Banner Graphic, Volume 19, Number 21, Greencastle, Putnam County, 29 September 1988 — Page 5
Tax hearing
tions from assessed valuation for functional and economic obsolescence; “Contains basic pricing errors pursuant to Regulation 17; : “Mischaracterizes certain warehouse space as manufacturing space; “Applies excessive grade factors, as well as violates the requirements of the Constitutions of the United States of America and the State of Indiana, and the Property Tax Assessment Act (as amended), and; compared to the assessment of comparable properties.” MRS. COCKRELL, A member of the county Board of Review due to her position as county auditor, disagrees. “We (the Putnam County Board of Review) hired a professional appraisal firm (to help make the assessment) and I felt like they did do a good job,” Mrs. Cockrell told the Banner-Graphic Wednesday. “We did give them an obsolescence factor of 20 percent and I feel like the assessment should stand as it is,” the auditor asserted. “I FEEL IT IS A just and fair assessment based on the criteria we received from the state,” Mrs. Cockrell added, “and I don’t see any reason for it to be lowered any more.” Additional lowering of Distro/Charming Shoppes’ assessed valuation by another $500,000 could have a major effect on some 1989 budgets, according to the auditor. “If another $500,000 worth of assessed valuation is dropped, persons with county, city and school budgets will have to go back and figure their budgets based upon that new lowered assessed valuation. ‘THE COUNTY, CITY and schools based their budgets on the
Harris trial
The insurance man also told how Diane Robinson came into his Carmel office at about 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 11 and reported the loss of the Heritage Lake home. McElfrisch said he took some preliminary information from her on a loss report form. That form, he said, is used to notify the underwriting insurance company that a loss has occurred. It is not a proof of loss form, which is a step in the filing of a claim. McELFRISCH SAID Royal Globe did not renew the homeowners policy on Rev. Harris’ primary residence in Indianapolis. That action was taken, he said, in August of this year, when the policy came up for renewal. Robinson testified during the June trial, but Prosecutor Bob Lowe told Putnam Circuit Court Judge William C. Vaughn 111 that she is now missing and a police search did not provide any leads on her whereabouts. He said the defense claims not to know where she is, though there are reports she has moved out of Indiana. Lowe used a law that allowed a tape of her previous testimony to be played in its entirety to the jury. In that tape, she said she encouraged Rev. Harris to notify the insurance agent of the fire, whether he intended to file a claim or not She said she drove him to the office and agreed to talk to the agent when he became sick in the car. SHE CLAIMED SHE spoke with McElfrisch for only about five minutes, while the agent said the conversation took about 30 minutes. She also said she and Rev. Harris left the insurance office at about 11 a.m. and drove straight to the Fillmore Fire Department station, arriving there at about 4:30 pjm. H.A. Hayes, a representative of the Alex Sill Adjusting Co., Indianapolis, told the jury he saw a newspaper clipping about the Harris fire, and contacted the minister about his company preparing an insurance claim for the loss. Hayes
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MYRTLE COCKRELL ‘Just and fair’
current assessed valuation given to them, based upon the figure we had at the time,” Mrs. Cockrell explained. If Distro/Charming Shoppes is successful in this latest appeal, the auditor said units of governments with tight operating balances will have a difficult way to go, she said. “If you have to take that money off because of an even lower assessed valuation, unless they have a good operating balance, it will present a cash flow problem for some of them. TF THEY HAVE a good operating balance, and keep a close watch on their budgets, they may be all right,” the auditor pointed out. “But, if they have a tight budget and little in their operating balance, they may have to borrow money to operate or cut back on expenditures somewhere.
