Around The Region

Bar association lobbies for prisoner's release\nGARY -- The James C. Kimbrough Bar Association is lobbying the Indiana Parole Board for the release of a Kokomo man serving a life sentence for murder.\nThe group, the largest and oldest black bar association in Indiana, says Charles Lockert, who is black, has been treated unfairly by the state's criminal justice system.\nLockert's last attempt for parole was denied in fall 2001. His next scheduled parole hearing is in five years.\nVeteran Lake County defense attorney Darnail Lyles, a member of the Kimbrough Bar Association, has been representing Lockert before the parole board since 1989.\n"I committed myself and services to him because in my legal opinion, Charles did not and has not gotten a fair shake from the criminal justice system," Lyles told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville for a story Sunday.\nLockert was one of three people charged in the kidnapping and murder of 33-year-old Connie Jo Fivecoate of Kokomo and her 8-year-old son in July 1974. He pleaded guilty to felony murder and received a life sentence in February 1975.\nOne of the other defendants, 35-year-old Ralph Edward Murphy, was convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence. At a parole hearing for Lockert in 1992, Murphy testified that Lockert did not shoot the victims or have a gun that night.\nBut the parole board has denied Lockert's parole request because a provision in his plea agreement allowed prosecutors to charge him with a pending murder charge if he sought post-conviction relief.\nThat charge eventually was dropped, but Lockert remains behind bars.\nValarie Parker, vice chairwoman of the Indiana Parole Board, said Lockert has not been released because of the nature and circumstances of the case.\nPolice still seeking escaped Orange County inmates\nPAOLI, Ind. -- Police were searching for a car Saturday they suspect was stolen the previous night by three inmates who escaped from the Orange County Jail.\nThe car, a dark blue 1988 Oldsmobile four-door with a damaged grille, was stolen sometime after 10 p.m. Friday night near Livonia in southern Indiana, police said.\nThe car, which has a license plate number 88B2375, was taken from within a mile of where the men ditched a van they fled in following the jail break Thursday night, an Orange County dispatcher told The Associated Press.\nAuthorities said Jeffrey Hayden, 19; Kerry Silvers, 28; and Larry Holden, 21, used a fake gun made of toilet paper and a hand-made knife to overpower two officers and escape from the Orange County Jail in Paoli. Paoli is about 45 miles northwest of Louisville, Ky., on the eastern edge of the Hoosier National Forest.\nSilvers, of Springville, also had escaped from the Lawrence County Jail in 2000. He was later caught in Orange County.\nAuthorities said the men were considered armed and dangerous and urged area residents to lock their homes and vehicles.\n"People are kind of scared right now," said the dispatcher, who identified himself as Doug but declined to give his last name.\nTwo of the men have ties in southern Indiana, while one has links to Texas and another has a girlfriend who lives in Indianapolis, he said.\nPossible cases of cheating could derail graduations\nMERRILLVILLE, Ind. -- Seniors at two high schools in northwest Indiana may be ruled ineligible to graduate if investigators determine they cheated on a state-mandated test.\nOfficials at the Indiana Department of Education say they will decide by the end of the school year whether students cheated on the ISTEP exam at Lew Wallace and West Side high schools in Gary.\nIf cheating is found, seniors who just passed the test would not be able to graduate unless they won an appeal or fulfilled the state's 40 core requirements, a mix of academic credits, attendance and grades.\nThe district would also be forced to correct the problem, which could include firing employees. Otherwise, the two schools will not receive next year's ISTEP materials, said Mary Tiede Wilhelmus, a spokeswoman for the department.\nQuestions about the tests arose after graders noticed strong similarities in ISTEP essay sections. Many of the essays were nearly exact replicas, aside from adjective changes.\nWes Bruce, state director of assessment, said the similarities could indicate that tests were opened too soon, that teachers coaxed students improperly or that students used prior tests as practice.\nThe school district's spokeswoman, Chelsea Stalling, said West Side and Wallace officials began collecting ISTEP prep materials, manuals and other test-related items for the investigation.\nIf the state finds an appropriate explanation, "that would be the end of it," Wilhemus said. If not, state officials could seek revocation of licenses for some teachers and administrators. The schools could also lose their accreditation.\nStudents insisted there had been no cheating.\n"I understand that the percentage of students that passed ISTEP went from 19 to 51 in (a year)," Wallace student Kia Sease told the Post-Tribune for a story published Saturday. "Couldn't it possibly mean that we have worked very hard to improve our education"