Guilty as charged
Lohmiller sentencing June 14
By Debbie Lowe Staff writer

After deliberating less than three hours May 15, the jury in the Rebecca Lohmiller criminal case in Carroll Circuit Court found the defendant guilty on six C-felony counts of forgery and 21 B-misdemeanor counts of practicing nursing without a license.

A C-felony carries the penalty of between two to eight years and each B-misdemeanor carries a sentence up to six months.

The drama was enhanced when defense attorney Anne Briggs filed a last-minute motion for a mistrial while the jury was deliberating. Special Judge Linley Pearson denied the motion after the jury re-entered the courtroom and prior to reading the verdict.

Juror Darrin Brown said jurors took the time in deliberation to ensure there was no doubt in anyone's mind about the verdict before giving the results to the judge.

"We all thought we needed to talk about it to make sure there was no doubt in our minds," he concluded.

It has been almost two years since charges were filed against Lohmiller, the former county employee who held the position of county health nurse, both part-time and fulltime, from November 1999 until Oct. 1, 2004. On Aug. 3, 2005, then county prosecutor Rob Ives charged the defendant. The county has a new prosecutor with Tricia Thompson, but the facts of the case remained the same.

Trial began Monday, presided over by Pearson. Judge Donald Currie was unable to hear the case due to a conflict involving his former position as deputy prosecutor for the county.

After the 12-member jury selection in the morning, testimony was heard in the afternoon and again on Tuesday for much of the day.

Witnesses for the state on Monday included health department secretary Mary Jones and current health nurse Brenda Coble. Also called to testify were commissioner Bill Brown, attorney Barry Emerson, Dr. T. Neal Petry, who was Lohmiller's supervisor, auditor Beth Myers, then Sheriff's Dept. Sgt. Tony Burns and county deputy John Chapman.

Lohmiller took the stand Tuesday. According to Thompson in her closing arguments, Lohmiller admitted on the stand that she never possessed a nursing license in Indiana. Thompson said the defendant said she told supervisor Petry that she was not qualified for the nursing position when she was hired.

"This is a simple case," Thompson said. "It boils down to, did she have the authority to use RN after her name?" she asked the jury. "She made herself look like something she was not by putting RN after her name."

"She made a choice not to get a license here," Thompson concluded.

But Briggs presented a different take on the situation during closing arguments.

"You have the right to determine the law and the facts according to the Indiana Constitution," she told jury members. "You don't have to find her guilty regardless of what the (court's) instructions say."

"We're not saying she didn't write her name with RN because she did - that's her identity," Briggs continued. "Maybe it was wrong for her to do it (sign her name with RN after it), but she wasn't concealing anything."

Briggs stated that Lohmiller had a nursing license in Georgia, but because of her participation in a witness protection program and the fear of her identity being discovered, she did not apply for an Indiana license.

"This is an important statement by the jury as representatives of the community that the community took the defendant's actions seriously," Thompson said after the verdict and the courtroom cleared. "I know there are a lot of people in the county who have been waiting to see this resolved and I hope this brings some closure for the county."

However, there are others in the county who said the verdict should serve as a learning experience.

"We need to be more cautious about whom we hire," commissioners' president Loren Hylton told the Comet Wednesday morning. "We need to overall assess what we've been doing."

Hylton said it was the responsibility of the department head to check credentials of new hires.

"I don't believe all county employees have job descriptions," he added. "And if they do, they may not be current ones."

Hylton said he would lead fellow commissioners to review the hiring policy to provide leadership in personnel matters. He also indicated a request for restitution from Lohmiller would be under consideration by the commissioners.

Juror Brown agreed with Hylton about the need for the county to improve its personnel management.

"It would be best for the county to look at this experience as a learning tool to make things better in county personnel matters," he concluded.