VOTE411 Voter Guide

To be a progressive prosecutor who is willing to take a stand for justice by taking a stand against in-justice. End simple marijuana possession charges. Eighty prosecutors across the country in every region signed a pledge not to prosecute women, nurses, and doctors for reproductive healthcare decisions, and only one was in Indiana, Ryan Mears in Marion County. I will be the second prosecutor in Indiana to sign the pledge not to criminalize personal healthcare decisions. I agree that prosecuting individuals who seek or provide abortion care makes a mockery of justice. I will focus the limited resources of my office on violent crimes, I want to the be your prosecutor that acts on his conscience; that tells you loud clear where he stands.

The policies that the Prosecuting Attorney should take to ensure fairness, equal access, and public trust begin with focusing the limited resources of my office on violent crimes and protecting the community from those that seek to do us harm. Prosecuting simple possession of marijuana and charging $500+ pre-trial diversion is a policy that will end. Instead, we will have a simple possession of marijuana policy that follows the lead of Marion County enacted in 2019. A policy of compassion. Pledging to join eighty other prosecutors across the country not to criminalize personal healthcare decisions is a policy we will have. I will protect the community by prioritizing the cases that matter with the explicit goal of rebuilding public trust.

Domestic violence does not belong in our community, and we need to work to reduce all forms of domestic violence and my office will prioritize these cases. Ensuring that survivors not only feel heard, but that the prosecutor’s office will be actively pursuing justice on their behalf. This means that survivors of domestic violence will have a prosecutor’s office that will seek grant funding to expand support programs, and advocate services. My commitment to survivors in Monroe County is comprehensive. It means providing caseworkers who are deeply knowledgeable about available services, well trained with expanded grant funding. Most importantly, it means relentlessly advocating for justice that ensures fairness, equal access and public trust.

Monroe County deserves a progressive Prosecuting Attorney who has the experience and knowledge necessary to effectively seek justice and ensure community safety. The Prosecuting Attorney must respond to difficult issues, such as severe mental health and substance crises and an obsolete jail. To be effective, the Prosecuting Attorney must be educated on current best practices to reduce recidivism and have a firm foundation in constitutional law and procedure. I have the experience, education, and foundational knowledge, as well as the necessary leadership skills, to address these issues. I am an experienced prosecutor committed to community safety, compassionate justice, and constitutional values, and I am a passionate advocate for justice.

A Prosecuting Attorney has a constitutional obligation to pursue fairness for all people. To that end, in my first two terms, I have done work to recognize and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in our justice system. For this work, I received the 2023 John L. Krauss Award for Public Policy Innovation. To increase accountability and transparency, we are developing a public-facing dashboard to share our data and progress. We can reduce the impact of disparities by addressing root causes of crime through diversion and treatment programs proven to reduce recidivism, and by focusing our limited litigation resources on those violent and repeat offenders who do the most harm. I strive to earn public trust through presence and collaboration.

As Prosecuting Attorney, I prioritize staff training on evidence-based prosecution that centers a survivor’s account and focuses on the perpetrator’s conduct. We collaborate with Middle Way House for safety planning to support survivors who experience domestic violence, and we use available procedural tools such as no contact orders and firearms disqualifications to protect survivors. In 2019, we applied for and received additional grant funding specifically for the prosecution of felony domestic violence cases and victim assistance, and we will continue to invest resources in addressing these challenging cases. We participate in the Monroe County Domestic Violence Coalition to stay abreast of and be available to other relevant resources.