Special prosecutor ordered to investigate allegations of officers in Smith case

In the aftermath of potentially damaging testimony given in the Deputy T.J. Smith police brutality trial last month, Putnam County Prosecutor Timothy Bookwalter has requested a special prosecutor to investigate allegations made by local law enforcement officers.

In a request filed in Putnam Circuit Court, Bookwalter noted he was "aware of certain allegations made against multiple law enforcement officers within Putnam County" and added that any "institution of criminal charges by me would give the appearance of impropriety to the general public."

Tim Bookwalter

"I deal with the Sheriff's Department on a daily basis, as does my staff," Bookwalter told the Banner Graphic. "For everybody's purposes, we'll be better off having a special prosecutor look at things."

Circuit Court Judge Matthew Headley has granted the request for a special prosecutor, appointing Parke County Prosecutor Steve Cvengros to investigate the matter.

Cvengros, according to the order granted by Headley, will "conduct further investigation into these matters, to file any charges if warranted, and to carry out any other duties necessary to prosecute these matters."

Meanwhile, the Putnam County Prosecutor's Office has ordered transcripts of police officers' testimony in the Sept. 8-12 Smith trial, Bookwalter said, and will forward those to the special prosecutor.

Investigator David Meadows has been putting the case together, Bookwalter said, and will forward everything he has collected to Cvengros as well.

"He may want to have a different agency like the State Police investigate," Bookwalter reasoned, noting that no prescribed timeline exists for when the investigation will reach a conclusion or if a grand jury will be necessary to delve into things further.

Although the officers were unidentified in the request for a special prosecutor, Bookwalter said reading coverage of Smith's trial in the Banner Graphic initially made him aware of the court testimony of deputies -- including at least Jon Chadd and Phillip Troyer -- especially in regard to their reported admissions of falsifying police reports.

Those reports came to light during the federal prosecution of Smith, who on Sept. 12 in Terre Haute was found guilty on two of four original counts of police brutality. He is awaiting a sentencing hearing.

On the stand Sept. 8, the deputies testified that they were ordered by their superiors how to write certain reports concerning incidents involving Smith.

Chadd went as far as to say in court that Sheriff Steve Fenwick ordered him to misrepresent the nature of an incident. During his testimony, however, Fenwick denied that.

Since then, Chadd and Troyer have been reassigned within the Sheriff's Department, the prosecutor said.

The matter needs to be resolved, Bookwalter indicated, because testimony by the officers in question "will be an issue" for defense attorneys in any subsequent cases the deputies might investigate.