Wade to remain in jail

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A Greencastle woman accused of violating the terms of her home detention will remain in jail for at least a few more weeks.

Tamera S. Wade, 46, was convicted of Class D felony theft in December and given a 2 1/2-year sentence, 18 months of which was to be served on home detention. On June 11, she was arrested and accused of violating the terms of her house arrest.

On Tuesday, an initial hearing on a petition to revoke Wade's home detention was held. Special Putnam County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Milligan set a fact finding hearing in Wade's case for July 22, and ordered Wade held at the Putnam County Jail without bond until then.

Wade burst into tears as Tuesday's proceedings closed.

"I want my baby," she sobbed to her mother, husband and oldest son, who were all seated behind her in court.

Court documents said Wade left her home without permission on several occasions while on house arrest. It is also alleged that she failed to provide written documentation to Putnam County Community Corrections and provided them with false information about her comings and goings.

Wade's attorney Darrell Felling entered a denial of the allegations on behalf of his client.

Felling said in his estimation, Wade had been "arrested falsely." He said the affidavit of probable cause in Wade's case, which was filed by Putnam County Community Corrections, was "inappropriate," and that he believed any petitions against his client should have been filed by the state through the Putnam County Prosecutor's Office.

He also said the paperwork in the case, including the warrants, were filed June 12 -- the day after Wade was arrested.

Felling said because the court placed Wade on probation, he felt the court should have issued the warrant for her arrest and filed the affidavit of probable cause.

"I need to research these issues and figure out who had the authority to revoke and arrest."

Felling said he may file further complaints.

Felling requested that Wade be released on bond. He pointed out that Wade had no prior criminal convictions and strong family ties to the community.

Putnam County Deputy Prosecutor Justin Long said the state was vehemently opposed to Wade being released on bond.

"In my opinion, bond would be like a reward for not following the rules," Long said.

Wade was arrested in September. She admitted to stealing over $130,000 from former employer Edward Wood & Co. in Greencastle over a four-year period.

Comments
View 29 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • k first off Id like to say im not a fan of theft or of Defamation of Character I know mrs wade as she was a supporter of the local high school sports teams and it isnt right to intrude on ones mistakes nobodys perfect people make mistakes they get punished and then they learn from the mistakes they make so stop makeing things out like just cause she made a big mistake shes not the same person she was before she made the mistake i would also like to say as a friend to her son that its not right for him and his family to have to be reminded of what she has done on a daily basis what every one is doing by saying mean and cruel things about mrs wade are rude and make you look no better

    -- Posted by countryboy72 on Tue, Jun 23, 2009, at 4:18 PM
  • bottom line... friend or foe... mrs. wade has done something wrong and been prosecuted. there was a sentence handed down, deal of the century, most would say. she has been convicted about 6 months and has 9 violations. there is a problem! u dont need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. maybe her time in jail will give her the slap she needs to wake up and smell the coffee. it is real, it isnt a dream. life goes on.

    -- Posted by Team Tiger on Tue, Jun 23, 2009, at 4:54 PM
  • good job judge!!! i would probably cry too if i had to serve the remaining of my sentece in jail. as a mother i am sorry she doent get to see her child as a citizen i feel she should have been greatful for the sentence she had instead of running all over the county and beyond.

    -- Posted by faisymae1960 on Tue, Jun 23, 2009, at 5:36 PM
  • HMMMM///mug shot in jail garb...but yet a big smile....methinks she might be missing the gravity of the offense

    -- Posted by TNVOLTUT on Tue, Jun 23, 2009, at 6:12 PM
  • Keep cryin' you thief.

    Hope you enjoy your jail time!

    -- Posted by hoop2077 on Tue, Jun 23, 2009, at 7:49 PM
  • After reading the news story I feel compelled to write this - If Ms. Wade REALLY was concerned about her 10 year old "baby", perhaps she should have thought before she wrote 180+ forged checks and continually violated her home detention after receiving a VERY good deal by the prosecuting attorney!

