Did Governor Eric Holcomb’s Administration Improperly Waive Safety Fines for Amazon?

Governor “Mad” Eric Holcomb 

Lindsey Erdody of the Indianapolis Business Journal wrote an article about the 2017 death of 59 year old Phillip Lee Terry at the Plainfield, Indiana Amazon warehouse.  Terry’s death by itself might just sound like a tragic accident on the job. But as Erdody reports there appears to be much more to this than an unfortunate accident.

Erdody writes:

An article, published Monday by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, details the death of 59-year-old Phillip Lee Terry and the state’s investigation into whether Amazon was liable. Terry died on the job at the Amazon warehouse in Plainfield in late September 2017 after a 1,200-pound piece of equipment dropped and crushed him.

The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration was sent to investigate the death, and safety inspector John Stallone concluded a forklift had not been propped up as it should have been when Terry was working under it, according to the Reveal article.

Stallone asked Amazon for proof that Terry had been trained on how to properly work on the equipment, but the company did not provide adequate proof, so Stallone issued four safety citations for a total fine of $28,000, according to the story.

That same month, Holcomb directed state officials to try to lure Amazon into locating its second headquarters in the state. The Seattle-based company announced it was in the market for another location and had promised a $5 billion investment and 50,000 new jobs to the winning region.

In November 2017, while the public bidding war for Amazon’s HQ2 was still playing out, Stallone and his boss, Indiana OSHA Director Julie Alexander, called Amazon officials to talk about the citations and fine related to Terry’s death, according to the article. Stallone recorded the call, and Alexander can be heard telling Amazon officials how to reduce the fines and shift the blame to “employee misconduct,” according to Reveal.

In a podcast posted by Reveal that included some of the audio from that conversation, Alexander is heard telling Stallone “I hope you don’t take it personally if we have to manipulate your citations.”

Stallone told Reveal that a few days after that call, he was called into a meeting with Indiana Labor Commissioner Rick Ruble and Holcomb, who allegedly brought up the Amazon deal and said it would mean a lot to the state to land the headquarters.

Ruble then told Stallone to either back off the Amazon case or resign, according to the story. Stallone told Reveal that he quit soon afterward.

Holcomb’s office denied that meeting ever happened.

“The claim against the governor is absolutely untrue,” Holcomb spokeswoman Rachel Hoffmeyer said.

Ms. Erdody points out that the Indiana Department of Labor on September 14, 2018 waived all proposed fines against Amazon. Click here to read the IDOL’s settlement with Amazon. Click here for the story by Reveal News which sparked interest in this case. Also check out Reveal’s podcast “Amazon: Behind The Smiles”. 

Our story doesn’t end here though. Governor Eric Holcomb and has responded in a most interesting way to media inquiries into their alleged conduct surrounding Amazon and the death of Phillip Lee Terry. In a follow up article on December 4th, 2019 Lindsey Erdody wrote:

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and the Indiana Department of Labor insist that the investigation into an Amazon employee’s death in 2017 was handled appropriately, even though the safety violations that were initially issued were eventually dismissed.

Reveal, part of the not-for-profit Center for Investigative Reporting, recently highlighted the investigation as part of a report on working conditions in Amazon facilities across the country. The Indianapolis Star also published the Indiana-specific section of the Reveal article, which alleges Holcomb was involved in getting Amazon’s fines eliminated after the September 2017 death of a maintenance employee in Plainfield as part of a strategy to win Amazon’s coveted HQ2 project.

Holcomb has repeatedly denied the allegations, even taking the unusual step of issuing cease-and-desist letters to Reveal and the IndyStar. On Tuesday, he said he believes the Department of Labor and the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration handled the case correctly.

Let’s stop and think for just a minute here. The Indianapolis Star and Reveal publish a story alleging that Governor Eric Holcomb and the Indiana Labor Commissioner sought to avoid making Amazon pay a fine in the death of one of it’s employees. All so that the state could hope to lure Amazon into placing a distribution center in Indiana. But rather than logically refute the story. Mad King Eric AKA High Tax Holcomb decides to do his best  imitation of a Soviet apparatchik and send cease and desist letters to Reveal and The Indianapolis Star merely for exercising their free speech rights, and for upsetting Governor Cry Baby. Such behavior from former Governor Mitch Daniels personal slave is not surprising. Indiana deserves better than Eric Holcomb. This is clearly the age of the second rater as far as Indiana government goes. 

Click here to read the text of Governor Holcomb’s childish cease and desist demand letters.

