Community corrections fires former prosecutor's aide over nonprofit spending

EVANSVILLE — Regene Newman, the former Vanderburgh County prosecutor's aide at the center of Courier & Press reporting on questionable expenditures by a nonprofit for at-risk youth, has been fired from her local government job.

Newman was terminated as business director of Vanderburgh County Community Corrections on Thursday, Superior Court Judge Wayne Trockman said, by him and Sheriff Noah Robinson in consultation with program director James Akin.

Community corrections provides therapeutic services such as drug and alcohol treatment, financial literacy classes, electronic monitoring, a GED program and other services for sentenced defendants. Newman was in charge of the roughly $3 million program's financial affairs, including grants, said Trockman, its supervising judge.

The program will immediately commission a forensic audit of its finances, although Trockman and Robinson said they don't expect to find problems given that annual audits by the Indiana Department of Correction have found none.

More:Records: Hermann's nonprofit spent cash at beauty shops, fast food joints, clothing stores

The decision to terminate Newman was a difficult one for Trockman, who hired her away from her job as finance director for the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office in 2021.

It was done, the judge said, "based upon everything that we’ve learned."

"Quite frankly, I don’t know much more, I think, than the community knows," Trockman said. "And much of that, some of that, is based upon (Courier & Press) reporting. But it all caused us to lose our confidence in (Newman) to do the job."

Trockman 'told through other sources' FBI is involved

The Courier & Press reported this week that bank statements for My Goals Inc., a nonprofit for at-risk youth started in 2011 by then-Prosecutor Nick Hermann, showed more than $14,000 in 71 ATM and bank withdrawals and thousands of dollars in purchases at fast food restaurants, women's clothing stores, hair salons and beauty retailers, convenience stores, pharmacies and supermarkets and in out-of-town shopping sprees.

Other questionable expenses included Liquor Liquor, $89.86; Premiere Tan in Darmstadt, $71.33; and purchases at DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse in Evansville and high-end Kate Spade Outlet in Edinburgh, Indiana.

Spanning March 2016 through March 2021, the Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union checking account statements coincide with a period during which Newman was finance director for the prosecutor's office. She was also My Goals' registered agent and secretary and a signer with Hermann to open the account at ETFCU, now Liberty Federal Credit Union.

More:Here's how Vanderburgh prosecutors zeroed in on My Goals nonprofit spending

It's impossible to tell from the ETFCU bank statements who made the purchases. Three people were listed as authorized users on the account: Hermann, Newman and then-Evansville Police Department Detective Brian Turpin. Hermann issued a statement Friday calling the expenditures "unauthorized." Turpin did not return messages.

After Newman's departure, My Goals made no large cash withdrawals and expenditures on women's clothing stores, beauty retailers, out-of-town shopping sprees and other questionable expenditures. It did make three large charitable donations.

Trockman said he has no specific knowledge of an FBI investigation into My Goals' spending that Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin said his agency may have triggered. Bolin told the Courier & Press that last year, then-Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kevin McDaniel asked EPD for guidance about suspected misuse of funds held by My Goals, and a police investigator steered McDaniel to the FBI.

Trockman said he has been "told through other sources that there is an FBI investigation, but I have no personal knowledge of it."

Robinson said Newman's termination was "a necessary decision."

"Regene had lost our confidence," the sheriff said. "We can't have somebody in an important position like that with their hands on the very core of the organization if we don't have confidence in her. It made the decision, I'm not going to say easy, but it made the decision clear."

Newman could not be reached for comment.

Did Newman work for county or state?

Before Newman's termination was disclosed Thursday, the Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners' attorney argued that she was not a county employee.

Newman's paycheck may be processed by the county auditor's office and Community Corrections may be housed in the sheriff's campus complex, said attorney David Jones — but Newman is a state employee.

"Community Corrections is authorized under state statute," Jones said. "It’s overseen by the courts."

Jones likened Newman to other employees who works in judicial offices in county government spaces.

"The connection with the county – just like the prosecutor," he said. "The prosecutor is a judicial office. The (county) commissioners do not hire, fire, discipline, set any standards over any employees of the courts or the prosecutor."

But County Auditor Brian Gerth said earlier Thursday that Newman worked for the county.

"She’s not a state employee," Gerth said.

Gerth's office produced a list of 19 judicial employees — judges, magistrates and Prosecutor Diana Moers and her chief deputy — that it said are paid by the state with salaries set by the state. Newman's name wasn't on it.

Newman was a county employee, Gerth said.

That assertion is supported by Indiana Gateway for Local Government, a public access portal jointly maintained by Indiana University and the state. Gateway listed Newman's "unit" as Vanderburgh County — and Trockman's as "State of Indiana."

The Indiana Transparency Portal, a state government searchable database of state employees, did not include Newman.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Community corrections fires Regene Newman after Courier & Press report