    -- Posted by S B on Tue, Jun 23, 2009, at 8:56 PM
  • In my opinion she deserves a lot more jail time than she got.

    She should have thought about her BABY before she did the crime.

    -- Posted by Old Man on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 12:25 AM
  • Hey countryboy, that's the sentence that runs on and on and on. I think that may be the worlds largest single sentence.

    -- Posted by flygal026 on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 12:40 AM
  • Seems to me that when Wade was given her original "slap on the wrist" sentence she came to the conclusion that normal rules don't apply to her, so why comply with the terms of her house arrest? She obviously cannot be trusted to do that, so she should be required to serve the 2 1/2 years IN JAIL that she was sentenced to.

    -- Posted by '74tiger on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 6:39 AM
  • 74tiger has it right. Obviously she doesn't feel that rules apply to her. And countryboy, yes, people do make mistakes but she obviously hasn't learned since she didn't follow home detention rules..... Course no one wants to see or hear about their parents wrongdoings but then, that's part of it. She shoulda thought about that before breaking the law... Seriously, $130,000!! Who's not gonna talk about that when she got a slap on the wrist for it and STILL crying about it?

    -- Posted by bannerstuff on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 9:26 AM
  • Keep in mind Mrs. Wade did NOT ask for the sentence she received. Therefore, for all of you who are SO upset about her sentencing, TALK TO THE JUDGE who handed her the sentence! As for the Corrections Dept., if you don't like the sentencing that she received you too can talk to the Judge! Keep your opinions to yourself! Let's also remember that the list of violations of which she is being accused of is simply that, ACCUSATIONS! If Nate O'Hair had any morals whatsoever, he would stand up and tell the truth, maybe then none of this would have ever happened! Corrections Dept...It might behoove you to go on PROOF and not the hearsay you are going on! Again Nate, you should have already known her whereabouts, and if she was in violation, then why wasn't something done as early as Dec.~Jan when it was reported that she (or was it JUST her car?) was seen in Plainfield? Hummm...Why wait?? As a tax payer I don't like knowing our Corrections Dept, is relying on the 'little non~important' informants of which they are. The Right hand doesn't know what the left is doing, and because of that Mrs. Wade and her family is being punished! Shame on you Nate and Shame on you to the individuals of which have NOTHING better to do with their time but to HURT others above and beyond what they have already been hurt! What goes around comes around. And for the one individual who feels her opinion counts, I would have thought not only as a Mother you would show mercy, but I would have thought you had plenty of turmoil in your own life already to leave others alone!

    -- Posted by thistownsucks on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 10:18 AM
  • "HURT others above and beyond what they have already been hurt!" Look at her face..does she look hurt??!! Seriosuly..Who smiles in their mugshot? Besides maybe Charles Manson? This woman has no remorse. Even a complete moron knows that you can't come and go as you please on house arrest. I don't care if Nate was doing his job or not. She is behaving the same way she did when she was stealing the money!! "Well no one has noticed yet and no one is saying anything to me..even though I know what I am doing is wrong..I am going to just keep on doing it" You don't go anywhere without permission on house arrest. Not your child's school, not Wal-mart, not out to eat, not even to church!! She has gone from "making a mistake" to outright defiance of the law and that is what is making people so angry. That she was allowed to spend her punishment time in the comfort of her own home to be with her family, and she still can't abide by the rules. Someone that is hurting will do everything and then some to make sure they do not get into any more trouble.

    -- Posted by putnammom on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 12:24 PM
  • Putnammom...you are way off! She had permission to do the things that she did...going to the school was one of them. When she was at "lunch" she was with the Parks Dept and they told her to come along with them because they were in charge of her whereabouts that day. The nine violations are bogus and most of you were just sitting there waiting to see her in public so you could make a phone call. Factually speaking people actually called when it wasn't even her in public it was a friend of hers who happened to be with Mrs. Wade's son. Do you honestly think if she didn't have permission to go to the SOARS breakfast that she would have attended with all of busybodies in the room...please...I don't think so!! She knows what she did was wrong and she is trying to do what she can to make it right! The person who turned her in for being at the school should be ashamed of herself.

