Fatality To Be Reviewed

A charge of reckless homicide that was dismissed in February by Kosciusko County Prosecutor David Kolbe could be reinstated by a special prosecutor.

Kolbe filed a petition March 24 in Kosciusko County Circuit Court to appoint a special prosecutor to look into an accident that claimed the life of a Warsaw man.

Michael Petrosky, 39, was killed last April when his vehicle was struck by a car driven by Caleb E. Stephens, 19, Claypool. Petrosky died from the injuries suffered in the accident.

Originally, police believed Stephens was traveling at a high speed prior to the collision.

In the petition, Kolbe notes that the charges originally filed against Stephens were dropped after a second investigation conducted by an accident reconstructionist. That secondary investigation is a source of friction between Petrosky's family and Kolbe.

In a March 28 letter to the editor published in the Times-Union, Petrosky's sister, Teresa Petrosky Wallace of Casper, Wyo., questioned why Kolbe's office denied the family access to the reconstructionist's report. Wallace wrote: "He has sequestered this information and is forcing my family to get a court order to see it."

Kolbe's motion for a special prosecutor states: "The parents and wife of the victim together with the members of his local community, namely Akron rural area, disagree with the prosecutor's decision to dismiss the case."

"That such persons contend that the investigation was faulty, that the prosecutor was not aggressive, consistent with his obligation, and that the decision to dismiss the cause was erroneous," the petition says.

The petition asks the special prosecutor to review the case and determine whether the charges should be refiled or remain dismissed.

Kolbe said that Whitley County Prosecutor John Whiteleather would be appointed as special prosecutor. "They will be entitled to do anything they want," said Kolbe. Whiteleather is a sixth-term Whitley County prosecutor.

Kolbe said the special prosecutor could "affirm our decision, they could call a grand jury, they could refile the charges, the sky's the limit.

"These folks are just overcome with grief and it just does terrible things to people sometimes, they just cannot accept that I don't believe we can prove this case," he said.

He added that the option of a special prosecutor is a way to have a check valve that isn't always there.