This and that while waiting on the thaw
West Lafayette looks to buy Grant St. house tangled in code violation cases. Hulu releases trailer on Barnett saga drama. Farewell to public access counselor Luke Britt. A roundup from the Statehouse
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Rounding up a few things on a Friday …
WEST LAFAYETTE LOOKS TO BUY HOME HUNG UP IN CODE VIOLATION CASE, CONVERT IT TO OWNER-OCCUPIED PROPERTY: West Lafayette hired a pair of appraisers Wednesday to put a value on a home on Grant Street, as the city looks to buy the property and convert it into an owner-occupied home. The proposed purchase would be a first through the West Lafayette Enrichment Foundation, an organization initially set up nearly a decade ago to handle aspects of the city’s purchase of the Caretaker’s Cottage at the Grandview Cemetery on Salisbury Street.
The city has a purchase agreement with Edward Bowden, the owner of 810 Grant St., that hinges on the average of two appraisals. The West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission on Wednesday approved fees for two appraisers and funding for the purchase of the property, up to $350,000.
Chad Spitznagle, the city’s housing director, said the deal comes after years of code violations filed with the West Lafayette City Court for the house, which is a block south of West Lafayette High School. Court records show a series of cases in recent years against Bowden in connection with violations for trash accumulation, rental code violations and unsafe conditions. The most recent case, filed in 2023, carried a $12,250 judgment ordered by the judge in May 2024, contingent on the house selling, according to online court records. A year later, that contingency on selling the house wound back to the city. Court records show the judgment was at $76,000 in December, before Bowden entered a purchase agreement with the city in January.
Spitznagle said the house is without utilities, full of clutter that make it difficult to move through the basement and is a suspected site for squatters.
Spitznagle said that if the purchase agreement goes through, the city is still mulling options for what’s next, whether that means reselling it, rehabbing it or razing it. He said the first thing would be to clear it out and assess it structurally. Larry Oates, West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission president, said the plan is to work with the West Lafayette Enrichment Foundation to attach deed restrictions that would make that property owner-occupied in the future.
HULU’S TRAILER FOR ‘GOOD AMERICAN FAMILY,’ THE BARNETT STORY: Are you ready for this version of the Barnett family saga that played out in large part in Lafayette? Hulu set March 19 as the release date of the first episode of “Good American Family,” a dramatized account of the story of Kristine and Michael Barnett and their adopted daughter Natalia Grace.
By now, you know the story that starts in Hamilton County and rolls through the Tippecanoe County court system after the Barnetts legally changed Natalia’s birth date to make her an adult and then rented her an apartment in Lafayette before the family moved to Canada to tend to another son’s academics. Here’s Hulu’s promo description:
“Told from multiple points of view, as a means to explore issues of perspective, bias, and trauma, this compelling drama is inspired by the disturbing stories surrounding a Midwestern couple who adopts a girl with a rare form of dwarfism. But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, mystery emerges around her age and background, and they slowly start to suspect she may not be who she says she is. As they defend their family from the daughter they’ve grown to believe is a threat, she fights her own battle to confront her past and what her future holds, in a showdown that ultimately plays out in the tabloids and the courtroom.”
Hulu released a trailer for the drama, starring Ellen Pompeo (of “Grey’s Anatomy” fame) as Kristine Barnett, Mark Duplass as Michael Barnett and Imogen Faith Reid as Natalia, this week:
For those catching up with the real life versions, as they played out in court …
Here’s how the trial version came out in 2023, when a jury found Michael Barnett not guilty of the remaining charges of neglect. (Remaining charges against Kristine Barnett were dropped after that.)
And here’s what the Tippecanoe County prosecutor outlined, just ahead of the release of Discovery ID’s “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace” series, from evidence that was blocked during Michael Barnett’s trial:
RABBLE ROUSED, PUBLIC ACCESS COUNSELOR SIGNING OFF: WFYI’s Rachel Fradette reported that Luke Britt, Indiana’s public access counselor for the past 12 years, is leaving the position to take a job as general counsel and public information officer for Marion County Courts. First appointed by then Gov. Mike Pence, Britt was behind more than 2,000 advisory opinions, offering interpretations in public access and open meeting questions. In 2024, Britt got caught up in the ire of some Republicans in the General Assembly, who had a beef with his tendency to lean into the job’s priority stated in Indiana’s public access laws: “When confronted with a question of interpretation, the law should be liberally construed in favor of openness." A new law, passed that year, reined him into strict interpretations of public access laws. Britt told WFYI: “I'd always said that if I found that my voice was getting ineffective, it was time to leave. And that might have been my sign with that legislation.” The WFYI report has more from Britt and about his time in the position: “Indiana's public records expert steps down as new law shapes office's future.”
One thing lost with Britt out of the Statehouse will be the way his advisory nonbinding opinions were written. Outside Indiana Supreme Court Justice Loretta Rush’s written opinions, Britt’s typically were among the best, as entertaining as they were compelling, even when they didn’t go your way.
Just one local example: In 2018, Britt was asked to step into the fray in Dayton, as leaders in the tiny town just east of Lafayette picked sides over a “Keep Dayton Small” effort. According to a complaint to the public access counselor, the question revolved around security footage from a gas station on the edge of town that had been collected by the town marshal in an investigation into who – on Halloween night 2017 – changed the signs at the entrance to town from Dayton to troll one side of the annexation debate. The town marshal wouldn’t make the security footage available through a public records request, saying it was part of an investigation and that the images were captured from a distance and were poor at best. The claim was that the marshal was just trying to cover up who it was to protect the vandals-slash-instigators.
