Former sheriff's trial set for May

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

GREENCASTLE -- Former Putnam County Sheriff Mark Frisbie was in Putnam County Superior Court Tuesday, where his attorney Darrell Felling made a motion to withdraw a probable cause challenge in connection with Frisbie's Dec. 4 arrest.

Judge Denny Bridges granted Felling's request. Frisbie's trial remains set for May 25.

Frisbie was arrested after neing stopped by Indiana State Troopers on U.S. 231 in Greencastle. Court records said officers stopped Frisbie because he was driving erratically. He is charged with Class C misdemeanor operating while intoxicated, Class B misdemeanor public intoxication and Class A misdemeanor operating with at least .15 grams of alcohol in 210 liters. He was also cited for two infractions, open alcohol container and driving left of center.

At the time of his arrest, Frisbie had a blood alcohol content of .27, court records said. The legal limit in Indiana is .08.

Felling filed the probable cause challenge on Jan. 5. He alleged that Frisbie's arrest was based on a "questionable stop," and that there was "no evidence of impaired driving by the defendant or any observations of the defendant driving the motor vehicle on the date and place in question."

The state objected to the challenge on Jan. 7.

"We've completed our investigation, and would like to propose that you withdraw the motion for suppression," Felling said in court Tuesday.

Bridges ordered a presentatce investigation be conducted.

Frisbie, 39, was already on federal probation when he was arrested in December in connection with a November 2008 conviction for federal program theft. Amid allegations he had embezzled money from the sheriff's department, Frisbie resigned from his post as sheriff in August 2008 and was arrested several days later.

He spent two months in a federal penitentiary in Georgia, and then spent four months on home detention before beginning a two-year term of federal probation.

On Jan. 22, Frisbie was sentenced in United States District Court in Indianapolis to six months with Volunteers of America, a residential, non-profit human services organization based in Indiana, for violating the terms of his federal probation.

Frisbie is still fulfilling the terms of that sentence.

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  • I am sooooo tired of this guys drama..... If he were treated like he treated people when he was Sheriff he would be locked up and we would hear no more about it. STOP GIVING HIM CHANCES!

    -- Posted by Innocent on Wed, Apr 28, 2010, at 7:19 AM
  • He's a covicted felon,showing a total lack of respect for the law,but as a U.S. citizen he has the right to his day in court.I hope and beg the court, if the evidence shows him guilty,he should receive the maximum sentence according to the law and not receive another slap on the wrist,BECAUSE of his past position I belive there should be an example made here!THE LAW IS THE LAW FOR EVERYBODY!

    -- Posted by obeone on Wed, Apr 28, 2010, at 9:30 AM
  • I think that he should be in prison like Mindy Fenwick. Why should one person be serving prison time and a former sheriff gets nothing! THIS IS WRONG! Send him AWAY!

    -- Posted by cato on Wed, Apr 28, 2010, at 9:42 AM
  • I totally agree with INNOCENT. Many of us know how he treated other people when he was sheriff.

    -- Posted by ru kidding on Thu, Apr 29, 2010, at 10:11 PM
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