Around The Region

Governor decides to merge State Police, Capital Police\nINDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Frank O'Bannon is placing the Captiol Police, the 60-member force that patrols the Statehouse and state government complex, under the jurisdiction of the Indiana State Police.\nO'Bannon said Thursday the move would create efficiencies and coordination, increase security at the government complex because more officers could patrol at any given time, and provide a career ladder for Capitol Police officers who want to become troopers.\nThe Capitol Police will be renamed the Special Enforcement Section of the State Police, and graduates of the training academy would first join its ranks. Capitol Police are now under the jurisdiction of the Department of Administration.\nSome members of the new section will replace troopers who now patrol the state's riverboat casinos, freeing up more experienced State Police officers for road duty and other assignments. Indiana now has 1,264 troopers.\nNew officers assigned to the casinos would eventually get priority to stay in the communities where they have established their homes, which O'Bannon said should help in recruitment.\nState Police Superintendent Melvin Carraway and Glenn Lawrence, commissioner of the Department of Administration, developed the plan for the merger, O'Bannon said.\nCarraway said the change would improve police services and protection provided to 8,300 workers at the government complex and visitors to its buildings.\n"This is the prudent course of action to take, especially in light of our enormous national and state public safety challenges," Carraway said in a statement.\nThe Indiana Counter-Terrorism and Security Council is reviewing security at the government complex after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and subsequent events.\nO\'Bannon spokeswoman Mary Dieter said the governor had the legal authority to merge the agencies, but legislation will be sought to solidify the move in state statute.\nDon Cook, executive director of the Indiana State Police Alliance -- an advocacy organization for troopers -- said he did not want to comment until the group had time to review the plan.\n'Puzzling' mother, son deaths rules natural causes\nLEAVENWORTH, Ind. -- Investigators believe a retired police officer might have died suddenly in September, leaving no one to care for his elderly mother in their isolated home where they were not found until weeks after their deaths.\nThe bodies of Terry Donald Delisle, 54, and his mother, Constance Delisle, 81, were discovered Friday when a mail carrier called police after noticing they had not picked up their mail or newspaper in a month.\nInvestigators found no signs of foul play or anything suggesting the deaths were not natural, Crawford County Sheriff Richard Scott said Wednesday.\nAutopsies did not reveal how the deaths came so close together, Deputy Coroner Barry Hubbell said. The state of decomposition in both bodies was very similar, indicating the deaths were not separated by much time, he said.\n"It's a puzzling case," Scott said. "Why would two people be dead at the same time? It's one of those unusual things. It's a sad thing, too -- you've got two people alone and nobody checking on them."\nAuthorities believe Terry Delisle, a retired Louisville, Ky., police officer, might have suffered a heart attack or some other sudden medical complication. He was a diabetic and a smoker, and the autopsy found signs of serious coronary-artery disease.\nHis mother was afflicted by dementia, but little else was known about her medical history, Scott said.\nTheir house is about 200 yards from any other homes, on a rarely used road about 35 miles west of Louisville.\nDelisle had worked as a security guard since retiring from the Louisville Police Department in 1990 after 20 years. He had been hired in May as a guard at a Louisville bank, but in July took a medical leave and had not returned, Scott said.\nThe bodies have gone unclaimed and detectives have been talking with Terry Delisle's former co-workers and friends, trying to find any relatives.\n"We're going to make every attempt to ... find some relative," Scott said. "There's got to be a cousin or an uncle someplace, somewhere."\nDocuments question Ford Explorer design\nINDIANAPOLIS -- An attorney representing people killed or injured in Ford Explorers said Thursday that previously sealed court documents offer evidence that vehicle design problems contributed to the deadly rollovers.\nAdditional documents unsealed by a federal judge claim that U.S. executives at Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. and Ford Motor Co. delayed taking precautionary actions abroad despite evidence of problems with the sport utility vehicle and its tires. Both companies deny these claims.\nThe documents, part of lawsuits against Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford, refer to investigations in Venezuela that found problems both with faulty tires and the vehicles\' suspensions.\nMore than 300 personal injury and class-action lawsuits against the two companies have been consolidated here in the U.S. District Court of Southern Indiana.\n\"The significance of the underlying documents is that it\'s clear that the engineers in Venezuela were critical of the stability of the Ford Explorer vehicle, and believed that a problem in the design of the vehicle was contributing to the rollover accidents,\" said Victor Diaz, co-lead counsel for the plaintiff\'s personal injury and wrongful death claims.\nThe primary document in question is one that Ford inadvertently released during the discovery process. A federal judge earlier this month denied Ford\'s request that the document be returned.\nThe 1999 report by Ford engineers in Venezuela who were investigating rollover accidents said the vehicle\'s shock absorbers were too soft for the country\'s terrain, and that the tires were experiencing tread separation.\nThrough the discovery process, Diaz said evidence exists that Ford disregarded these design concerns because it feared a design change in Venezuela would also require a change in U.S. models.\nFord spokesman Ken Zino denied that claim, and says the Venezuelan report was merely an initial report by a junior engineer.\nA separate brief submitted by the plaintiffs and recently unsealed accuses both Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone of disregarding problems with the tires and the Ford Explorer\'s suspension in Venezuela. In the document, Diaz wrote that the two companies \"withheld material information regarding the full extent of the problem, committed egregious errors of judgment\" and \"delayed taking corrective or preventative action.\"\nBridgestone/Firestone spokeswoman Jill Bratina said the company disagrees with the claims and will make that clear as litigation proceeds.\nThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month says 271 fatalities have been connected to Firestone tire failures.