About the only piece of evidence the prosecution didn’t have in the murder case against 20-year-old Patrick Fluker was an eyewitness testifying that he was seen shooting 29-year-old Tiffany Mendez in the head.FORT WAYNE – Allen County prosecutors are asking a judge to revoke the bond of former Indiana University basketball player and radio commentator Todd Leary after he was arrested in Hamilton County on charges of burglary.
In July, Leary, 39, pleaded guilty to an Allen County charge of conversion or misappropriation of title insurance escrow funds and is scheduled for sentencing in October. After his initial arrest in February at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, where he was scheduled to call the IU-Purdue basketball game as an analyst for the IU Radio Network, Leary was released on $60,000 bail.
But this week, Hamilton County prosecutors filed multiple charges against Leary alleging his involvement in a scheme to steal appliances from foreclosed homes in the Fishers area.
Those charges include two counts of burglary and three counts of theft. One of the burglary charges is a Class B felony punishable by more than six years in prison.
Leary played for coach Bob Knight’s Hoosiers from 1990 to 1994; the team advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1992.
In Allen County, Leary was initially accused of conspiring with Joseph Garretson, a local mortgage broker and title company owner who was sentenced in June to 11 1/2 years in prison on charges of corrupt business influence, conversion or misappropriation of title insurance escrow funds and unlawful loan origination activities.
Garretson admitted to arranging mortgage refinancing loans for area clients and failing to use the money to pay off the original loans. Through his attorney, Garretson told investigators Leary pressured him on numerous occasions for money, threatening to disclose Garretson’s financial misdeeds, according to court documents.
Between March 11, 2008, and Feb. 12, 2009, according to court documents, more than $1 million in wire transfers went from a Fort Wayne Title bank account into a National City Bank account opened by Leary. Between March 2008 and March 2009, Leary withdrew $690,000 from the account, according to court documents.
Originally charged with 17 felonies, Leary pleaded guilty to only one, as part of an agreement with prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to a charge related to about $295,000 he received from Garretson to cover money Leary appropriated from Legends Title of Indianapolis.
He faces no more than three years in prison on the mortgage financing case.
But the new charges allege that while Leary was out on bond for the Allen County case, he hired two men, Eric and Greg Campbell, to steal appliances from vacant homes in foreclosure.
Leary told investigators he was hired by Thomas Dakich to go into the homes to make sure they were still in good condition as the foreclosure or sales were final, according to court documents.
An Indianapolis attorney, Dakich is a law partner with Ginny Maxwell, Leary’s defense attorney in the Allen County case.
The Campbell brothers, who are also charged in connection with the case, told investigators they met Leary through someone named “Big Al.” “Big Al” paid Leary for leads on the homes, then paid the Campbells. Leary would use his keys to enter the houses, court documents said.
Officials at the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office said Leary was arrested Wednesday and had an initial video appearance Thursday in Hamilton Superior Court.
Allen County prosecutors filed paperwork Thursday in Superior Court to have Leary’s bond revoked in the mortgage escrow case.
