Former ISP leader: Braun admin blocked investigation
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Former Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter said he believes someone close to the governor might have moved to block an investigation into a political ally.
Carter told News 8 the State Board of Accounts alerted ISP to possible misuse of the Dubois County Jail commissary fund in July of 2024. The SBOA found evidence which suggested Sheriff Tom Kleinhelter had used the fund to purchase airline tickets for himself and his wife and grills for employees. Carter assigned a detective to the case. After he said the detective did nothing with the case for about six weeks, he replaced that investigator with Lt. Jeff Hearon, a veteran ISP detective who led some of the agency’s highest-profile investigations, including the one into former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel.
Court documents obtained by News 8show Hearon seized Kleinhelter’s computer and cell phone. He found evidence supporting the SBOA’s findings, including airline tickets to Dubai for the World Police Summit. Hearon also seized bank records further supporting the case, including evidence Kleinhelter had reimbursed the jail commissary fund out of his own pocket.
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“There was an 84-page probable cause affidavit that was prepared that was full of facts, not opinions. It was all objective facts that could be proven,” Carter said. “And it was such a document that I’d never seen anything like it before. Ten search warrants, an enormous amount of work that Jeff Hearon did. Airline records, credit card records, bank records, phones and computer data.”…