LET’S SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON DAN BREWINGTON

LET’S SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON DAN BREWINGTON

An Inside View of the Dearborn County Justice System

Timeline -Criminal case – Daniel P. Brewington – Dearborn County, Indiana

1. Norwood, Ohio Police served a warrant for Daniel P. Brewington on Monday, March 7, 2011, at 2:30PM and took him to the Hamilton County, Ohio, Justice Center. He stayed there until Wednesday at 2:00PM when he was bailed out for $1000.

2. On Thursday, March 10, 2011, Ohio attorney Robert G. Kelly spoke to Prosecutor F. Aaron Negangard and told him that Dan would need a public defender and that Mr. Kelly would like to represent Dan pro hac vice, since he is not licensed in Indiana. Mr. Kelly said that he would be doing this pro bono.

3. On Friday, March 11, 2011, Mr. Kelly and Sue Brewington delivered Dan to the Dearborn County Law Enforcement Center (DCLEC) at 6:00AM.

4. Dan’s arraignment hearing was at 11:10AM before Judge Sally Blankenship and he did not have an attorney. The deputy prosecutor, Joseph Kisor, read the charges, asked for a restraining order to keep Dan away from the people that he is accused of intimidating and an order to keep Dan and his agents off the internet, as a condition of bail. The judge said that she will set bond by the end of the day.
Charges - 3 counts of intimidation: Intimidating Judge James D. Humphrey, Dr. Edward Connor, Heidi Humphrey, releasing grand jury information, perjury, and obstruction of justice. 3 Class D felonies, and 3 misdemeanors, 2A’s and 1 B. Dan has no criminal record and never did anything but tell his story on the internet. All his “adventures” can be found on danhelpskids.com and danbrewington.blogspot.com

5. The charges are a blatant attempt at nullifying Freedom of Speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

6. Bond is set at $500,000 surety and $100,000 cash. Dan would need $150,000 to get out of jail. It is a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money to keep a person with absolutely no history of violence from pre- school on, in jail. He has only lived in two communities, Norwood, Ohio and Milan, Indiana, Ripley County. He has no criminal record in either place. He is no flight risk. He surrendered himself to jail.

7. Sheriff Kreinhop denied Mr. Kelly the ability to see Dan because Mr. Kelly was not licensed in Indiana. Mr. Kelly had visited other clients in this jail. When Dan asked Captain Dave Hall and Sheriff Mike Kreinhop for the written rule he was told it was just our policy.

8. On Thursday, March 17, 2011, 6 days after setting the bond for Dan, Judge Sally Blankenship wrote to Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard to disqualify herself and ask him to appoint another judge, although she obviously felt qualified to set the extremely high bond. Could that possibly be motivated by her relationship with the “victims?”

9. Prosecutor Negangard should disqualify himself.

a. Dan’s writings about Judge Humphrey and Dr. Connor are intertwined with writings about Negangard and the Dearborn County Prosecutor’s office.

b. Dr. Connor has served as an expert witness for the Dearborn County Courts and Prosecutor’s office.

c. Judge Blankenship declared that “no judicial officer in Dearborn County is able to hear this matter to avoid the appearance of bias or prejudice.” The same should apply to the Dearborn County Prosecutor’s office.

d. Negangard’s testimony is needed to determine the nature of the “attacks” and how it negatively impacted Negangard’s ability to prosecute suspected criminals.

e. Dan filed 2 complaints against Negangard with the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission.

f. Negangard named Dan as a target of a grand jury investigation 5 days after the complaints against him were dismissed.

g. In an email, dated July 12, 2010 sent from his Blackberry, Negangard accused Dan of “attacking” his office in an attempt by Dan to get Prosecutor Negangard “not to do his job of prosecuting those who violate the law.” This was forwarded to 12 county officials and to Dan.

h. Negangard has administrative control over SCU, therefore Negangard is the lead investigator and may be required to testify; especially since Negangard received the initial complaint and initiated the investigation.

i. Negangard was involved with the investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel after Dan filed a complaint against former SCU detective Mike Kreinhop for potential Hatch Act violations.

j. The Prosecutor’s office would be less likely to drop charges if it adversely impacted the reputations of Dr. Connor or Judge James D. Humphrey.

k. State v. Tippecanoe County Ind 432 NE 2d1377 4/2/82. If Negangard is disqualified then the entire staff is disqualified because Negangard has administrative control over the entire staff of Deputy Prosecutors.

10. Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard appointed Judge John Westhafer of Decatur County.

a. After two months, he asked to be disqualified because he is a 25 year friend of Judge Humphrey. Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard appointed a 3rd judge.

11. Dan is denied the medication that he has been taking for 9 years for ADHD. He had letters from his doctor and therapist from The Affinity Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

a. First the jail officials would not let him have it.

b. Next Captain Dave Hall said he could have it.

c. Then Dr. Nadir Al-Shami, who has his office listed in Fairdale, KY and had never seen Dan before, declared that his dose was too high and changed the dosage and times that it was to be administered. Dan chose not to take the medication that way but as time for court got closer he tried a compromise. The doctor said he could have 30 mgs twice a day, morning and night. Dan asked if he could have 20 mg 3 times a day but not at night. They said no. They finally agreed on 30 mg in the morning and 30mg around 4:00PM. This is a ridiculous way to treat a person who had been under the care of the same therapy center specializing in ADHD for 9 years. Regulation of the proper dosage is critical to his care and now they are just guessing.

d. ADHD is recognized by the American Disabilities Act.