    -- Posted by gcastleparent on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 1:35 PM
  • gcastleparent ,

    I have swamp land in florida , if you want to buy.

    if you had permission to jump off a building land on your head , would you do it? NO because you know it's WRONG! Give us all a break!

    -- Posted by Sand mann on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 2:08 PM
  • Ok- I keep reading about this woman over and over. For all of you protecting her on this site, she should've BEEN IN JAIL TO BEGIN WITH like anybody else would have been. So you want to blame everyone else but her, If she'd been sittin in jail to begin with, all of this would be a mute point wouldn't it?

    She did the CRIME, let her do the TIME--instead you see that smile on her face, she's laughing again.

    As far as her son goes, I raised 3 children and I raised them with morals, it's her own fault that her son is embarrassed, ashamed and unfortnately, kids live what they learn, let's hope she's taught him better than this.

    For anyone thinking about blowing me crap over my opinion, I hope she sits in jail like anyone else on the streets of Greencastle would.

    -- Posted by dbltrbl on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 2:34 PM
  • It will be interesting to see what happens to her. She was given a second chance and she blew that away. You did this to yourself Tammy, have fun in jail.

    -- Posted by YNOTU2 on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 3:15 PM
  • to all u think she has done everything right....call the fire dept and ask them if she really refused to do the work she was asked? she sat there in a chair and said she was not going to do what they asked of her. believe it or not!

    -- Posted by Team Tiger on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 4:07 PM
  • thistownsucks:

    So are you saying the places she showed up to late: community service and probation appointments, those people are lying too? Man, that is a whole town that hates you!

    Do you honestly except us all to believe she has this long list of claims against her and they are all false? A few maybe are mistakes but all of them, nah. If you believe it go buy that swamp land n Florida, you would think it was a good buy.

    -- Posted by mad-mom on Wed, Jun 24, 2009, at 4:16 PM
  • thistownsucks - you say "Mrs. Wade and her family are being punished" due to lack of communication in the probation/home detention department? Excuse me, but I thought she was being punished because she admitted to stealing over $130,000 from former employer Edward Wood & Co. in Greencastle over a four-year period. Keep cryin' you thief.

    Hope you enjoy your jail time!

    -- Posted by '74tiger on Thu, Jun 25, 2009, at 6:01 AM
  • its funny how the banner is allowing all this talk about tammy, but when everyone had an opinion on the SP school board all of a sudden the comments were taken away, HUMMMMMM

    -- Posted by senior'08 on Thu, Jun 25, 2009, at 6:06 AM
  • Victory04 and others: I am not saying that she didn't deserve to be punished and I was shocked & upset when she didn't get jail time. I feel she should have gotten jail time to pay the price for what she did...there are consequences to everyone's actions. What I'm saying is that it is not for you Mr. & Mrs. Public to decide what she does and does not deserve. As a side note Victory04 there is actual value in swampland just ask Walt Disney since that's what Walt Disney World Resort was built upon. Everything and Everyone has value!

    -- Posted by gcastleparent on Thu, Jun 25, 2009, at 9:50 AM
  • You are so funny...there is value in swampland...maybe not to you but the Florida "swampland" is a significant part of Florida's natural landscape, and hold plants which have developed strategies for coping with adverse conditions. Swamplands have been central to the human history of Florida. Whether seen as obstacles to overland travel, as reservoirs of pestilence, or as oasis of life, swamps provide habitat to a vast array of animals. The last panthers in Florida exist in part because they couldn't navigate the swamplands. So think what you may there is still value in everything and everyone.

    -- Posted by gcastleparent on Thu, Jun 25, 2009, at 1:03 PM
  • First of all I would like to say that I like Tammy and her family. Tammy has always been friendly to me, and to everyone around her. I feel very bad for her family, and the pain that I know they are going through, but that is part of the price they are all paying for what she did. She was the cause of that pain, no one but her stole the money, and no one but her violated her home detention. At issue is:

    The extremely light sentence she was given. (which is all out of proportion to the crime-see other sentences of similar cases in the paper recently.)

