MUNCIE
— City police officer Bret Elam will be suspended for 10 days without pay and
enter a diversion program in the wake of allegations he beat a man in a local
tavern.
Madison
County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings on Friday issued a report indicating he would
not file criminal charges against Elam or ex-Muncie Police Chief Joe Winkle.
Cummings
had been appointed to evaluate allegations that, in separate incidents, Elam
and Winkle struck patrons at the Silo, 223 S. Walnut St., in the early morning
hours of Dec. 9.
Both
men were part of a group of revelers that left a Christmas Party that night at
the eastside Fraternal Order of Police lodge and rode a bus to the downtown
bar.
In
his report, filed in Delaware Circuit Court 1, Cummings said his investigation
determined the Silo was the site of “after-parties” for participants in two
holiday gatherings, one originating at the FOP and the other for a local hair
salon.
“The
evidence suggests that most individuals in the respective parties, including
most of the named witnesses and participants in the two conflicts under
investigation at the Silo Bar, were heavily intoxicated,” Cummings wrote.
Cummings
said there was “evidence to believe” Winkle struck a man in the tavern, inflicting
a “minor injury to his left eye.”
But
the Madison County prosecutor said he “developed serious reservations about the
veracity and credibility” of Winkle’s accuser, saying the man became
“confrontational, belligerent and accusatory” when questioned about
inconsistencies in his accounts.
The
man’s “hostility and lack of cooperation are so profound that I am so unwilling
to call him as a witness in any proceeding that I have responsibility to
prosecute,” Cummings wrote.
“Therefore,
no charges will be filed against Joseph Winkle.”
After
the incident involving Winkle, Cummings said, the former police chief left the
tavern.
At
that point, participants in the hair salon after-party “became angry, and
confronted” Winkle’s son, Chase.
“A large angry crowd cornered Chase and his
date in a very threatening manner,” the prosecutor said.
Elam
came to the younger Winkle’s defense by confronting “the loudest and most
outspoken member of the group confronting Chase Winkle,” according to the
special prosecutor.
In
an ensuing “physical struggle” with Elam, that man “sustained minor injuries to
his lip, left ear, left eye and scalp.”
Cummins
said his decision to allow Elam to enter into a diversion program — avoiding
prosecution if he in no way harasses his alleged victim, or otherwise violates
the law, for six months — was based on the officer’s lack of a prior criminal
record and because “his actions were provoked by the alleged victim.”
Muncie
Police Chief Steve Stewart said Friday that Cummings had contacted him and asked
what internal sanctions Elam would likely face over the Silo incident.
Stewart
said Elam’s 10-day suspension — which begins Monday — would have been imposed
even if the special prosecutor had taken no action in the case.
Cummins was appointed to evaluate the
incidents because Delaware County Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold, who had also
attended the earlier FOP party, was at the Silo that night.