Fortunately several Indiana journalists have decided they are not going to bend over and let Holcomb slap them into submission. Neither Reveal or The Indianapolis Star have backed down or retracted there stories regarding Holcomb and Amazon. 

The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel published an editorial denouncing Holcomb’s antics. The Indiana Society of Professional Journalists also wrote an open letter to Eric Holcomb criticizing his attempts to quell free speech. We will end this post by reproducing the SPJ’s letter in full:

Dec. 3, 2019

Honorable Eric J. Holcomb
Governor of Indiana
200 W. Washington St.
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Dear Gov. Holcomb:

The Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists takes exception to your call for the Indianapolis Star and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting to cease and desist reporting stories about your administration’s handling of worker safety investigations at Amazon facilities in Indiana.

Our organization, which represents professional journalists throughout Indiana, feels this move is a threat to press freedom.

According to Article I, section 9 of the Indiana Constitution: “No law shall be passed restraining the free interchange of thought and opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print, freely, on any subject whatever: but for the abuse of that right, every person shall be responsible.”

In our view, your cease-and-desist letters, issued on Nov. 29, are designed to intimidate reporters and journalists looking into your administration. The letters also add to the overall climate in the nation that looks to undermine the credibility of journalists and media outlets.

Although you might not agree with the contents or conclusions of the report in Reveal and the Indianapolis Star, an unusual call by your office for a cease-and-desist order against the media could chill efforts to report an ongoing story.

Indiana Pro SPJ stands behind the efforts of local and national journalism outlets to report issues of public importance and hold leaders accountable. If there are disputes over accuracy, there are ways to address those concerns without issuing a cease-and-desist order.

Indiana should set an example for the rest of the nation to follow when it comes to press freedom. Our officers would welcome the opportunity to meet with you and discuss this issue further.

Sincerely,

The Board of Directors
Indiana Professional Chapter
Society of Professional Journalists

For more information, please contact:

John Russell, chapter president
(317) 250-6261

Michael Puente, chapter vice president
(312) 342-0056

UPDATE: An alert reader directed us to an op-ed and a report over at IndyStar you should all see about Holcomb’s dirty deeds. Click here and here for more information.

Carmel Businessman to Primary Governor Holcomb

Brian Roth Republican Challenger to Eric Holcomb 

The IR posse has been deluged with work and article requests this past month. We came across an article written on September 10th, 2017 by Lindsey Erdody for the Indianapolis Business Journal  in which Ms. Erdody wrote about Brian Roth. Erdody writes that Brian Roth is:

a Carmel resident and president of a consulting and leadership development firm called Employment 2 Deployment LLC, has filed paperwork to create a committee to run for governor.

According to Roth’s LinkedIn profile, he graduated from Taylor University in 1988 with a degree in physics and served in the U.S. Navy for 24 years.

Lindsey Erdody says that there has not been a contested Republican gubernatorial primary in Indiana since 2004.

As our readers are aware neither INDY REPUBLICAN, Paul Ogden or the late Gary Welsh care at all for Eric Holcomb and would glad see the worthless fool thrown out of office on his ass. We say that a contested GOP primary for governor is long overdue. We wish Mister Roth well. And if we get more information on Roth we will blog about it. 

The Hypocrisy of Hoosier Politicians About Curtis Hill w/Update

Attorney General Curtis Hill R-Indiana 

For much of the past week the news here in Indiana has revolved to a significant extent on the allegations of sexual harassment leveled against Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill. Hill is accused of inappropriately touching four women at a party at AJ’s Lounge in Indianapolis back on March the 15th of this year. The allegations became public knowledge with the leak of a confidential memo containing information on the alleged incidents of March 15th. You can read the memo by clicking here. Tony Cook, Ryan Martin and Kaitlin Lange reported that after state legislative leaders were informed of the alleged groping by Hill in May that:

Details of the accusations are outlined in a confidential June 18 memorandum prepared by the Taft Stettinius & Hollister law firm at the request of legislative leaders. 

The internal legislative investigation into his actions at AJ's Lounge was initiated by Bosma and Long when the groping allegations were first brought to their attention in May, about two months after the party, according to the memo.

The Indianapolis Star says that according to “Jennifer Drobac, a law professor at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. In groping cases, Drobac said, prosecutors typically decide whether the alleged battery was sexual in nature. If not, a criminal charge would be a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a potential sentence of 180 days in a county jail and a fine up to $1,000. A more severe penalty is possible, however, if the battery is sexual. That violation, a Level 6 felony, carries a potential sentence of six months to 2.5 years in state prison or a county jail and a fine up to $10,000.”

Professor Drobac does also say that civil penalties might come into play depending on the circumstances.

Lindsey Erdody writing for the Indianapolis Business Journal reported on July 6th, 2017 that State Representative Ed Delaney-D Indianapolis said they will push for Hill’s impeachment if he refuses to leave office voluntarily. Erdody writes:

State Representative Ed Delaney-D Indianapolis 

“Even his own party says he’s not fit to be in the office,” DeLaney said. “There will have to be an impeachment.” 

But DeLaney said state statute isn’t exactly clear about the impeachment process, and it’s never been done, so he’s carefully examining the statute and looking at states with similar language to determine the appropriate action.

“These things have not been tried out,” DeLaney said. “People generally get the message and depart.”

Bosma has not said whether impeachment is an option he’s considering, and if so, how long he would wait. DeLaney said “a few days seems reasonable.”

But with or without Republican support, DeLaney said he will push for impeachment.

“I prefer to push with some support from the other side of the aisle,” DeLaney said. “The public doesn’t need a months long war over the fate of Curtis Hill.”

One of the things that has piqued IR’s interest about the whole Curtis Hill situation is that nobody from the legislative Republican leadership spoke to Hill about these allegations until 11 days after the June 18th, 2018 Memo. Which has led some (all of us included) to believe that Brian Bosma, David Long and others were hoping to handle this situation quickly and quietly and pray it would just disappear. With the leak of this confidential memo to the Indianapolis Star it doesn’t appear as though Hill’s alleged groping is going to be dealt with quietly or quickly. As of the date this post was written two of the four alleged victims have publicly identified themselves. State Representative Mara Candelaria Reardon D-Munster and Gabrielle McLemore who is the Communications Director for the Indiana State Senate Democrats. You can read each of their letters to the public here and here. Curtis Hill so far has adamantly refused to resign and has asked the Marion County Prosecutors Office to investigate the incidents rather than the State’s Inspector General. Hill’s reasoning for this he says is that since Governor Eric Holcomb has already said he thinks that Hill should resign that having the IG who is an appointee of Holcomb’s to investigate would not lend itself to an impartial investigation. On this we agree with Hill. Even though IR believes the allegations against Hill are credible and that he should resign. That does not mean that we the people should ignore the Glass House inhabitited by many of our elected officials screaming the loudest for Hill’s head.

Readers of Indy Republican , Advance Indiana, and Ogden on Politics may recall that all three of these blogs have written about the severe ethical and legal problems that Eric Holcomb, Ed Delaney, Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson and State House Speaker Bosma have had themselves. Some of them as far as IR knows are not guilty of sexual harassment. Nonetheless there are serious questions about these and other elected officials in Indiana’s conduct that in the interest of justice should be explored. We have previously written about Ed Delaney who is a former attorney at Barnes and Thornburg and the mystery as to why he decided to meet someone he did not know in an abandoned parking lot in 2009, which then resulted in Delaney being injured by Gus Mendenhall. Probably due to less than ethical conduct back in the early 1980’s by Delaney in ruining Mendenhall’s father Burke’s business venture. Connie Lawson who serves as Indiana Secretary of State herself according to some had homesteads in Hendricks, Marion County and Arizona all at the same time. Governor Eric Holcomb who once falsely accused a political opponent of his of engaging in beastilaty. As well as announcing in 2016 he would be dropping his bid for the US Senate and then right after then Governor Mike Pence announced that Holcomb would be appointed Lieutenant Governor to replace outgoing LG Sue Ellsperman in an arrangement that stinks to high heaven. Gary Welsh wrote about this here  here. IR also wrote last year about Holcomb’s administrations being sued by high powered Republican attorney Jim Bopp, over allegations that the State of Indiana was illegally collecting certain trucking fees. Given just how much of an autocrat Holcomb was as state GOP Chairman it’s likely that he would have heard something about Hill’s issues. And given the very public antagonism between the Governor and AG it’s strange that he wouldn’t have tried to use this as leverage over Hill. As for House Speaker Bosma from what we have been hearing going back several years he doesn’t have a squeaky clean life himself. Wish we could say more than that. But unfortunately we cannot. 