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tuH i **
REV. WAYNE HARRIS Second trial continues said Rev. Harris signed a contract to have the adjusting company prepare the claim. Elwood “Buddy” Rogers, owner of Lord & Rogers Furniture Store in Indianapolis, told the jury that Rev. Harris bought a sofa, two Queen Anne chairs and four rooms of carpet for the Heritage Lake home on March 19,1987. ON DEC. 16, REV. Harris, who Rogers said was a friend and a good customer, was back in the store requesting a quote. Rogers said Rev. Harris told him the quote was needed for insurance purposes, and he took the store owner through his showroom showing him the pieces of furniture he wanted quotes for. Under questioning by Lowe, Rogers said the quote was for different furniture which cost more
“And this,” county Auditor Cockrell said of the approximately $500,000 lowered assessed valuation request, “is enough to affect the (1989) budgets (if approved at the state level).” 808 CAMPBELL, assistant to the State Tax Board of Commissioners, told the Banner-Graphic Thursday morning once the state receives notification of the appeal, a hearing will be set. “Since it concerns (assessment of) land and improvements on a building like that, the hearing should be public,” Campbell noted via phone from his Indianapolis office. Most likely, Campbell said the State Tax Board of Commissioners will send a field representative down to conduct the hearing. “IT COULD BE Carolyn Ives who does it,” Campbell said one of the state tax commissioners’ field reps, who works closely with Putnam County on budget matters, etc. “Or, they could assign another person to take care of it.” Campbell said he sees nothing unusual with the Putnam County Board of Review’s decision to hire an independent, professional appraisal firm to assist in making the latest Distro/Charming Shoppes’ assessment “If the local board is not very good at doing appraisals, and they have a professional company do it, the (tax commissioners) may well go with what the firm has said. “IN THAT CASE, I’m sure it was probably appraised by the professional firm according to the guidelines of the state Tax Board,” Campbell noted. “And if the firm went along with those (state tax) guidelines, and there are no mistakes, there shouldn’t be a problem,” Campbell concluded.
than that which the minister bought in March. On Dec. 19, 1987, Rev. Harris returned to Lord & Rogers, according the owner, saying there was some question as to the cause of the fire which was creating a delay in the insurance settlement. The minister reportedly told the store owner there was other furniture he wanted a quote on for insurance purposes, and a second quote was prepared. ROGERS SAID THE furniture he quoted prices for is currently in lay-away, and Rev. Harris has been making payments on it by cash or third-party checks. Vince Cochran, a clerk at the Wesley Hardware Store in Indianapolis, told the jury the minister was in the store after the fire asking to buy a product he had previously purchased at the store. Cochran said he told Rev. Harris he could not get the product because he did not handle the original sale and so did not know what the minister had purchased. REV. HARRIS THEN told him he bought the product to clean cement off a floor, and Cochran said he recommended acetone for the job. Rev. Harris then suggested it was mineral spirits that he had purchased, and decided to buy a gallon container of it. The clerk said Rev. Harris returned between 15 and 30 minutes later, the minister, this time buying a quart container of acetone. In his notes, from which he wrote a report, Fowler said he heard Rev. Harris say after a meeting on Dec. 22, 1987 that he knew mineral spirits would not bum because he tried it. HOWEVER, BUTLER introduced the memo which was written from those notes, and in it, Fowler quoted Rev. Harris as saying, “I just don’t understand iL..it just didn’t light, but it sure did at my house.” The trial is expected to last into next week.
Bomb threat halts Benefiel proceedings at Terre Haute
TERRE HAUTE (AP) Bill J. Benefiel Wednesday would not enter the Terre Haute courtroom where he is being tried in the 1987 torture-slaying of Delores Wells. After attorneys had argued about whether Benefiel should be allowed to stay out of the courtroom, a cal-led-in bomb threat forced Vigo Superior Court Judge Michael H. Eldred to order an evacuation, causing an early recess Wednesday. Eldred had recessed the trial early on Tuesday because Benefiel, who had been testifying in his defense, would not return to the witness stand. ELDRED CONDUCTED a closed competency hearing Wednesday morning after Benefiel refused to enter the courtroom and after defense attorneys insisted their client was not competent to assist in his defense. The defense’s clinical psychologist testified during the hearing that Benefiel was not com-
Department of Correction asks 1,600 new beds by ’9l
