Owen County commissioner arrested following ISP investigation

Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Owen County Courthouse

SPENCER — An Owen County commissioner turned himself in to authorities earlier this week after he was charged with two felonies and one misdemeanor.

Dale E. Dubois, 82, Poland, faces charges of Level 6 felony official misconduct of a public servant, Level 6 felony conflict of interest and Class A misdemeanor theft.

Indiana State Police Senior Trooper Detective Brad Stille was assigned the investigation on Aug. 9 after requests from authorities to look into possible official misconduct or conflict of interest by Dubois.

Police say the investigation revealed that Dubois directed Owen County employees to conduct repairs to a county-funded roadway to ease access to the adjacent property for potential citizens. It is alleged, however, that the purpose was solely for Dubois’s personal advantage, and all work ordered and completed by county employees failed to have any benefit to Owen County government or its citizens.

After a review of the investigation, Owen County Prosecutor Donald Van Der Moere II asked for a warrant to be issued for Dubois’s arrest. A warrant was issued by Owen Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Dubois surrendered himself to the Owen County Jail later in the evening, where he was held on a $7,500 bond with 10 percent allowed.

Dubois is in the first year of his first term as a commissioner, representing Lafayette, Morgan, Marion and Jefferson townships in the east and southeast portions of the Owen County.

Putnam County’s neighbor to the south has been beset by financial woes, legal problems and infighting among government officials in recent years.

Earlier this year, Owen County officials were pondering how the county had burned through more than $4 million in cash reserves in recent years. To grapple with this reality, the county implemented layoffs and a property tax increase for 2022.

In 2018, former Commissioner Donnie Minnick was sentenced to more than a year of probation for hiding the sale of a truck used on his dairy farm to the Owen County Highway Department as well as pocketing the money on the sale of a broken-down county truck for scrap.

Additionally, in 2015 former Owen County auditor and county council member Angie Lawson was convicted to 20 months in federal prison for embezzling $340,000 in county funds.

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  • Putnam County has been lucky enough to have some great commissioners and county council members for sure. If memory serves me correctly, it was a different county office that became lucrative (for a while) to several dishonest elected servants and their cronies.

    -- Posted by infiremanemt on Wed, Nov 3, 2021, at 10:29 AM
  • Sadly, the current holder of that once-corrupt Putnam county office is not eligible to serve beyond next year. Hopefully we can find another quality candidate to fill his shoes, not another drunk, thieving, gills old boy.

    -- Posted by techphcy on Wed, Nov 3, 2021, at 1:12 PM
  • Sure wish you two would identify that once-corrupt office instead of leaving it to speculation. Classic example of how false rumors start.

    -- Posted by Ben Dover on Wed, Nov 3, 2021, at 1:47 PM
  • *

    Ben - They are likely referring to Frisbie... former Sheriff.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Wed, Nov 3, 2021, at 6:30 PM
  • 320,000 dollars for 20 months in prison, which most likely will be 10 months- that is good pay. Hopefully he will have to pay that back.

    -- Posted by Workingthesoil on Thu, Nov 4, 2021, at 7:44 AM
  • @Ben no false rumors, just good old fashioned Putnam County Sheriff’s office. It wasn’t just Frisbie either; Fenwick’s whole administration was corrupt and the Banner’s website doesn’t go back that far but check out old articles in The Star about sheriff Lyon and his dealings with prostitutes in Hendricks County before he was even elected here. They tried to bury those stories but I still have the original articles clipped from the papers because of a personal connection to the case.

    -- Posted by techphcy on Thu, Nov 4, 2021, at 9:20 AM
  • techphcy, going back farther Putnam County had a sheriff that was a full time dispatcher for Schwerman Trucking, ran a gas station/car wash and acted as full time sheriff. Not sure when he slept???

    -- Posted by Workingthesoil on Thu, Nov 4, 2021, at 9:34 AM
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