    Her attitude. From her remarks recorded in the Banner to her employer after she was caught, to the present, her comments and attitudes have been of a person not dealing with the reality of the crime, or their responsibility for what happened. Placing the blame on chemical imbalance is ludicrous.

    Her failure to comply with an extremely light sentence. Her own comments on Facebook were initially what brought to the attention of others that she was failing to follow the rules she had been given for home detention. I believe that the authorities let it go as long as they did because they were giving her an opportunity to turn herself around and do it right. She knew early this year that she was suspected of violating her home detention. Why did she not at that point adhere to the rules and do the right thing? I applaud Nate O'Hair and others who did the right thing by not allowing these violations to continue.

    It is my hope that this situation will wake Tammy up, and that she will at last accept responsibility for what she did, and sincerely make amends for what happened. I believe that she should spend the remainder of her sentence in jail. It is the only way that her former employer can receive justice in a situation where the company was materially damaged. It bothers me that no one seems interested in the impact the employer has felt, or will continue to feel from what has happened.

    -- Posted by ursula on Thu, Jun 25, 2009, at 3:22 PM
  • well I just wanna say how funny it is that she was arrested just days after someone had mentioned on the blogs about Tammy Mitchner that they had seen Mrs. Wade out and about....sad kinda. They really didn't know where she was? When you are on house arrest isn't there like a ankle bracelet you wear or someone calls at random times to make sure you are home? Just wondering.

    -- Posted by gemfem on Fri, Jun 26, 2009, at 10:03 AM
  • Its funny...looks like some people are Tammy Wade fans....cause some people who say they should keep their opinions to themselves were not so kind to Tammy Mitchner....I am just pointed that out. They commited the same type of crime! Last I checked.

    -- Posted by gemfem on Fri, Jun 26, 2009, at 10:14 AM
  • gcastleparent..Do you honestly think that if she truly had permission to be those places, that she would be sitting in jail right now? I mean come on, the system isn't perfect but I doubt they go around arresting people for no reason. Home detention is supposed to be like jail, not a vacation. If Mrs. Wade were in prison would she leave and go to her child's school or go to lunch with one of the gaurds unless she was 100% sure she could? Would she show up late to her cell at lockdown or refuse to do the work they ask of her? No she wouldn't. She thinks this is a joke. And it makes people angry and that is why they are so opinionated. And yes I do think that anyone brave enough to steal $130,000 from her employer and then refuse to do the community service work given to her and show up to her probation appointments late would also be brave enough to attend the SOARS breakfast without permission. She seems to have the attitude that as long as no one is saying anything to her, then she can do what she wants.

    -- Posted by putnammom on Fri, Jun 26, 2009, at 2:48 PM
  • Putnammom...you say what you like but I am sure that she had permission to attend the SOARS breakfast. I can't speak on all 9 counts...maybe she did violate in some manner or another - I TRULY DON'T KNOW!! The only one who will be able to decide what she did and did wrong is the Judge and he won't be able to hear her case until next month...so why don't you just layoff!! I know you think it's your business...but really it's not!! A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.

    -- Eric Hoffer,

    -- Posted by gcastleparent on Mon, Jun 29, 2009, at 11:16 AM
  • Really...baseless...those are strong words! Did I say anywhere in my comment that you could build upon swampland...hmmm...let me check...nope sure didn't! Merely stating the facts sir...but good try!

    -- Posted by gcastleparent on Tue, Jun 30, 2009, at 11:08 AM
  • So,does this criminal or anyone over at the justice building(as well as those supporting her here)care about the ammount of cost to taxpayers her trial and many new trials and hearings will cost us? Not to mention future incarceration? I dont like how much her behavior,theft and refusal to serve sentence,have cost the county and us.Just as much anger can be directed towards the system that gave the greatly soft sentence and then allows her to habitually violate it. Hey,money and common sense dont cross paths once again....

    -- Posted by honestyisbestpolicy on Sat, Jul 4, 2009, at 12:38 PM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: