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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Ind. Courts - "Former custodian pleads guilty to urinating on chair"

The initial ILB entry, from July 23, 2009, begins:

Per Jeremy Mull, Clark County's chief deputy prosecutor: "The case is highly unusual."

He continued: “I have never encountered a case similar to this one,” he said. “It is very much out of the ordinary to have someone urinating on someone else's chair.”

In a story today, Matt Thacker of the Jeffersonville News & Tribune reports in a story that begins:
A former Clark County Government Building custodian pleaded guilty Monday to urinating on a court clerk’s chair, but he will avoid jail time.

Stephen L. Thompson, 59, was arrested in July after video surveillance cameras caught him in the act July 15.

A Clark County Circuit Court employee had reported discovering a “wet substance” on her chair five times in a nine-week period. After the fourth incident, Jeff-Clark Building Authority Director Mark Vangilder purchased and installed a hidden security camera in the court office that was programmed to record after regular working hours.

Thompson pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court No. 1 to class D felony attempted battery by bodily waste.

Judge Vicki Carmichael sentenced Thompson to one year of supervised probation and ordered a psychological evaluation. The sentencing range for a class D felony is six months to three years.

Because a court clerk is considered a correctional officer, the charge was a felony as opposed to a misdemeanor.

Both sides agreed that Thompson’s lack of any criminal history should be considered a mitigating factor in sentencing.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 23, 2010 08:04 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts