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Dan Hampton presented his evidence to the jury, laying out promises and facts that contend the promises were not kept, hoping for a justified verdict.
The scene was not a courtroom but a Winona Lake Lions Club meeting Monday night at Richards Restaurant. The jury was made up of Lions members, and the verdict Hampton hopes for is nomination as the Republican candidate for prosecutor in the May 5 primary.
Hampton discussed incumbent prosecutor David Kolbe's campaign promises in 1994 and showed how he believes Kolbe has not lived up to all of his campaign promises.
"It's not offered for negativism," Hampton said of his questions of Kolbe's four years in office. "It is offered for the voters to be informed."
Hampton quoted a letter Kolbe wrote when he was a candidate in 1994 saying he would "stand firm against crime." Kolbe said the prosecutor's office during Randy Girod's term "dealt from a position of weakness" and "allowed criminals to walk away."
Hampton also quoted Kolbe's 1994 view on drugs as "getting tough." He quoted a March 24, 1994, article in which Kolbe said he would not allow plea agreements to plead a drug dealing charge down to a possession charge.
Hampton pointed out a 1991 case in which former prosecutor Girod pleaded a drug dealing case down to felony possession. In the same case, Kolbe reduced the charge in 1997 to a misdemeanor.
"Does this conflict with what he's saying?" Hampton asked the meeting.
Hampton said another drug case involving a Fort Wayne woman was reduced by Kolbe from a felony possession to a misdemeanor with a suspended sentence. Another dealing and possession of marijuana case Kolbe's administration plea bargained ended with the suspect pleading guilty and the case accepted on a pretrial diversion. Six months later, the case was dismissed, Hampton said.
Hampton said that a prosecutor must weigh community interest when he is planning a plea agreement. He said he asked the Allen County deputy prosecutor who deals with drug cases if a felony charge was ever turned over to diversion. Hampton said the deputy said no.
"A plea bargain can be a useful tool or it can be a miscarriage (of justice)," Hampton said.
Hampton also questioned Kolbe's version of holding criminals accountable for their crimes. He read cases of sentences being significantly reduced by the prosecutor's office. One drug-related criminal was let out of prison after serving eight months of a 10-year term, Hampton said. Another woman convicted of a Class A felony was released from prison after only eight months of her 30-year sentence.
One of the biggest drug cases in Kosciusko County involved a suspect charged with 13 counts, three of which were Class A felonies. Hampton said Kolbe signed the plea agreement in which the man pleaded guilty to one Class B charge and dismissed the other 12 charges.
One Lion's Club member at the meeting asked Hampton, "In representing us against the drug dealers ... what did he [Kolbe] get for us?"
Hampton told the men at the meeting that he lived up to his 1994 promise of gaining more experience as a prosecutor by serving in Allen County. He said that if he is elected, he believes the prosecutor must have an open door policy and be accessible to the public.
