Accusations of lying, exaggerations mark contentious race for Vanderburgh prosecutor

EVANSVILLE — Stinging barbs and accusations of lying in the race for Vanderburgh County prosecutor highlight vast differences between the two contenders to succeed Nick Hermann in November's election.

Republican Diana Moers and Democrat Jon Schaefer's essential arguments to voters are neatly encapsulatedin one of their frequent exchanges of zingers.

Moers, an Evansville-based section chief in the Indiana Attorney General's Office, says Schaefer, chief counsel for the Vanderburgh County Public Defender's Agency, "has never been outside the Vanderburgh County courthouse." She insists Schaefer is fixated on trying cases and has no appreciation for the administrative and executive burden of running an office that employs some 70 people. Schaefer, a local public defender for nearly 13 years, says Moers hasn't been inside the courthouse — insisting she doesn't know the local justice system because she has never worked in it.

Vanderburgh prosecutor race:Candidates are split on a controversial practice that could soon end in Indiana

In recent days Schaefer and Moers also have accused each other of puffing up their own credentials in a bid to look more capable and experienced than they are. Schaefer claims Moers has exaggerated the number of trials she has conducted, while Moers says Schaefer has claimed to be the public defender's agency's chief counsel — its second-in-command — for years longer than he actually has been in the position.

In this increasingly contentious campaign for the county's top law enforcement position, Moers and Schaefer may agree on just one thing: Hermann had to go. But Hermann won't be on the Nov. 8 general election ballot — the first time that's happened in 20 years. He lost to Moers in a May 3 GOP primary election.

So the campaign for the position, which pays $164,950 annually, is wide open. The implications are vast.

The Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office prosecutes local felony and misdemeanor criminal cases, conducts investigations, supervises grand jury proceedings, enforces child support orders, handles juvenile prosecutions and assists crime victims. It has an anticipated 2023 county general fund budget of nearly $2.8 million, plus at least half again as much money from grants, user fees and forfeitures.

'I wouldn't believe that'

Moers, 40, is the Evansville-based chief of the government litigation section in the Indiana Attorney General's Office. She defends state agencies and officials in civil rights cases. She calls the AG's Office "the largest law firm in the state."

In a 15-year legal career, Moers has worked as an assistant public defender in Ann Arbor, Michigan; an attorney in a Wheeling, Illinois, law firm; and as an assistant prosecutor in Joliet, Illinois. In 2010 she began working in Indiana state government, prosecuting violations of the Indiana Securities and Loan Broker Acts and serving as executive director of the Indiana Board for Depositories. She also worked in an Indianapolis law firm.

When Moers said in a recent forum she had conducted "thousands of bench trials," she corrected the record almost immediately afterward to say hundreds. But Schaefer pointed to court records showing Moers has registered her appearance in just three jury trials which she ultimately did not participate in and one bench trial that she lost — in Indiana state courts.

Moers didn't dispute those numbers, saying she independently conducted 20 jury trials and hundreds of bench trials as a prosecutor with the Will County State's Attorney's Office in Joliet from April 2008 to August 2010. That's consistent with what her resume has said throughout the campaign.

2022 elections:Who's on the ballot in the Evansville area? A guide to Indiana's general election

Hundreds of bench trials? Schaefer, 44, says he won't believe that until he sees it.

"She’s already made it sound like she’s done hundreds of trials in Indiana. And apparently, she’s not done any – except for the one bench trial she lost," he said. "She’s already misrepresented her record by not saying, ‘All my trial work has been in Illinois.’ So I’m going to take everything she says with some skepticism."

Moers said she doesn't have a list of the cases she tried in Illinois. And neither does Schaefer, who said he tried to obtain that information.

More:With Nick Hermann out of the picture, Vanderburgh County prosecutor candidates spar

A spokesman for Illinois' state court system told the Courier & Press he knows of no statewide database for attorney appearances in that state. He offered a link to a case management vendor for a large number of Illinois’ 102 counties, but its data did not include Will County, where Moers practiced. The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission shows Moers was admitted to practice law in that state in 2007.

There's a simple explanation, Moers said. New prosecutors in Will County's high-volume courthouse take on traffic and drunken driving cases, she said, and bench trials for those can be relatively brief. They don't take up nearly as much time as the 20 jury trials she conducted in cases involving offenses such as child abuse and domestic violence, she said.

It was possible to knock out as many as three or four of the traffic-related bench trials in a single day, Moers said. And when you're doing that for more than two years, as she did, piling up hundreds of them isn't hard. You still have to demonstrate trial skills such as getting evidence admitted, she said.

Candidates tangle over trooper's wrongful death case

Moers said it was "extremely offensive" when Schaefer questioned whether she actually participated in a federal jury trial that she often cites on the campaign trail.

