Gary Germann is one
year and 24 days into his term as Porter County Prosecuting Attorney, but
it’s hardly his first rodeo.
Germann was
actually appointed Prosecuting Attorney in 1973 and later elected in his own
right, serving until 1982. He then did a short stint in the law offices of
Harris Welsh & Lukmann (“I learned so much from Mike Harris and Bob Welsh,
they’re good lawyers, great lawyers”), before embarking on a 37-year career
as a criminal defense attorney.
Which raises the
question: why, at the age of 70, when most folks have already retired, did
Germann run again for the demanding and very public office of Prosecuting
Attorney? “I felt like there were a lot of changes that needed to be made,”
he told the Chesterton Tribune. “I felt I would give voters the
chance to make that choice.”
Germann points
specifically to the previous administration’s policies with respect to
non-violent defendants suffering from substance addiction, those arrested,
say, on a charge of possession of a hypodermic syringe. “In 1975, you
could not know people with substance issues,” he said. “But now all of
us know someone who’s been adversely impacted by addiction.”
And Germann is
frank about his personal interest in “restoring” addicts who’ve run afoul of
the legal system. “I dealt with clients, who are really decent people, who
had serious addiction problems. I felt the pain of their parents. If I had a
client who was using heroin, I would tell the parents, ‘Don’t bond him out,
leave him in there.’”
So Germann is
excited about the chemical dependency program at the Porter County Jail
created by Sheriff Dave Reynolds--“a cutting-edge sheriff,” he emphasized,
whose achievements at PCJ are “nothing short of amazing.” The idea of the
program is to give inmates the tools they need to keep themselves clean,
straight, and out of jail. “In the long run we’ll save money and have
healthy, working people in the community.”
“I speak to the
graduates of the program,” Germann said. “I want them to know I’m there to
help them, to restore them. These people are smart. They’re nice. They laugh
and joke and cheer for one another. There’s a balance that needs to be
struck, of course. Holding people accountable but helping to restore them.
Then there are the people who cross the line, and we have to take the steps
to protect the community.”
“Our jail
population is way down,” Germann added. “We have the people there who should
be there. I’m glad to be a part of this.”
Initiatives
A year into office,
Germann’s butting his head against one intractable bureaucratic problem:
“We’re woefully understaffed.” The Tippecanoe County Prosecuting Attorney’s
Office, serving a community comparable in size to Porter County, with a
comparable caseload, has a staff of 70, he said. Germann’s own staff totals
40. He plans, accordingly, to ask the County Council and Commissioners for
authority to hire seven new attorneys and nine new assistants, the latter of
whom he calls the “backbone of the office.”
Meanwhile,
Germann’s staff is working on the establishment of a truancy court, an idea
originally promoted by retired Circuit Court Judge Mary Harper. “Truancy is
a huge problem,” he said. “I was surprised by what I was hearing and
learning, the numbers. We need a program to address the issue and brainstorm
solutions for prevention. That’s crucial, because if kids aren’t in school,
they missing out socially. Statistically, if they’re not going to school, by
the time they’re in their 20s they’re in prison.”
Germann is also
hoping to create a cyber crimes investigation unit, staffed--he’s
thinking--by college kids. It can take “weeks or months” for the Porter
County Sheriff’s Police or the Indiana State Police to find the time to
download the content and data from a defendant’s or suspect’s cell phone, he
said. “I’d like to reduce that to maybe hours. We’ll hire college students,
pay them $10 an hour. The key is students. Not every county has a
university. We’ve got two.”
And Germann’s
office is implementing a statutorily mandated child fatality review team.
“Every time there’s a death of a child, anyone under 18”--by drowning, for
example, or overlay--the team will oversee the local law enforcement
agency’s investigation of the fatality.
First Year
Germann counts as
one of his early achievements a re-alignment and re-calibration of the
office, particularly his pick for Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney: Armando
Salinas, who came to Porter County from Lake County, where he was on special
assignment with the U.S. Attorney’s Office; as well as his hire of Mary
Ryan, who’d been serving as Starke County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney.
Ryan, he said,
probably “has more experience than anyone here in terms of jury trials.”
Eleven months later
the team of Salinas and Ryan would be instrumental in convicting Christopher
Dillard of the murder of Nicole Gland, in the highest profile trial in
Porter County in years. “The people I work with facilitate,” Germann said.
“Just putting the right people in the right place. That’s highly important
for the office.”
Germann himself
tried a Level 1 rape case in October, and secured a conviction. “I think
it’s important for the community to see me actively involved,” he said.
One issue of sorts
did arise early in Germann’s administration: over his 37 years as a defense
attorney he represented hundreds of clients, some of whom have cases now
pending in Porter County. A notable example: Don Johnson, who’s facing
multiple felony counts in connection with alleged securities and
broker-dealer violations. These cases--“maybe 10” of them--Germann’s office
“conflicted out of,” and are now being pursued in other jurisdictions. “I
stopped trying cases in August 2018, right before the election,” Germann
said. “Most of the conflicted cases were at the beginning of 2019 because
they were carry-ons. Now we hardly see that at all.”
One other thing
followed Germann into the office: the natural suspicion which police
officers tend to have of defense attorneys. “When I took office, I did not
feel like I was in a position to be fully trusted by law enforcement, coming
from criminal defense,” he said. “But after a full year I don’t feel that
anymore. I feel the police have learned to trust me. That just takes time.”
A Vision
“I love my job,”
Germann said. “It’s not even going to work for me. I work with great people,
amazing people, from child support to criminal. Tomorrow I want to be a
better lawyer than I am today. I’m thinking about 10 years down the road.
What can we do better? Have can we be more efficient? We have real people we
take care of. I want to bring a vision to the office, a vision for the
community and a vision for law enforcement.”
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