5-month sexual misconduct case convicts only 1; man gets 1-year home detention

INDIANAPOLIS – Sexual abuse and misconduct allegations levied against 10 workers at the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center have led to just one conviction.\nProsecutors dismissed the lone remaining charge in the case on Friday.\n“I’m not happy with the outcome of these cases,” Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said. “(But) I absolutely stand by the way this case was handled, when we believed time was of the essence.”\nThe employees were charged last year after an investigation into reports of abuse of current and former detainees by staff. But the probe eroded as former female detainees recanted or refused to testify in most of the cases, resulting in dropped charges.\nA jury earlier this year acquitted a guard accused in \nthe case.\nLast month, a judge acquitted the center’s former superintendent, Damon Ellison. He faced felony charges of obstruction of justice and neglect of a dependent.\nProsecutors won their sole conviction last year when Anthony Tyler, 34, pleaded guilty to two counts of official misconduct, avoiding sexual misconduct and child solicitation charges. He received one year on home detention.\nOne legal expert said there was a key breakdown as the case evolved. The claims of the victims, all girls ages 13 to 16, were never properly sewn up. Prosecutors moved ahead based on interviews by investigators.\nThey didn’t require the girls to give sworn statements or testify before a grand jury.\n“You’ve just got to get it under oath,” said Professor Henry Karlson, who teaches criminal law at IU School of Law-Indianapolis. “If they’re not willing to give you a sworn statement, then you know you have a problem from the beginning.”\nBrizzi said convening a grand jury would have made the five-month investigation even longer. He said he didn’t want to take that much time because some of the employees under investigation were still working with girls.\nHe also noted that seasoned investigators interviewed the victims, and their statements were “very believable, very detailed, very credible.” When giving depositions later, some of the girls backed off their accusations or denied their \nearlier statements.\n“These witnesses were either lying when they gave their statements or they are lying now,” he said.\nBrizzi noted that the criminal charges spurred leadership changes and extensive security upgrades at the center. He points to that and the exposure of other problems as \npositive results.