As a section chief in the attorney general's office, Moers tells voters, she successfully defended Indiana State Trooper Michael Allen in 2020 against an accusation that he used excessive force in a man's death in French Lick.

The case is on her resume, which says she "successfully defended an Indiana State Trooper at jury trial in Federal Court." Moers cited the case last week before an audience sure to appreciate her defense of a law enforcement officer: the local Fraternal Order of Police.

"I had the honor of defending a state trooper who was involved in a police-action shooting that ended in a death," she told the FOP. "It was a wrongful death case brought by the decedent, and we took that to trial. We saved the state millions of dollars, but we were able to successfully defend the trooper."

Moers is named in the civil docket in the case as one of four lawyers from the Attorney General's Office representing Allen. She said she actively participated in the case, presenting witnesses and making filings.

"If (Schaefer) can't read a docket, that's either very sad or disingenuous," she said. "I went to Chicago to interview (the other side's) expert. I put on an expert witness at trial on police practices. I got every piece of physical evidence in at trial. I also flew to Arizona to interview (a) taser engineer."

More:Vanderburgh prosecutor: Diana Moers upsets incumbent Nick Hermann in GOP primary

But Schaefer pointed to a section of the docket naming two other attorneys in the AG's Office as appearing in court with Allen when the trial began.

"Defendant Michael Allen appears in person and by Counsels Scott Barnhart and Cory Voight," the docket states. "Stating they are ready to proceed, the trial of this cause is commenced."

Moers did file pre-trial motions and does appear to have participated in the case's investigative stage, Schaefer said.

"Perhaps she supervises (Barnhart and Voight) and she was with them during the pre-trial stage, but they would have been the ones doing the actual trial," Schaefer said. "The fact that she's not listed as being there during the trial, the only way she can justify that is by saying, 'I defended the guy because I supervised the attorneys who defended the guy.'"

After initial publication of this story, Barnhart and Voight wrote to the Courier & Press to say that Moers "was present throughout the entire, multi-day trial and participated in multiple ways."

"Diana was a significant and valuable member of the trial team that ultimately prevailed," the two attorneys wrote.

Moers insisted she was "very much there."

"Sometimes the court clerk will just put (enter the names of) two of the first attorneys on the case," she said.

'A projection of his own insecurities'

There's a flip side to this coin, Moers said.

Schaefer's own resume states he has been chief counsel at the public defender's agency since January 2018. In the eight years previous to that, he was a deputy public defender. But in a campaign mailer that dropped over the weekend, Schaefer states that he has handled more than 2,000 cases "in my 12 years as Chief Counsel of the Vanderburgh County Public Defender's Agency."

For that to be true, Moers said, Schaefer would have to have been installed as the public defender's agency's second-in-command immediately after interviewing for a job as a new attorney "since it's the only place he's ever worked."

That's not technically true. Schaefer claims experience as a probation officer in Montgomery County in 2001 and 2002 and as a community college criminology professor. But Moers says her larger point is that Schaefer's own experience is thinner than hers and his vision narrower. He's compensating, Moers said.

"I view his questioning of my experience as a projection of his own insecurities," Moers said.

Schaefer counters by calling the mailer mistake an oversight and by producing a raft of numbers: He provided a list of 1,922 individuals he has defended, taking 41 of the cases to jury trial. He says he didn't include the 77 open cases he has now and people he has defended against petitions to revoke probation and work release. He did include them on the mailer, hence his claim to have handled 2,000-plus cases.

All of this was in Vanderburgh County courts, Schaefer said — where, he said, he has vastly more experience than Moers.

Others are reading:Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office linked to firm of lawyer who wasn't charged for DUI

But Moers said there's only one number that matters — and it's zero. That's the number of cases Schaefer has actually prosecuted. Schaefer's singular focus on trial data is misplaced at any rate, she said.

"My opponent is concerned with the number of trials he’s done versus me because that’s all he’s interested in doing as the elected prosecutor," she said. "I’ve managed attorneys, and he has not. I’ve managed and crafted large organizational budgets, and he has not."

Schaefer sees that, too, through an entirely different lens.

Lawyers should do lawyer work, he says. Speaking to the FOP last week, he likened himself to William Wallace, the Scottish freedom fighter hero of Mel Gibson's film, "Braveheart." In the movie, Schaefer said, Wallace's men respected him because he fought on the frontlines right alongside them. That's what he'll do as prosecutor, he said.

Let administrators and accountants handle the administrative burden, Schaefer said.

"I can't send somebody with an accounting degree into court and have them practice law – but I can have someone with an accounting degree work on the prosecutor’s budget," he said.

The Nov. 8 election is six weeks away. Early voting in Vanderburgh County begins on Oct. 12 at Old National Events Plaza.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Vanderburgh County prosecutor race filled with accusations