Ind. county commisioner facing meth charges resigns position

TERRE HAUTE – A top elected official in one of the Indiana counties most troubled by methamphetamine abuse has resigned from office days after agreeing to plead guilty to federal charges of distributing the drug.

David Decker submitted his resignation Friday as a Vigo County commissioner, ending his time as president of the board in charge of running county government.
The two remaining commissioners said they do not believe Decker’s arrest involved anything he did as a government official.

Commissioner Paul Mason said the county government’s work would continue as normal and that he believed Decker “did an excellent job as far as being a commissioner.”

A federal judge has not yet decided whether to accept Decker’s plea agreement on distributing 3.25 grams of meth. His resignation from office was a requirement of the deal with prosecutors.

Decker’s defense attorney has declined to comment.

The allegations against Decker, 53, stem from an investigation that resulted in the drug arrests in December of 20 people, including his 34-year-old nephew, on charges of distributing 500 grams of methamphetamine.

“We learned about other people involved in the drug trafficking organization,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Blackington said. “David Decker was one of those people. We were able to document through informant testimony and cellular telephone records that he’d participated in a drug delivery on Nov. 8.”

Blackington said in December that the investigation found two drug rings that were responsible for distributing 3 to 5 pounds of meth a week in Vigo County, which includes Terre Haute.

Vigo County led the state in the number of meth labs seized by police in 2004 and 2005, during which time the county’s sheriff estimated that 80 percent of its jail inmates were facing meth-related charges.

Decker was a technology education teacher at Terre Haute South High School before he became a county commissioner in 2007 and had been the board’s president since January 2008. He also was a member of the Vigo County Council from 2000 to 2004.

A caucus of county Democratic committee members to pick a new commissioner is scheduled for May 14.

County Commissioner Judy Anderson said she didn’t believe Decker’s arrest had hurt the reputation of local government officials.

“That’s about the most malarkey I’ve ever heard,” Anderson said. “He is his person, we’re our person. I don’t know how that could reflect on us.”