Motorcycle patrols return to state force\nFORT WAYNE -- Indiana State Police are patrolling on motorcycles again for the first time in 65 years.\nMobility, cost and even gas mileage have factored into a decision to try four new Harley-Davidsons as patrol vehicles. They began patrols over the weekend.\nMotorcycles cost thousands of dollars less than a patrol car and they get 42 miles to a gallon of gas, compared with 21 miles for a squad car, Beamon said.\nHarley-Davidson provided the four motorcycles used in the pilot program for free.\nMore than a dozen officers completed two weeks of training at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Experts from Harley-Davidson and the Northwestern University Traffic Institute taught the classes.\nIn the pilot program, the motorcycle troopers will cruise the central part of the state, particularly in high-traffic areas around Indianapolis, Beamon said.\nEach motorcycle costs about $14,000, plus an additional $4,000 to $5,000 for equipment, Bender said. A squad car costs about $34,000. The Indianapolis Police Department has 50 motorcycles, including some Harleys.
Officials defend use of taser on student\nELKHART, Ind. -- A school official defended a policeman's use of a Taser stun gun to subdue a student during an arrest at Elkhart Memorial High School.\nCpl. Doug Ryback of the Elkhart Police Department applied the Taser to the back of a leg of an 18-year-old student who was resisting arrest by a second officer.\nAfter the stun, the student immediately cooperated with the officers, who at the time were working for the Elkhart Community Schools.\nThe South Bend schools, however, fired a policeman for poor judgment after he had pulled out his Taser on Monday to disperse students who were about to fight.\nAt Elkhart Memorial, the suspect resisted arrest and was wrestled to the floor by the other officer, Capt. Timothy Balyeat. Balyeat was breaking up a fight between the 18-year-old and a second student at the time.\n"It was very necessary," Ryback said. "He was fighting with a uniformed police officer and winning."\nThe student stood 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed about 200 pounds.\n"The only way to stop it was to use a Taser," he said.\nBalyeat's arm was cut in the scuffle. The student faced misdemeanor charges of battery and resisting arrest.\nSt. Joseph County police Cpl. Gary Fields was fired from his job as a school officer when he pulled out his Taser on Monday to disperse a crowd of students at Clay High School in South Bend.\nSouth Bend Community School Corp. Superintendent Joan Raymond said Fields was fired for using "very poor judgment."
SUBH: Attorney for accused triple killer disputes confession\nCROWN POINT, Ind. -- An attorney for a man charged with killing three teenagers and burying their bodies in a basement has asked a judge to throw out the man's confession.\nAttorney Thomas Vanes claimed police violated David Maust's constitutional rights because they did not allow him to speak with a lawyer before giving a statement about the bodies buried in the basement of the house where he lived.\nMaust, 50, could face the death penalty if convicted of killing James Raganyi, 16; Michael Dennis, 13; and Nicholas James, 19. Police arrested Maust Dec. 10 and later that month found the bodies of the teens buried in concrete in the basement of a house in Hammond where Maust rented an upstairs apartment.\nEven without the death penalty, Maust faces from 135 to 195 years in prison if he is convicted in all three killings.\nMaust is scheduled to go to trial on murder charges in March.\nIn a motion filed recently in Lake Criminal Court, Vanes alleged that police did not allow Maust to speak with an attorney. He said police also had no probable cause to arrest Maust, making his later confession the result of an illegal detention.\nProsecutors allege Maust lured the teenagers to his second-floor apartment with promises of drugs and alcohol then killed them.\nProsecutors allege Maust is a serial killer. Authorities have said he has a previous murder conviction in Illinois for the 1981 stabbing of a 15-year-old Chicago boy.
