Kolbe Wants Cops Investigated

Kosciusko County Prosecutor David Kolbe said today he will seek a special prosecutor to look into the infamous "Bicycle Bandit" investigation stretching back nearly two years.

Kolbe said the request results from the lack of action by Warsaw police after he turned over a report to the department alleging inappropriate actions by the Warsaw officers.

The report, turned over to the city in November, claims Warsaw police conducted an illegal search and that a detective urged a witness to identify a suspect who was later arrested and then released.

The suspect is now considering a lawsuit for wrongful arrest.

City officials have had little to say about the report publicly.

The action would represent another example in a growing rift between Kolbe and Warsaw police.

Earlier this week, he filed papers seeking a special prosecutor to look into allegations that two Warsaw officers, while investigating an alleged prostitution case, urged a massage parlor owner to wage a campaign against Kolbe.

Two of the officers involved in the special investigations openly campaigned against Kolbe in the recent election.

Kolbe said several weeks ago he believes the bicycle bandit report has plenty to do with Warsaw police officers' sharp criticisms of him during the primary election.

"My decision to take a firm look at it last summer fueled a good deal of the animosity that we see spilling over right now," Kolbe said weeks ago.

Assembling the report, he said, was "the right thing to do."

Warsaw Police Chief Craig Allebach today declined comment on issues related to special prosecutors looking into his department.

Kolbe assembled the report after the main suspect, Jerald Womack, was cleared of the investigation a year ago.

Womack has filed court papers needed to initiate a lawsuit against the city for wrongful arrest.

Allegations against Womack began in the summer of 1996 when a rash of residential break-ins - upward of 60 - kept many homeowners on guard and led to a multi-departmental investigation.

For months, police looked for the suspect described by witnesses as a white man wearing a stocking cap and seen fleeing the late-night break-ins on a bicycle in and around Warsaw and Winona Lake.

The thief often stole purses and the break-ins included an incident at former the mayor's home and the beating of a well-known realtor.

At different points in the investigation, police considered two men as suspects, including Jerald Womack who was arrested in July 1996 on a voyeurism charge and March 26, 1997, break-in charge - both of which were eventually dismissed.

The second suspect police looked at has since been convicted and sentenced for a break-in and other charges. That suspect denied being the "bandit," and officials have declined to suggest he was the bicycle bandit.

But Kolbe's report claims Warsaw police Detective Steve Adang appears to have been fixated about Womack's role after an Oct. 5, 1996, attempted break-in at the home of Douglas Reiff in the Stonehenge subdivision.

Reiff told police he caught a glance of a man on his deck as he attempted to enter the home, but the suspect fled.

Two days later, police arrived at the home of Womack's brother, Tom, and searched the home. Tom Womack and his wife were out of town and police convinced a neighbor who had a key to the home to use it and enter the home without a search warrant.

The search was sought because police believed Womack had been at the home recently, but the search did not reveal any evidence or Womack himself.

Within a week, Reiff identified Womack through a picture line-up but said he wanted to see the suspect in person.

In a second photo line-up, Reiff claims Adang pointed to Womack's picture and encouraged him to identify Womack as the suspect, Kolbe's report said.

Reiff again said he wanted to see the suspect in person and later told his wife he felt he was getting "a sales job" at the line-up, the report said.

No mention of the second lineup was contained in Adang's eventual arrest warrant.

Other police who claimed to be bothered by the investigation organized a third line-up with Womack in person and Reiff indicated Womack was not the suspect.

Reiff's statement then led to a dismissal of the attempted residential entry charge.

However, the case took another turn over the summer of 1997 as Womack remained jailed on the voyeurism charged. His incarceration extended beyond the maximum sentence for the charge and Kolbe then sought to have Womack released and the charge dropped.

Kolbe's report said other officers expressed concern about Adang's investigation and claimed he had "tunnel vision" that focused on Womack.

According to the report, Womack's brother said Adang "indicated Jerald Womack was the Bicycle Bandit and that if it took him the rest of his career he would identify him as such."

Tom Womack said he was "deeply offended by the railroad of his brother as the Bicycle Bandit and that there was little that could be done during the process to stop or deter Detective Adang."

The voyeurism charge involves a twisted tale. On Aug. 26, 1996, then-deputy prosecutor Joe Sutton dismissed the charge after conferring with Womack's attorney, the report said.

But within three weeks, Sutton refiled the charge after Warsaw police talked with him, the report said.

Sutton was later elected judge of Superior Court III.