The St. Joseph County Council Tuesday defeated a Republican council member’s resolution that effectively accused Democratic Sheriff Bill Redman of not complying with federal immigration officials.
The measure’s author, Amy Drake, said she based her allegations against Redman on a lawsuit that Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita filed in January against the sheriff and county. Responding to Democratic members’ questions, Drake said she had no data of her own, and she hadn’t tried to contact Redman before filing the resolution.
The biggest problem, Democrats said, was that the lawsuit is still pending in court. Redman doesn’t even have to file a response until Monday. Democrat Bryan Tanner said Drake was just reciting Rokita talking points.
Democrat Mark Cantanzarite said that’s particularly problematic since Rokita has repeatedly shown he lacks credibility.
“All due respect but Attorney General Rokita doesn’t always have a stellar reputation for accuracy, as he has been disciplined for his actions by the Indiana State Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission in the past. More recently he has three pending charges, such as making false statements to the Indiana Supreme Court in his conditional statement and affidavit, engaging in dishonest behavior and misrepresenting to the Indiana State Supreme Court that he accepted responsibility for his previous misconduct, and the third item he’s been charged with is issuing a press release that contradicting his earlier agreement.
“So if I just simply read the press, I would think that maybe he’s not an honest guy. I know you said you’re watching the media with the sheriff.”
But Drake, in her resolution, says federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement has called the county a “non-cooperating institution” when it comes to detaining undocumented immigrants who are suspected of or have been convicted of crimes.
Redman has denied that allegation outside of court.
“I think the fact that St. Joseph County is one of the few that’s being sued in the state indicates we have a problem in St. Joseph County,” Drake said. “It’s hard enough to deal with criminals, American criminals. Why we want to protect criminals from other countries doesn’t quite make sense to me. I don’t think this is a hard one. I think that we should expect our sheriff to follow the law like everybody else is expected to follow the law, especially our chief law enforcement officer.”
No members of the public spoke in favor of Drake’s resolution. Fourteen people spoke against it in person, and two more did so online.
The council voted 5-4 against it with Republican Council President Dan Schaetzle voting with the four Democrats.
Drake has filed to form an exploratory committee to run for an unspecified office. Term limits prohibit Redman from seeking a third term and he has not yet filed to run for any new office in the next elections.
But Schaetzle accused Drake of filing the resolution to smear Redman.
“It is primarily an attempt to damage an individual that the petitioner sees as a potential political adversary for herself or a close ally in a future election,” Schaetzle said.
Tanner noted that Rokita has filed similar lawsuits against the Monroe and Lake County sheriffs, who, like Redman, serve in historically Democratic-led counties.
Tanner ended the discussion by saying it’s common knowledge that Rokita met with county Republicans on Jan. 24 before he filed the lawsuit and had his press conference about it.
“Was there knowledge of the cease-and-desist letter and filing of the lawsuit prior to the public announcement?” Tanner asked. “What communications did you have with the attorney general on this matter and when? We ask and we call on our colleagues to publicly release all of your communication, email, text message and otherwise, between yourselves and with the Attorney General’s Office, or himself personally, from September to today, that include the term ICE, or detainers, or Redman, or sheriff, or Rokita, and be fully transparent about the motivation for this frivolous claim and resolution proposed here, as well as the lawsuit against the county.”
Drake did not ask to speak in response.
