Ahead of trial, Amy Word and her attorney go on the offensive against witnesses, police

EVANSVILLE — Using portions of court documents and defense transcripts, local school board member Amy Word has mounted a furious public defense against allegations that she negligently allowed drugs to be sold at her Franklin Street bar.

Word has been on a temporary, unpaid leave of absence from the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. board of trustees for nearly one year, after police arrested her in July 2022 on a charge of maintaining a common nuisance, a Level 6 felony.

Word pleaded not guilty immediately after her arrest, and on Thursday, the court set a trial date in her case: March 4, 2024. According to Word's defense team, the trial will be held at a yet-to-be-determined location outside Vanderburgh County.

As part of a renewed public defense, Word and her attorney, Bob Canada, have challenged the evidence against her, submitted a flurry of legal filings and deposed Police Chief Billy Bolin - Evansville's highest-ranking law enforcement official - among other witnesses.

Word also took to Facebook between late June and early July to publicly excoriate the police and local news media for associating her with the alleged sale and use of drugs at the Lamasco Bar & Grill she owns.

Word's posts, along with documents and evidence reviewed by Canada, dispute a set of specific allegations put forth by investigators in Word's arrest affidavit and attempt to cast doubt on the credibility of confidential informants who accused the school board member of participating in a drug scene at Lamasco.

The Evansville Police Department declined to respond to Word's claims, as did Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers.

Defense releases portion of expletive-riddled jail phone call Word claims the police misrepresented

EPD Detective Matthew Knight authored the probable cause affidavit accusing Word of maintaining a common nuisance through her ownership of Lamasco. Word also owns the popular restaurant Amy's on Franklin.

Under Indiana law, a common nuisance can constitute any building that is used for illicit purposes, including the manufacture or sale of drugs or drug paraphernalia.

Knight's affidavit, which draws heavily on confidential informants, cites a March 2022 recorded phone call between Word and a Vanderburgh County jail inmate who had been arrested on narcotics charges and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In his sworn affidavit, Knight claimed the inmate, Jourdan Dabbs, warned Word to "get rid of" items in a safe. Word responded with a series of profanities, saying the only thing in a safe was her money and – according to the police rendition of the conversation – someone's "dope."

Detective Knight personally attributed the word “dope” to Word in the document.

But Canada provided the Courier & Press with an audio file he said detailed the portion of the call Knight cited, along with a defense-prepared transcript. Canada, who did not release audio of the entire phone call, claimed the files prove Word never said “dope” during her conversation with Dabbs.

You can listen to the call below.

Canada also claimed Dabbs was not a former Lamasco employee, as stated in Knight's affidavit, but of Sportsman's Grille & Billiards — another Franklin Street bar that was also cited in Evansville police reports as a hub of alleged drug use and dealing.

"This probable cause is sloppy and inaccurate in a lot of places," Canada told the Courier & Press.

Canada said Word was upset while talking to Dabbs because she had recently discovered that a Lamasco manager had embezzled more than $30,000 from the business — a theft that could prove pivotal to Word's defense.

Canada: Potential state witness has reason to lie about Word

Word informed Evansville police of the alleged embezzlement in April 2022, according to an EPD report the Courier & Press obtained via a public records request.

The case's supplemental report lists more than 10 instances when the suspect, a since-fired manager, allegedly absconded with large quantities of money from an Old National Bank account affiliated with Lamasco. Canada said a forensic auditor hired by Word's insurance company quickly identified the culprit.

But by the time Word reported the alleged theft to Evansville police, detectives were already conducting the investigation into narcotics dealing along Franklin Street and at Lamasco Bar & Grill, records show.

Canada makes the bombshell claim that the EPD turned the suspected embezzler into a key witness against Word instead of conducting a proper investigation. Police records state the investigation into the reported theft of Lamasco funds lasted less than two weeks, and no arrests were ever made.

"It's the prosecution's intent to call a confidential informant to testify," Canada said, referencing the former Lamasco employee accused of stealing thousands from Word's business. "She has a motive to lie."

Knight’s affidavit cites at least five confidential informants, but Canada told the Courier & Press that only two such witnesses appeared willing to testify at trial: the accused embezzler and their romantic partner.

The Courier & Press submitted a list of questions to the EPD and afforded the department the opportunity to comment on Word's claims. An EPD spokesperson declined to specifically comment on the matter.

"At this time, with this being an active litigation, we cannot provide any comments about the investigation or allegations," Sgt. Anna Gray wrote in a brief statement. "Once this has run its course through the legal system, we would be happy to provide a statement and answer any questions."

Word claims prosecutors failed to locate damaging photos and videos cited by the police

In the probable cause affidavit Knight wrote, he claimed an investigation into alleged drug dealing at Lamasco began sometime prior to 2019.

That initial investigation led police to conclude a Lamasco employee could have been “involved” in an overdose case and “frequently sold heroin, marijuana, cocaine, and pills at both Sportsman’s Grille & Billiards and Lamasco Bar on West Franklin Street.”

The Evansville-Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force compiled anonymous tips and information from “credible and reliable sources" over a span of at least two years, Knight wrote, that allegedly named other Lamasco employees as being involved in the drug trade.

In Word’s arrest affidavit, Knight went on to claim that Word personally used drugs and had direct knowledge of drug dealing activities inside Lamasco Bar & Grill. Knight's and the EPD's claims have been included in news articles, including in the Courier & Press.

To support the claim, Knight wrote that videos cited by confidential informants showed Word using cocaine. He also said it had become a common practice among Lamasco employees to take damaging photos and videos of Word as potential blackmail material.

