Gee, what a surprise. A ranking Republican in Indiana gets less punishment than others convicted of the same offense.
Here is the full post of the article, as the website changes daily and any links probably won't stay put long:http://www.kpcnews.com/main.asp?SectionID=17&SubSectionID=17&ArticleID=102988____________________________________________
Clark home early
Opinions differ on terms of release
By Amy Oberlin
ANGOLA — Longtime Steuben County political figure and convicted sex offender Donald Ross Clark got out of prison in mid-December after serving a portion of his sentence.
Clark, 69, a two-time Sagamore of the Wabash who served in leadership positions with the Republican Party on the local, regional and state level, registered with the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry Dec. 16, after being released from prison on Dec. 13. With good time credit, he had served 1 1/2 years of a two-year sentence.
Prison officials say Clark only had a year and a half to serve in Miami Correctional Facility and that the rest should have been served in Steuben County Jail. Officials with LaGrange Superior Court — where Clark was sentenced by special Judge George Brown — say the sentencing order unequivocally called for Clark to serve a full two years in prison.
State law allows a prison to reject inmates serving misdemeanor time, said Steve Johnson of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council.
Clark was convicted Feb. 15, 2005, of Class D felony sexual battery and misdemeanor battery. He was sentenced to 1 1/2 years for the sexual battery charge and six months on the battery charge. Brown’s order called for the terms to be served consecutively; in other words, one after the other.
Steuben County Jail Commander Doug Grandin said Brown’s sentencing order called for the whole two years to be served in the DOC. He spoke to Miami Correctional Facility release coordinator Brian Hollis the day before Clark was to be released. Grandin said he read him the judge’s order.
“The judge ordered him to do it in the Department of Corrections, which they can because of his medical (condition),” Grandin said.
Following that conversation, records at the Peru prison reflect Clark had already served the six months in Steuben County, said Natalie White, Miami Correctional Facility’s supervisor of classification.
“(Grandin) told us it was time served and they were not picking him up,” White said.
“Normally he would have done that six months first and then came to the Department of Corrections.”
She added that the prison would only deal with felony time. If a county does not want to pick up an inmate to serve further time, then the prison lets him or her go, she said.
“They can’t really specify they serve their time in any specific location in the Department of Corrections,” said Johnson. And, he said, the DOC is only required to accept felony commitments.
Steuben County Sheriff Rick Lewis said Clark’s commitment was dealt with according to court order.
“We’re acting on what they told us,” Lewis said.
If the sheriff’s department had taken Clark back to the jail, it’s possible the county would have had to fund Clark’s stay in a hospital or other medical facility until his sentence was complete.
After his sentencing last February, Clark was given a month to get his affairs in order, entering the DOC in mid-March 2005. With Indiana good time credit — which gives inmates a day for every one day served — Clark would have been eligible for release this March.
On Oct. 24, Clark filed for a sentence modification, entering a DOC progress and medical report as evidence for a Nov. 16 hearing in LaGrange Superior Court. The motion for modification, prepared by Clark’s Angola attorney James Burns, said Clark “is in extremely ill health, has been hospitalized since his incarceration and requires use of a wheelchair.”
Brown took the information under advisement and denied a shortened sentence on Dec. 13 — the same day Clark was being released from Miami Correctional Facility.
Special prosecutor in the case, Greg Kenner, deputy LaGrange County prosecutor, said Clark was released due to his medical problems. DOC officials say he’d served the maximum amount of time he was supposed to serve in an Indiana prison.
DOC computer records quoted by Steve Keever, parole supervisor in the Fort Wayne district DOC office, show only 1 1/2 years for Clark’s total sentence. Parole generally lasts throughout the time granted an inmate for good time credit. So, if Clark’s term under state records is a year and a half, he will be under strict state supervision for the next eight months.
The order as interpreted by Steuben and LaGrange officials would have kept Clark behind prison bars until mid-March 2006.
Police say Clark has returned to his Angola home, where he lives with his wife, Camille, Pleasant Township trustee. It was in his post as her deputy that Clark committed his crimes.
In exchange for his admissions to sexual battery and battery, a number of other charges — including rape and criminal deviant sexual conduct by force — were dismissed. Clark allegedly demanded sexual favors from women who went to the downtown Angola trustee’s office in search of poor-relief funds.
Clark has done work in real estate. Though the Indiana Attorney General’s Office looked into his case, there has been no complaint filed in an attempt to have his real estate license revoked, said Stacy Schneider, a representative for the attorney general’s office. Any continuing investigation into his real estate license is confidential, she said, and any complaint filed under the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency would go before the Indiana Real Estate Commission.
The Indiana Grand Lodge of Masons, also, has investigated Clark’s conviction. Charlie Taylor of the Masons requested information on Donald Ross “Cookie” Clark’s sentencing, and information was sent to the state lodge on July 1.
Clark himself did research from prison, court documents reflect. He received a rather lengthy list of documents from the Steuben County courts at Miami Correctional Facility.
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I like the fact he can still legally sell real estate, even though he is now a registered sex offender. This strikes me as extremely funny since most Indiana real estate forms have a warning for prospective buyers to check the state sex offender registry for the neighborhoods in which they are looking for houses.
Those same forms seldom, if ever, warn the prospective buyers to check out their agent, too.Evil Kumquat
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