A jury has found a Mishawaka physician accused of driving his car into a group of protesters guilty of criminal recklessness.
Glenn Wheet’s trial began earlier this week, and the jury reached its decision Thursday afternoon.
The incident in question took place July 4, 2020, when police closed off Mishawaka’s Main Street Bridge for a racial justice rally.
According to charging documents, Wheet drove toward the bridge and initially followed traffic patterns. But he then turned back and crossed two lines of orange traffic cones onto the bridge.
As protesters approached his vehicle and pounded on the windshield, Wheet accelerated away, striking three protesters and dragging another by his passenger-side mirror.
Wheet told police there were no signs that said “road closed,” so he pulled onto the bridge to tell the group he had rightful use of the road. He said protesters jumped on his car before he could say anything.
Criminal recklessness is a Level 6 felony that could carry anywhere from six months to two and a half years of jail time. However, Indiana law allows for some low-level felony convictions to be entered as Class A misdemeanors, which could carry up to a year of jail time.
St. Joseph County Superior Court Judge John Marnocha, who presided in the case, delayed that decision until Wheet’s sentencing hearing on April 13.
The protester dragged by the passenger-side mirror, Trevor Davis, sued Wheet for punitive damages in May 2021, but the two parties settled in October following mediation.
As of Thursday afternoon, Wheet’s medical license was listed as “valid to practice while reviewed.”
Contact Gemma at gdicarlo@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @gemma_dicarlo.
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