And yet, nearly one year after Word's defense first filed a motion to obtain the evidence investigators had against her, Canada said prosecutors have failed to turn over a single photo or video that shows Word using drugs of any kind.

"We requested that: the photographs and videos," Canada said, referencing his efforts to obtain the photos and videos mentioned by the police. "We were told they don't exist."

In a July 6 filing, Canada again pressed the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office to locate and provide the photos and videos to Word's defense team.

"The confidential informant alleged that they possessed photographs and videos of Ms. Word using cocaine," Canada wrote in the filing. "The prosecution has produced no such photographs or videos."

A close reading of Knight's affidavit shows that the EPD did not directly claim to possess the videos in question, nor did it directly claim the confidential informants it cited possessed them, either. Knight said informants only "mentioned" the video of Word using cocaine.

According to Canada, if prosecutors are unable to actually produce the videos or photos, Knight would likely be barred from testifying about them at trial.

Word's claims that police improperly leaked materials to the media disputed by attorney

On June 25, Word took to Facebook to address another aspect of her ongoing case: media coverage.

"I was booked and jailed for maintaining a common nuisance nearly 2 hours prior to the search warrant of Lamasco was (sic) signed and executed by a judge," Word wrote in the lengthy post. "NOT ONE SINGLE DRUG, TRACE OF A DRUG, RESIDUE OF A DRUG in my building."

In the June 25 post, Word accused Bolin of releasing “a nearly 2-inch stack” of documents “directly to the media” before a warrant to search Lamasco Bar & Grill had ever been signed.

“We FOIA'd what was released to the media,” Word wrote, referencing the Freedom of Information Act, which allows members of the public to access government records. Word also claimed the EPD misconstrued evidence it “handpicked and delivered” to reporters.

The Courier & Press obtained documents pertaining to Word’s arrest and court case through Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act, which grants the public and reporters the right to obtain public documents, and through the Vanderburgh County Clerk of Courts and law enforcement records offices.

Aside from standard court and police records, the EPD published one news release hours after Word's arrest detailing its joint investigation into Franklin Street narcotics dealing.

Canada showed the stack of documents Word cited in her post to the Courier & Press, but he acknowledged that the records were public in nature and said they were not forwarded to reporters by Bolin directly.

"We did a (public records) request for what was sent out before her release from jail, and we got this stack of documents," Canada said. "She believed that came directly from [Bolin]... That's probably inaccurate, and that's just a misunderstanding."

Word claims her use of WhatsApp misrepresented by detective

Another claim Knight cited in his affidavit has drawn Word's public ire for months: That Word used a so-called "encrypted phone application" to communicate with Demario Holman, the man police accused of being a "main supplier" of drugs at Lamasco Bar & Grill and other Franklin Street establishments.

Word and her attorney claim the only encrypted messaging application on Word's phone is WhatsApp — software developed by Meta which has been downloaded more than 3 billion times globally.

Canada claimed Word's use of WhatsApp was made to look incriminating even though she used it for standard text messaging purposes. On June 28, Word publicly posted what Canada said is a partial transcript of Knight's deposition.

According to Word's post, Knight framed WhatsApp in a sinister light.

"It's the same thing as sending something over, like, the Dark Web," the partial transcript reads.

Canada declined to provide the full transcript to the Courier & Press.

According to Meta, WhatsApp is, by definition, an encrypted messaging application. But so is Apple's iMessage and Google's updated Android messenger. All three use cryptography to seal the contents of messages, making them only visible to the sender and the recipient.

The partial transcript Word posted appears to state that Knight, and the Vanderburgh County Cybercrime Task Force, were unable to decrypt the messages Word sent via WhatsApp.

Word's team has deposed Bolin and is seeking massive review of Lamasco surveillance footage

Bolin's counsel filed a motion to quash Word's deposition subpoena, but Vanderburgh County Judge David Kiely ruled that Bolin, and the detective responsible for investigating the alleged Lamasco embezzlement, VanCleave, could be deposed.

As of Thursday, Canada said he had already deposed Bolin.

According to a July 6 filing, Canada sought to question Bolin about a flashy EPD recruitment video the department filmed inside Lamasco Bar & Grill several years prior to its 2022 raid on the establishment.

“The fact that the chief of police picked Lamasco is an endorsement of Ms. Word’s and the bar’s reputation in the community,” Canada wrote in his explanation as to why Bolin’s testimony could prove relevant to Word’s defense.

According to court records, Word's team was also pushing the court to appoint a "special master" to review 90 days of surveillance footage captured inside Lamasco Bar & Grill. A special master is an outside party who can be tasked with reviewing evidence in an unbiased fashion.

But, Word's defense team is no longer seeking such an appointment.

"I withdrew the request for the special master because the prosecutor said that his witnesses will testify that, by the time of trial, they have viewed the video and it either does or does not contain drug use," Canada said.

In a recent court filing, Canada stated that if the footage failed to depict drug use and dealing inside Lamasco, it would "provide very damning impeachment" of witness testimony. But, if the footage does show drug use inside Word's bar, Canada said it could prove "incriminating" for Word.

Prosecutors will have more than six months to review the footage ahead of Word's March 2024 jury trial. Shortly after Word's initial arrest, she petitioned the court to move proceedings out of Vanderburgh County due to media coverage of the case.

According to Canada, the court has yet to determine where Word's trial will be held.

Houston Harwood can be contacted at houston.harwood@courierpress.com

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Amy Word releases documents about Lamasco investigation and the EPD