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - ndiana’s prison system, filled beyond capacity, needs 1,600 new spaces for prisoners in the next two years, the Department of Correction says. “While it’s difficult to come here and ask for another 1,600 beds, we have no choice,” James E. McCart, deputy commissioner for administration, told the State Budget Committee Wednesday. “We cannot close our doors and tell the sheriffs to come back with the prisoners on Thursday. We’ve got to accept them today.” Correction officials proposed building a 600-bed, $52 million maximum security prison and major new facilities at existing institutions in Plainfield and Westville as part of a $l4B million construction budget request for 1989-91. THE DEPARTMENT also proposed adding about S4O million in personnel costs by hiring 1,335 new employees and raising the pay of current workers. The DOC budget request also calls for about S2O million in increased annual support for programs such as community corrections and work release. “The dollars are high. There’s no question about it,” said Cloid L. Shuler, deputy correction commissioner for operations. Rep. B. Patrick Bauer, a South Bend Democrat and budget panel member, called the request alarming but added he couldn’t find any part of it he would recommend eliminating. “IT’S ALARMING FROM a fiscal standpoint and it’s alarming from a social standpoint,” said Bauer. “It could swallow up any (state budget) surplus and possibly require some sort of additional funding.” Department of Correction Commissioner John T. Shettle and other correction officials said a rapidly growing prison population has strained current facilities to their limits, forcing the department to look toward new construction. The prison population in Indiana has grown from 4,100 in 1974 to 11,300 today, Shettle said. In-
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petent, according to reports of those present But Eldred ruled that Benefiel was able to assist his lawyers. “I’ve instructed the defendant of his constitutional right to be present, but he may waive that and the case continue without him if the court determines it is fair and appropriate,” the judge said. “I have determined that it is fair and appropriate to continue.” MARILYN BENEFIEL, the defendant’s wife, said Wednesday that she spent 90 minutes with Benefiel Tuesday night “The lawyer sent me down. Bill kept saying, ‘They’re laughing at me.’ I told him no one was laughing at him. He (Benefiel) had a breakdown last night. “He said he felt like he was watching himself. ... The judge made special arrangements for me to see him to try to calm him down. He was pouring sweat rocking back and forth in his chair. His hands were ice cold,” Mrs. Benefiel
state
diana’s 10.3 percent annual increase in prison population in recent years far outpaces the national average of 7.6 percent, he said. At the same time, Indiana’s crime rate has declined, Shettle said. Indiana’s incarceration rate ranks as the eighth highest in the nation, he said. By mid-1991, the end of the slate’s next budget period, the total adult and juvenile population in Indiana correctional facilities will likely be 13,088, Shettle said. By the year 2000, the total population is expected to reach 17,227, he said. DOC OFFICIALS SAID the primary cause of the growing population was the 1977 rewriting of Indiana’s criminal code that called for tougher sentences for most crimes and fewer suspended sentences. Tougher drunken driving laws passed in recent years have also contributed to the population growth. Despite recent expansions of prison facilities and alternative programs such as housing misdemeanor offenders in county jails, the state prison system now is 11 percent overcrowded, Shettle said. Some individual institutions are overcrowded by 30 to 50 percent, he said. At most facilities, cells originally designed for one prisoner each are now housing two, even on death row in Michigan City, Shuler said. COURT-ORDERED caps are in place to hold down the populations at the Indiana State Farm at Putnamville, Indiana State Prison in Michigan City and Indiana Refer-
September 29,1988 THE BANNERGRAPHIC
said. Defense attorney Christopher B. Gambill told reporters that he believes Benefiel had a nervous breakdown Tuesday night. “HIS FACE WAS contorted, he was shaking involuntarily and he was sobbing,” Gambill said. Earlier in the week, Terre Haute policeman Don Tyler testified for the defense as attorneys tried to show that Benefiel has more than one personality. But Vigo County Prosecutor Phillip I. Adler said the real issue was whether Benefiel realized the wrongfulness of his acts. AUTHORITIES WERE discussing tighter security procedures for the remainder of the trial because bomb threats were telephoned to three county offices, the Circuit Court, the prosecutor and the public defender. No bomb was found and authorities were discussing tighter security procedures for the remainder of the trial.
matory at Pendleton. To correct the overcrowding and handle future population increases, the department recommends building: A 600-bed maximum security prison for $52 million. A site hasn’t been chosen, but DOC officials have said they would like to use land already owned by the state. SHETTLE SAID THE prison would likely become the core of a major new correctional complex. Vaughn Overstreet, executive assistant to Shettle, said a preference might be given to a site south of U.S. 40 because there aren’t major correctional facilities in the southern half of the state. However, he said the department wants to secure the funding before deciding on a site. A $29 million, 400-bed unit for prisoners with special medical or other needs. The unit would be built near the Indiana Youth Center at Plainfield. A sl3 million conversion of a personnel building into a 400-bed women’s prison at the Westville Correctional Center. SHULER AND OTHER correctional officials noted that the adult female population is the fastest growing within Indiana’s prison system. A 200-bed addition to the Summit Farm Work Release Center in LaPorte County. THE DEPARTMENT also is seeking permission to add 1,335 new employees to man the new or expanded facilities and an SBOO pay increase for about 2,000 existing correctional officers who now earn about $14,400 per year.
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