The Associated Press is reporting that former IU player and basketball announcer, Todd Leary, has been arrested in connection with a real estate title scheme. Rebecca Green of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has a more comprehensive story.
Leary, 39, of Carmel, is accused of conspiring with [insurance broker Joseph] Garretson between July 2008 and February 2009 to commit a variety of felonies, including conspiracy to commit conversion or misappropriation of title insurance escrow funds, conspiracy to commit theft and conspiracy to corrupt business influence. The majority of the charges are Class C felonies, with penalties of up to four years in prison each.
Garretson is accused of [and is awaiting sentencing for] arranging mortgage refinancing loans for area clients and failing to use the money to pay off the initial loans, causing mortgage holders to default.
. . .
According to court documents, Leary’s former teammate, Brian Evans, cooperated with state investigators to uncover the scheme.
Garretson claims that Leary pressured him on a number of occasions for more money, threatening to reveal Garretson’s misdeeds.
Leary played for IU from 1990 – 1994. Evans played for IU from 1991 – 1996.
Crimson Quarry offers these thoughts:
It’s hard to know what to say about this. Obviously, the allegations are very serious, and Leary’s career as an IU broadcaster probably is over. Still, it will be interesting to see the authorities’ rationale for making this arrest when and where they did. It seems like an effort to humiliate Leary and an effort to gain publicity for the allegations. Again, I don’t mean to downplay the serious allegations, but he is entitled to a legal presumption of innocence. That presumption of innocence doesn’t bind those of us who want to talk about it (i.e., we’re under no obligation to pretend that OJ didn’t kill his ex-wife), but it does bind the authorities.
Following the excellent “Use Immunity and Charging Fouls” from last week.
Look, I happen to believe prosecutorial misfeasance, and malfeasance, are among the greatest threats to the Republic, but suddenly noticing them because someone semi-famous, or connected to your favorite past time, gets pinched has proven surprisingly ineffective at curbing it.
Seems to me they were guaranteed publicity whenever Leary was arrested; that doesn’t mean they didn’t do so extra grandstanding. So what’s the point? That no one should ever be arrested when there’s a potential for embarrassment? Or just celebrities?
(Sorry, but the whole willful confusion of presumption of innocence before the bar with the obligation of everybody else to shut up when one’s own ox is being piked is beyond tiresome.)
My blog is about IU sports, so I generally use the blog to write about IU sports. In my less interesting day job, I am an attorney, so you can rest assured that I didn’t just stumble upon the issues of prosecutorial misfeasance and malfeasance yesterday. It just so happened that the two issues intersect in this story, and thankfully that isn’t an everyday occurrence.
Of course, publicity is guaranteed whenever a celebrity, even a minor celebrity like Todd Leary, is involved. Embarrassment is inevitable. Still, Leary was wanted by Allen County authorities. He lives and apparently works in Hamilton County, other than the two times a week that he calls an IU game. Frog-marching him out of Assembly Hall in front of 17,000 people 15 minutes before the tipoff of the IU-Purdue game seems cruel by design, unnecessary, and an inefficient use of law enforcement resources. That image will remain in the public’s mind even if the case against Leary falls apart.
I, too, tire of the conflation of the legal presumption of innocence with the “obligation of everyone else to shut up….” That’s precisely why I said: “That presumption of innocence doesn’t bind those of us who want to talk about it…but it does bind the authorities.” I may be a mere meathead fanboy in your eyes, Doghouse, but before venting your spleen in my direction, you could do me the honor of an honest reading of the 115 measly words cited by Doug.
It appears that theatrics may have played a roll in the decision of when to arrest Mr. Leary. I would argue that if so, that is almost always inappropriate. The correct time to serve a warrant – in general – would seem to be as soon as possible. If the alleged perpetrator poses a threat to the public such that he should be confined, won’t waiting for the sake of theatrics merely expose more people to victimization? And what if the alleged perpetrator should become violent during the arrest – was it wise to expose a crowd of innocent people to that risk?
[Oh, and I thank my fine IU education for giving me the tools to analyze this issue in terms of the public good.]
I know nothing of the allegations nor of the specifics of the other aspects of this arrest. It seems, though, like what you see on TV crime shows –Law & Order always has scenes like this. I thought it was for the drama, but now that it appears that it happens in real life too, is it supposed to be a deterrent for the observers? — obey the law or this humiliation can happen to you, too, in addition to the legal penalties of your crime. Sort of like the public stocks, except that it seems like bullying since it took place before the guilty verdict. Unless, he was asked to come in and declined.
Umm. I’m fairly familiar with this story and I’ve read a number of press accounts. I can’t find one that says Leary was “frog-marched out in front of 17,000 people.” I think there would be some visual images of that – if there was a prosecutorial desire to humiliate Leary. After all, there were more than a few cameras at Assembly Hall last night. I imagine that at least one would have snapped a few pix as 17,000 fans watched the authorities cuff Leary and take him on the mother of all perp walks.
Have I missed something, or is your premise simply false? Pretty sure it’s the latter.
Imagine that. A lawyer full of crap.
I’ve just been told that Leary was BOOKED into the Monroe County pokie 15 minutes before game time and that his arrest was intentionally effected at Assembly Hall, but out of camera range, some time before that. That means the authorities bent over backwards to avoid humiliating Leary. No?
I’m as suspicious of law enforcement as the next guy, but I think you ought at least to have a shred of evidence before you accuse somebody of something. I also think you should own up to it when you’re dead wrong.
Easy on the “lawyer full of crap” stuff, please.
Here is a link to a H-T blog entry that includes a link to an interview that Dan Dakich conducted with Leary’s attorney, who had been representing him on related issues and who was not informed that her client was going to be arrested:
http://blogs.heraldtimesonline.com/iusp/?p=6951
She mentions him being arrested “in front of everyone.” Some media sources say he was arrested 15 minutes before the game, others say he was booked 15 minutes before the game. In either event, it remains a strange decision to arrest him in Bloomington immediately before the basketball game. Was he actually cuffed in the arena? Perhaps not, and you are right that I should not have presumed so. The details will emerge. So, will I own up to being dead wrong on that detail? At this point yes. But I don’t think I’m dead wrong on the notion that the timing and location were designed to humiliate and inconvenience.
“Bending over backwards” to avoid humiliation would have involved contacting his attorney and arranging a surrender, which isn’t at all unusual in such circumstances. Instead, taxpayer funds are being spent to hold him in the Monroe County Jail, more funds will be spent to transport him to Fort Wayne, and unless they thought he was a flight risk, it’s hard to imagine a good reason for it.
Last summer/fall, early in the morning just before an arraignment in Federal Court in South Bend on medicare-medicaid fraud accusations, a well known opthalmologist and his spouse were involved in a suicide-murder at one of their offices.
Maybe for some, taking the person(s) into police custody in a “surprise” and safe arrest, turns out to be a better plan.
The refs flat-out stole that game for Duke back in 1992. Any time I hear the name “Todd Leary”, I remember that Final Four game. Half the damn IU team fouled out in that one.
Just had to vent. Carry on your legal discussion.
I like to quote that bit about giving the Devil the benefit of law for my own safety’s sake. For the ’92 Final Four Duke/IU refs, I would make an exception.
Maybe, Allen County authorities (for some reason) thought that they would have a better chance of getting Mr. Leary actually arrested (and booked) in Monroe County, instead of Hamilton County?
Not knowing more, and being prone, in my old age, to giving authorities the benefit of the doubt, I figured maybe the police just knew exactly where Leary would be and when for the arrest.