Prosecutor asked for harsher sentence

To the Editor:

I have been asked recently by a number of citizens why my office would agree to such a lenient sentence on Tammy Wade.

What the article in the Banner did not state was that my deputy prosecutor asked the court to impose a prison sentence of one and one-half years. The Probation Department recommended to the court that one year be spent in jail.

In this case, there was no plea agreement. The defendant pled guilty and both sides argued as to what the sentence should be.

The prosecutor in Indiana can recommend a sentence, but it is the sole province of the judge to sentence an individual.

In this case, we had a special judge from out-of-county, and he decided the sentence.

It has been in the past and will continue to be the policy of my office to request prison sentences on all cases where employees have stolen large sums of monies and breached the trust their employers have placed in them.

Tim Bookwalter

Putnam County Prosecutor