The Four Indianapolis Residents Who Vouched For Frank Straub

The Spokesman has a story today about four Indianapolis residents who Frank Straub and Mayor David Condon personally paid to have fly out to Spokane to testify at a city council meeting last night to testify in support of Straub's confirmation as the city's new police chief director of law enforcement. The four included former Star editor Dennis Ryerson, IMPD Officer Candi Perry, IFD union president Wayne Smith and retired Indianapolis police officer Spencer Moore, whose son was killed while in the line of duty.

Dennis Ryerson, who retired June 1 as the editor of the Indianapolis Star, told the council that Indianapolis’ police union often fights with the person in charge.

“Frank is a very sober, serious guy,” Ryerson said. “He got to work. He made a difference. He was courteous, always professional.” . . .

Indianapolis Police Officer Candi Perry said Straub’s tenure in Indianapolis answered the prayers of community members tired of the department that seemed detached from the community.

“You have a man who will actually listen, who will actually hear what you have to say,” Perry said. “I would like to say that Frank Straub is one of the best people who have set foot in Indianapolis.”

Wayne D. Smith, the president of Indianapolis’s firefighter union, said Straub helped made a great department even better in partnership with the fire union.

“He is a friend of labor,” Smith said.

Former Indianapolis Police Officer Spencer Moore praised the support his family received from Straub after his son, an Indianapolis police officer, died three days after he was shot in the line of duty.
 

Perry, you may recall, sued IMPD after she was accused by her superiors of providing false information in a homicide investigation. She was indicted by a grand jury for official misconduct but those charges were later dropped. Perry later returned to work in January, 2010 after she had been suspended. Her attorney, Robert Turner, claimed she had been the victim of gender discrimination. Straub was named as a defendant in Perry's lawsuit. I notice that Straub didn't have as a witness a family member of Eric Wells, the motorcyclist who was killed when he was struck by Officer David Bisard's police cruiser. At the time of the tragic accident, Straub ordered IMPD Chief Paul Ciesielski to summon senior IMPD officers who had gone to the scene of the collision that killed Wells back to his office for a meeting with Straub to discuss his public image problems. Straub later blamed those same officials for failing to handle the Bisard investigation properly after it was learned that Bisard was under the influence of alcohol and demoted them. The demoted officers later sued the city, including Straub.

The Spokane city council voted unanimously to confirm Straub as that city's director of law enforcement. It could not confirm him as police chief, the job he was hired to do because Straub is not a commissioned police officer as required by Washington state law. Straub is seeking a waiver that will allow him to conduct limited training in order to qualify as the city's police chief, but he will hold the title of director of law enforcement until he becomes commissioned. Straub told blamed his problems in Indianapolis that led to his resignation on partisanship.