Sheriff confirms FBI investigations swirling around former Vanderburgh County prosecutor's aide

EVANSVILLE — The FBI is auditing Vanderburgh County Community Corrections finances as well as those of My Goals Inc., a nonprofit for at-risk youth started in 2011 by then-Prosecutor Nick Hermann, according to Sheriff Noah Robinson.

The twin investigations follow the firing in March of Regene Newman, the former prosecutor's aide at the center of Courier & Press reporting on questionable expenditures by the now-dissolved My Goals.

Newman was serving at the time of her dismissal as business director of community corrections, which provides therapeutic services such as drug and alcohol treatment, financial literacy classes, electronic monitoring, a GED program and other services for sentenced defendants. She was in charge of the roughly $3 million program's financial affairs, including grants.

Robinson and Superior Court Judge Wayne Trockman, community corrections' supervising judge, said after Newman's termination that they would commission a forensic audit of the agency's finances. They said they didn't anticipate problems given that annual audits by the Indiana Department of Correction had found none.

More: Community corrections fires former prosecutor's aide over nonprofit spending

Last week, Robinson said the FBI is involved.

"We have contemplated hiring an outside audit firm, but the FBI offered to do the audit of community corrections in conjunction with their audit of (My Goals)," the sheriff said.

Robinson's remarks provide the first confirmation of the FBI's involvement in either matter. An FBI spokeswoman had declined to comment on the My Goals matter, saying the federal agency doesn't confirm or deny its investigations.

Trockman said in March that he had no personal 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.

In March, Trockman said he had been "told through other sources that there is an FBI investigation."

Questionable expenses

The Courier & Press reported in March that bank statements for My Goals 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.

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

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

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 Vanderburgh County 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.

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 in March calling the expenditures "unauthorized." Turpin did not return messages from the Courier & Press.

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.

County credit card policies were changed

Newman's use of an official prosecutor's office credit card also came under scrutiny in 2022, when a two-year Courier & Press analysis of spending in Hermann's office revealed she had used a card to purchase such items as a "push-up T-shirt" bra, "goddess foxy tank" and jewelry at women's clothing store Torrid.

Newman's credit card also was used to buy two dozen "gourmet drizzled strawberries" that were sent to her home and other items such as Hershey's syrup, acid-reducing omeprazole tabs, a special edition of People magazine, maraschino cherries, 54 Reese's peanut butter cream Easter eggs, kosher salt, chunky applesauce, chicken salad and chocolate pudding.

More: Prosecutor's office credit cards paid for bra, gourmet strawberries, $10K in staff lunches

The items were purchased for use in the prosecutor's office, Newman said then. The county's attorneys said the purchases didn't appear to violate any criminal statutes, although the Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners passed a new, much stricter ordinance on credit card use as a result of the Courier & Press investigation.

The Courier & Press also reported in 2022 that Newman's use of a prosecutor's office credit card while finance director there had become entangled with her work with My Goals.

In 2020, My Goals used a prosecutor's office credit card to make at least $4,658 in purchases and then reimbursed the money — an arrangement the Indiana State Board of Accounts told the Courier & Press was improper. That coincides roughly with a period from mid-2019 to mid-2020 when the ETFCU bank statements show My Goals' purchases at businesses were dramatically reduced.

More: Courier & Press investigation into credit card use in prosecutor's office leads to policy change

A look back, and a look ahead

Newman's tenure as finance director for the prosecutor's office lasted from the late 1990s until 2021. She served first under Prosecutor Stan Levco and then under Hermann.

In a 2022 examination of spending by then-Hermann's office, the Courier & Press found that the prosecutor's office had given $25,000 in forfeiture money to My Goals. Forfeiture money comes from the seizure of cash, cars, real estate and other assets from suspects.

More: Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nick Hermann gave $25k in public money to nonprofit he runs

Current Prosecutor Diane Moers, who was elected last year, said the FBI's investigations likely will wander into spending done in the prosecutor's office during Newman's tenure there.

"I'm not sure how you separate the two (My Goals and the prosecutor's office)," Moers said. "I haven't discussed any specific accounts with (the FBI), but I expect they're following Regene's spending trail wherever it leads them."

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Sheriff confirms FBI investigations swirling around ex-Vanderburgh County prosecutor's aide