Earlier this evening Hill issued a statement saying he would address the media tomorrow at 10 AM in his office. What Hill has planned is anyone’s guess. He has so far stated that he will not resign. So far his only defender of any prominence that we can find is Revered Charles Harrison leader of the Ten Points Coalition in Indianapolis. In a statement released to the media on WRTV-6’s website Harrison said this about Hill: 

“First let me say I am against any kind of sexual harassment, and I believe that this kind of conduct has no place in our society. I have known Attorney General Curtis Hill Jr for several years now. I have often been with Attorney General Curtis Hill Jr in a lot of different settings, and I have never witnessed in my presence any kind of sexual misconduct toward women. Attorney General Hill has always been respectful and has conducted himself in appropriate ways around women. I can only speak to what I have witnessed, and in my presence Attorney General Hill's conduct has always been honorable.”

As a man of the cloth. We sincerely hope that Harrison’s statement is a genuine reflection of his thoughts on Curtis Hill. But a few have noted that Harrison’s defense of Hill might be influenced by the fact that as Attorney General Hill has helped setup $500,000 to help with the expansion of Reverend Harrison’s Ten Points Coalition. 

We will be watching to see what Hill has to say at his conference tomorrow. Friend of the blog Paul Ogden wrote about Hill on Friday  And Rob Kendall discussed the Hill drama on his radio show this afternoon:

Till next time goodnight and God Bless you all. 

UPDATE: An alert readers has just made us aware that Curtis Hill is putting out ads in his defense. Checkout this tweet by Tony Cook for the details:

Looks like Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is running digital ads defending himself against allegations of inappropriate touching. This on the day two of those women came forward publicly. pic.twitter.com/xU9dYgNumn

— Tony Cook (@indystartony) July 7, 2018

Indiana Court of Appeals allows Carmel to Annex Home Place

Sorry to just be getting to this story now. Work has been hectic. A very good and dear friend of INDY REPUBLICAN asked us to give our take on a story out of Carmel. Back on October 31st, 2017. Lindsey Erdody wrote a piece about Carmel's annexation of an unincorporated community in Clay Township called Home Place. Erdody reports:

The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s decision to allow Carmel’s annexation of a small community in Clay Township known as Home Place to move forward.

The lengthy battle between the city and residents of the 1,017-acre unincorporated area of Clay Township centered at 106th Street and College Avenue started in 2004 when Carmel voted to include the community in the city's boundaries.

A majority of the 2,200 households of Home Place objected to the annexation and filed a lawsuit to prevent it. In 2005, Hamilton County Superior Judge William Hughes ruled in favor of the property owners, saying Carmel didn’t prove it could financially afford to annex the area.

But, in 2007, the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed that decision. The Indiana Supreme Court declined to hear the case and sent it back to the trial court for further review.

Both parties agreed to postpone proceedings until the end of 2015, and the case returned to court in April 2016.

In June 2016, Special Judge Matthew Kincaid ruled that Home Place residents did not prove all the elements necessary to prevent the annexation. The residents needed to prove that they received certain services, such as police and fire protection and street maintenance, without the help of the municipality trying to annex the land.

They also are required by state law to show that the annexation would have “a significant financial impact” on residents and that it is opposed by at least 65 percent of the property owners.

Kincaid sided with Home Place residents on most of the elements, but agreed with Carmel when it came to who provides fire protection services. Clay Township technically provides the service, but does so by contracting with the Carmel Fire Department.

The residents argued that it’s still the township’s responsibility, but the city refuted that argument by saying Carmel firefighters are the ones responding to incidents in Home Place.

Because the residents did not prove all of the necessary elements, Kincaid ruled in favor of Carmel. Home Place residents appealed the decision, but the appellate court affirmed the ruling in an opinion issued Tuesday.

“The trial court did not err in using a straightforward factual analysis in making its determination, and it correctly found that landowners failed to prove that fire protection was being adequately furnished by a provider other than Carmel,” the opinion stated.

Matt Milam, who has been leading the residential group opposed to the annexation, said neighbors will have a meeting in November to determine whether to appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court.

“From working with these people for about 15 years, my gut feeling is they will want to appeal to the Supreme Court,” Milam said.

Interestingly enough one of our readers pointed out that the attorney for Clay Township is none other than Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma. And that Steve Buschmann is the attorney representing Home Place and that he is also the attorney for the Indiana Township Association. It seems to IR that it would be fair to say that many of the lawyers who represent townships are just trying to pad their legal bills. Bosma has a conflict or should because as Speaker of the State House he is in a position to help get legislation enacted that could possibly benefit him. It will be interesting to see if this case is taken to the Indiana State Supreme Court how they will rule.