America got it’s first extensive look at Lisa Owens last night on the OWN Network show, “Breaking Down the Bars.” Owens, who is serving a Voluntary Manslaughter sentence at the Rockville Correctional Facility, is due to be released in May under a sentence modification.
Owens was convicted of killing her husband Jeff in their Knox home in 2001. She was sentenced to 40 years.
Starke County Prosecutor, Nicholas Bourff, is in his third month on the job and has already made a suggestion to help speed up C and D Felony proceedings.
“One of the proposals I’ve made is to try, even if it’s with the C and D Felonies, to see if a case is going ahead to trial, and we know it will, to see if we could get a bench trial set, which just involves the Judge, instead of a jury trial,” said Bourff. “The one major drawback there is that if a defendant wants a jury trial, he or she has that right. If the defendant agrees to a bench trial, then it would save thousands of dollars and it would shave off quite a bit of time as far as eliminating the need for jury selection. In my experience as a defense attorney, the majority of my clients would not have had a problem with going to a bench trial.”
Six prisoners in the Starke County jail who were arrested for their involvement in a cock fighting ring in Starke County are illegal immigrants are being held for immigration officials. The six, along with five others, have been charged with Animal Fighting Contest, a Class D Felony. Four of those prisoners have bonded out of jail. Bonds were set at $10-15,000 surety in Starke Circuit Court Monday afternoon. For those facing similar charges, get legal representation by The Echavarria Law Firm – South Texas Legal Group.
Starke County Prosecutor, Nicholas Bourff, said the Animal Fighting Contest charge was bumped up to a Felony charge because those eleven individuals brought in the birds to fight. More charges could be filed against those involved if the Prosecutor and the Sheriff’s Department can find that the same individuals were involved in a similar cock fighting incident in 2006 where 50 people were arrested. Prosecutor Bourff said that could be a challenge as many of these individuals change the spelling of their names and use many aliases.
Bourff said he hopes that he can get money through a citation or fine from those arrested to help pay the Starke County Humane Society for euthanization costs and the Starke County Sheriff’s Department for overtime pay. Bourff said that the Humane Society is requesting that a $75.00 fine be attached to every citation which numbers 65. Starke County Sheriff Oscar Cowen is to give Bourff a list of all of the Department’s expenditures for reimbursement.
Initial hearings for the eleven defendants charged with felonies will be held Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. CT in Starke Circuit Court.
A special Prosecutor has been named for the joined trial of Kimberly Hitchens and John Brooke in Starke Circuit Court. Howard County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Michael Krebes, has been appointed to represent the State of Indiana. The request for a special Prosecutor was made by Starke County Prosecutor Nicholas Bourff as Bourff had previous consultations regarding representation of the defendants.
The trial scheduled for this February has been postponed allowing the Special Prosecutor time to prepare for trial.
Starke County Prosecutor Nicholas Bourff, in an exclusive interview Wednesday with WKVI, talked about the need to replace his Chief Deputy, Todd Wallsmith, with former Chief Prosecutor Mary Ryan.
“There were several factors that led to a quick decision,” said Bourff. “I knew going into it that this was going to be an issue I’d have to face. About a month ago when I gave an interview here, I said ‘if I’m creative enough with how I handle this, I think I can work through it’. I really did think that and then I got into the office and I learned that in order to make it work, I was going to have to absorb not only the previous Prosecutor’s case load, but also the previous Chief Deputy’s case load.”
WKVI has learned that new Starke County Prosecutor Nicholas Bourff has replaced his Chief Deputy Todd Wallsmith only two weeks into his term.
Both men had been employed by Wallsmith’s father, David, and had developed a friendship. But because Todd Wallsmith was a nephew of Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall, it would have been impossible for him to present cases before the Judge in court. That would have been a conflict.
New Starke County Prosecutor Nicholas Bourff is facing a ticklish situation as he is getting his feet on the ground in the office. His Chief Deputy, Todd Wallsmith, cannot appear before Judge Kim Hall in Starke Circuit Court. That is because Judge Hall is Wallsmith’s uncle. So, how does the new Prosecutor plan to work around this obstacle?
“There are some issues there,” said Bourff. “It’s going to take some work and some creativity on my part to make that work, but there are a lot of cases that get handled in the City Court here in Knox and those are cases that are dealt with County-wide. Todd can handle any case that is dealt with there.”
