song on his own or if he did it while working as a staff writer by a company that has since been purchased by Robert Brumley.
Jurors on Wednesday found that Albert Brumley wrote the song on his own. The finding means that the plaintiff family members are entitled to inherit rights to the song.
U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger ordered the family members into mediation so they can decide how to split the royalties and who will control them.
“The parties are going to try to work a resolution,” said Jason Turner, one of the attorneys who represents the family members who sued Robert Brumley.
Neither Robert Brumley nor his attorney could be reached for comment.
Turner said the song generates roughly $300,000 in royalties a year, and that’s without anyone pushing it to be recorded.
“I’ll Fly Away” has been recorded and performed by artists from many different types of music genres, including rapper Kanye West, Johnny Cash, blues and jazz singer Etta James and Christian band Jars of Clay.
New Mexico: Ex-leader of area government group sues over firing
CLOVIS, N.M. (AP) — The Eastern Plains Council of Governments and its executive director have been sued by the former leader of the group for wrongful discharge.
Clovis resident Nick Brady filed the civil suit in 9th Judicial District Court on Nov. 12.
Brady’s suit accused the municipal and county government association of forcing him to resign as executive director in 2009 without cause and in violation of his contract. It also accuses board member
Richard Arguello of orchestrating the resignation so he could assume the post.
The suit accuses Arguello of admitting in a May 22 Clovis News Journal story that he decided to fire Brady and never sought approval from by the executive committee or board.
Efforts by the News Journal to contact Arguello and Brady’s lawyer were not successful.