12. An attorney from Sunman, John Watson, was appointed the public defender.

a. First he had a death in his family and could not see Dan.

b. Second he totaled his car and could not see Dan.

c. Third he had to leave the courthouse on the day of a scheduled pre-trial conference because his son had been rushed from school to the hospital.

d. He filed a bond reduction application, on May 13, 2011, two months and two days after Dan arrived in jail. The document had 2 serious flaws.
(1) The name of the client was incorrect, totally.
(2) He added a Schedule C Felony, battery with a deadly weapon.

e. He filed a Motion to Withdraw because he had active cases in front of Judge Humphrey.

f. He had originally indicated that he would be willing to sponsor Mr. Kelly pro hac vice. Mr. Kelly wrote the public defender a letter indicating what he thought should be done by now. The public defender responded and then filed his motion to withdraw.

g. The public defender gave Sue Brewington the discoveries that he got from the prosecutor. He gave Dan a copy of Detective Michael Kreinhop’s report on his investigation. Kreinhop wrote the report on October 28, 2009. The discoveries consisted of copies of all of Dan’s internet postings on his blog and websites. He also gave Dan a list of witnesses.

(1). Sheriff Michael Kreinhop
(2). Dr. Ed Connor
(3) Judge James Humphrey
(4) Heidi Humphrey
(5) Attorney Angela Loechell
(6) Melissa Brewington

13. Judge James D. Humphrey remained as the Judge of record from August 24, 2009 until June 9, 2010 on Dan’s divorce case, ruling on motions and setting hearings even though he was intimidated and felt his family was intimidated by Dan’s writings. Dan never had any contact what so ever with the Judge or his family.

14. Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard appointed Judge Brian D. Hill from Rush County, as the 3rd judge in this case. Judge Hill set a hearing for June 17, 2011 to rule on the public defender’s Motion to Withdraw. Judge Hill set 2 new dates for hearings.

a. July 18, 2011, a bond reduction hearing and the final pre-trial hearing.

b. August 16, 2011 beginning of a jury trial

c. He said that he would appoint another public defender soon.

15. The new public defender was appointed June 20, 2011. His name is Bryan E. Barrett and he is the public defender for Rush County. Today, July 18, 2011, is the first time Dan met with him. Dan felt their first meeting was productive. Dan would not have known that a public defender had been appointed if Sue and Matt Brewington had not checked the computer in the clerk’s office.

16. On June 28, 2011 Prosecutor Negangard filed a Motion to Continue the Bond Reduction Hearing scheduled for July 18, 2011 because Detective/County Commissioner Shane McHenry would not be available to testify on that date. Until this time there had been no mention of Shane McHenry as a witness. McHenry was scheduled to testify at the trial of Lonnie Ray Johnson on July 18, 2011.

a. There is an entry in the computer in the clerk’s office that is file stamped July 5, 2011 that says the court accepted a plea deal from Lonnie Ray Johnson and a sentencing hearing was set for August 2, 2011. A person might wonder why the prosecutor did not tell Judge Brian D. Hill that Shane McHenry would be available on July 18, 2011 and the bond hearing could go forward as scheduled.

b. Instead the judge came down from Rush County just for the pre-trial hearing and will have to return for the Bond Reduction Hearing and then for the Trial on August 16, 2011. Suggested dates for the bond hearing were August 1,3,5. I will let people know when I find out.

17. As of July 14, 2011, according to the computer in the clerk’s office, Judge Brian D. Hill had not ruled on Prosecutor Negangard’s Motion. He said in today’s hearing that he telephonically communicated that he would be continuing the bond reduction hearing.

18. On June 29, 2011 Prosecutor Negangard filed additional Supplemental Discovery Answers indicating that the Transcript of the Grand Jury proceedings has been emailed to public defender #2 and public defender #1 will send copies of the State’s preliminary Discovery Answer to the new public defender.

19. Dan has had no opportunity to subpoena or depose witnesses for his bond hearing or his trial.

20. Dan has been in jail on excessive bail for 4 months and has not seen an attorney since May 24, 2011 until July 18, 2011. He still cannot see Mr. Kelly with attorney client privilege.

21. Mr. Kelly is working on a suit to be filed in Federal Court.

22. Dan does not have any idea of the evidence against him except for 3 binders full of his own blog and website postings and Kreinhop’s report.

23. Dan continues to post on his blog, danbrewington.blogspot.com

24. Because of the proposed jail expansion we learned some interesting facts about Dearborn County courts and how they use the jail. The information below was found in the letter written by attorneys Miller and Garner and from RQAW’s study.

a. The majority of time the Dearborn County judges set bond in two parts, requiring both a cash bond and a surety bond. This has resulted in higher bonds for many people arrested and leaves these people unable to post bond so they sit in jail pending the resolution of their case.

b. Most of these people do not pose a danger to the community nor pose a high risk of failing to appear on the scheduled court dates and therefore should not be held in jail while their case is pending.

c. RQAW also compared counties of similar size and the number of beds that they had in jail. Dearborn County would be way out of line with the jail expansion project.

d. RQAW also found that the average length of stay at the Dearborn County Jail is 70-100% longer than average stays at other jails studied by RQAW.

e. The RQAW study said an expanded jail would require $1.34 million per year in operating expenses when it reaches 100% occupancy.

25. Tuesday, July 19, 2011. I checked the clerk’s office and an appearance had been filed Monday, July 18, 2011 by Bryan E. Barrett.

26. A Bond Reduction hearing has been scheduled for August 3, 2011.


Submitted by Sue Brewington - July 19, 2011