South Whitley police officer Brian R.P. Schimmel is no longer with the town, and the criminal case against a teen he stopped Jan. 24 has been dismissed.
On Friday, Whitley County Prosecutor D.J. Sigler dismissed a pending criminal case against 18-year-old Vivian Augustus, according to a news release from the Whitley County Prosecutor’s Office.
She was charged in January with refusal to provide information or driver’s license, a violation of Indiana code and a class C misdemeanor. The arrest occurred in conjunction with a Jan. 24 traffic stop for speeding in South Whitley by Schimmel.
Vivian originally was charged with speeding, failure to identify and resisting arrest. The Whitley County Prosecutor’s Office reduced the criminal case to a single charge of failure to identify, and now has dropped that charge.
A release from the town of South Whitley Friday afternoon states, “Due to public safety, officer Brian R.P. Schimmel is no longer with the South Whitley Police Department.”
The one-line statement was sent out by Randall Cokl, South Whitley Town Council president.
Vivian’s father, Brent Augustus, put a video on YouTube April 12 taken from surveillance video from the gas station where the stop occurred as well as officer body cam footage. The footage shows Schimmel pulling Vivian out of her car and laying her down on the pavement within the first 80 seconds of the traffic stop.
The video can be found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xQrBrN70IM
Friday, Brent put a more extensive version of the officer’s body came online.
The news release from the Whitley County Prosecutor’s Office cites Indiana Code 34-28-5-3.5, which reads, “A person who knowingly or intentionally refuses to provide either the person’s: (1) name, address and date of birth; or (2) driver’s license, if in the person’s possession; to a law enforcement officer who has stopped the person for an infraction or ordinance violation commits a class C misdemeanor.”
A person may be arrested and charged with a crime if there is a probable cause to believe a misdemeanor crime has been committed in the presence of a law enforcement officer. In the release, Sigler said the initial filing of the charge was made based upon and supported by the probable cause standard for all Indiana criminal cases.
The legal standard at a criminal trial, however, is far greater and requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Sigler indicated that legitimate community concerns about the Augustus arrest and Schimmel’s conduct before, during and after the traffic stop “diminished the state’s ability to successfully prosecute the case to conviction.”
Sigler stated he remains concerned that people will believe that they do not have to comply with the lawful requests of police officers to provide identification.
“In Indiana, it is absolutely clear that a person pulled over for a traffic violation must provide their identifying information. This is a basic concept that has been written into the law by our legislature. This law will continue to be vigorously enforced,” he said.
The state has asked the criminal trial date, set for October, be vacated.
The South Whitley Town Council had issued a statement Tuesday urging “patience” regarding the traffic stop, adding, “The council recognizes that officer Brian Schimmel’s interaction with the accused on January 24, 2024, was flawed but not worthy of dismissal.”