Ex-trustee Taletha Coles gets 180 days in jail as part of 4-year sentence

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Former Fairfield Township Trustee Taletha Coles became a convicted felon at 9:49 a.m. Monday when Tippecanoe Superior 1 Judge Randy Williams accepted Coles' guilty pleas for two felony charges of official misconduct, one felony charge of conflict of interest and a misdemeanor charge of tax exemption fraud.

That hour and minute marked an end to more than three years of allegations and denials sewed by Coles' mishandling of taxpayer money that might be as high as $138,000, based on a report from the Indiana State Board of Accounts.

“Of the 1,387 days she spent in office, she’s admitted to criminally spending $42,000 of taxpayers’ money,” Tippecanoe County Deputy Prosecutor Natasha Corbett said before sentencing.

By the end of Monday morning's hearing, Williams sentenced Coles to serve 180 days in the Tippecanoe County Jail, followed by 180 days on community corrections. Williams recommended Coles be put on in-home detention, but he allowed community correction to make the final placement decision.

When she is released from community corrections, Coles will serve one year on supervised probation, followed by two years of unsupervised probation, according to Williams' sentencing order.

Additionally, Coles will have to pay $42,380.18 in restitution to Fairfield Township taxpayers, and that restitution will be a minimum of 20 percent of Coles' bi-weekly paychecks, according to Williams' order.

Coles is ordered to report to the Tippecanoe County Jail at 9 a.m. Feb. 1 to begin serving her sentence.

She may appeal her sentence, but she cannot appeal her convictions since she pleaded guilty to four of the 42 charges on which she was indicted.

Coles briefly spoke to the court when given an opportunity.

"I'm very sorry, your honor," Coles said.

"Don't tell me," Williams responded.

"I'm sorry to my constituents," she said without turning to the township officials and former workers in the courtroom. "Sorry for everything that happened. There was a lot happening."

Before Williams accepted Coles' guilty pleas and enter the convictions, the record of her Nov. 9 guilty pleads had to be tidied up.

In Coles' letters filed with the court before her sentencing, she cast doubt on her guilt because she blamed other people for her crimes and/or presented in her mind explanations for her actions that might be interpreted as legal defenses for what she did.

“The statements made, the references to … so much of that which occurred, blame shifting. Inappropriate. But I recognized at the same time probably why it’s being done,” Williams said.

In Indiana, defendants who plead guilty must admit the crimes and their responsibility in the crimes.

Coles' defense of her actions in her letters caused Williams to backtrack and create an airtight record of Coles' admitting her guilt.

After that was done, the hearing moved onto the victim impact statements.

Perry Schnarr, a Fairfield Township board member, testified during the hearing.

“I cannot forgive you for what you did," Schnarr said. "For the rest of my life, this will be in my heart — what you did to me, and Tippecanoe County and Fairfield Township and the citizens of Fairfield.

“For the life of me, I can’t think of any one person wanting to be that hateful to everybody, especially the board members and all your office employees. You treated us like we were your servants," he said.

Several times during Schnarr's and former township employee Trisha Fogleman's victim impact statements, Coles leaned towards her attorney and whispered something. In response, Coles' attorney raised her hand slightly as if to calm down Coles' reaction.

As Williams began to explain his sentencing and it became clear that she was going to spend time in jail, Coles began to dab her eyes.

“There is an obligation on the part of elected officials to do that which they were elected for,” Williams admonished.

The three felony convictions mean that Coles can never again hold public office, as she did between Jan. 1, 2019 and Oct. 19, 2022, when she resigned in disgrace as the trustee of the township that encompasses most of Lafayette.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette ex-trustee Taletha Coles sentenced to 180 days in jail