Britt’s advisory opinion landed on the side of the marshal, writing that “it stands to reason that the alteration of the signs was initially investigated as the crime of vandalism. It matters not if the Halloween caper was eventually dismissed as an impish stunt, the shadow of a potential crime hung over the investigation.” The upshot: Police have a wide berth in state public access law to keep things under wraps by saying they’re investigative.
More, though, was how Britt cut to the heart of what was happening in town, writing: “The situation in the town of Dayton is well known to this office. While the petty actions of some tricksters on Halloween night may seem innocuous to the outsider, it stands to reason some rabble may be roused by the release of the video in terms of potential retaliation. If, in the best judgment of law enforcement officials, this is truly a public safety threat, then the withholding of the video is neither arbitrary nor capricious.”
The rabble were roused at the Statehouse, too, a year ago with more than just potential retaliation. The fact that lawmakers felt they needed limit and eventually push Britt out, neutering the public access counselor position in the process, is a real loss for Indiana.
IU PRESIDENT’S CONTRACT EXTENDED: Indiana University President Pamela Whitten received an extended contract – into 2031 – and a raise in her base salary – from $750,000 to $900,000 – on an 8-1 vote by IU’s trustees Thursday, Ethan Sandweiss of WFIU reported. The vote came with advance public notice, according to the report, from trustees who have backed Whitten despite restlessness about her leadership from other corners of the Bloomington campus and the IU system. The lone no vote came from trustee Vivian Winston. From the WFYI report, Winston said: “There are still some significant issues that have not been addressed. … The 93% vote of no confidence, the unprecedented 85% vote from eight individual schools, plus the South Bend campus for her to either resign or be terminated immediately, and the culture of fear, particularly, I see that on the Bloomington campus. Reappointment of a university president should be done with transparency and only after getting input from a variety of stakeholders.” Here’s more, via WFIU: “Trustees extend Whitten’s contract with no advance notice.”
FROM THE STATEHOUSE …
Thursday was the deadline to clear bills and move them from House to the Senate, and vice versa. Here’s some of the key legislation that lived and died (for now).
Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Leslie Bonilla Muñiz had the apparent death of bills that would have cut early in-person voting days from 28 to 14 and closing primary elections to voters who hadn’t registered with one of the major parties. Here’s the story: “Senate kills early voting cuts, closed primary bills — and backtracks on municipal election changes.”
This was getting some national attention, given it’s got that Dolly Parton angle. Indianapolis Star reporter Caroline Beck had this on proposed funding cuts for a program designed to send books to kids: “Proposed Indiana budget slashes funding for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.”
On the LEAP district front, Indianapolis Star reporter Brittany Carloni led coverage of a bill from state Sen. Brian Buchanan – whose district includes the 9,000-acre LEAP (and who previously represented parts of Lafayette) – this way: “The Indiana Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a bill that would increase transparency from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation after public criticism of the agency's handling of the LEAP project in Boone County during the Holcomb administration. The bill also aligns the quasi-government agency with new Gov. Mike Braun’s goals to refocus its efforts on small businesses. Braun has signaled he wants to restructure the IEDC and spread economic development benefits across the state. It’s a different direction from former Gov. Eric Holcomb, under whom the organization worked on drawing large corporate business investments to Indiana.” Read more about the measure here: “Did the IEDC make mistakes with the LEAP district? Senate passes bill increasing transparency.”
IndyStar’s Brittany Carloni also had this on House Bill 1662: “Indiana bill banning people who are homeless from street camping dies in House.”
Charter schools would be in for more public money statewide under Senate Bill 518, which would require all Indiana public school districts to share property tax dollars in their attendance boundaries if 100 or more students leave the traditional district for brick-and-mortar charters. The bill cleared the Senate on a 28-21 vote Thursday. (Locally, Sen. Spencer Deery, R-West Lafayette, voted yes; Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, voted no.) Here’s more on the vote and what the bill would do, via Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Casey Smith: “Indiana bill to shift more dollars from traditional publics to charter schools earns Senate approval.”
Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Leslie Bonilla Muñiz led this way on House Bill 1531, which would put more state pressure on local officials and businesses to help with deportation of undocumented immigrants: “House lawmakers on Thursday tussled briefly over legislation mandating local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and cracking down on employers using unauthorized labor. The chamber’s party-line vote sends the measure to the Senate. ‘President (Donald) Trump and ‘border czar’ Tom Homan have been … making great strides in securing our border … with a priority on removing those who have committed additional crimes first,’ Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-Union City, told the chamber. ‘We have a part to play here in Indiana as well,’ he added. ‘We can do that with this legislation.’” Here’s more: “Immigration enforcement campaign aimed at local governments, employers advances to Senate.”
Support for this edition of Based in Lafayette comes from Purdue Convocations, presenting Hamlet Feb. 28-March 1. Actors From The London Stage return to Purdue for an encore week-long residency, deftly combining minimal staging with essential props and simple costumes. Buy Tickets Here.
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
Who can understand Spencer’s stand on public education. But then being an incompetent idiot, he should know his own kids attend a school that essentially has been and is still a charter school in every sense of the word. NO TO CHARTER SCHOOLS THAT WILL DUMB DOWN THE POORER SCHOOL DISTRICTS, WHILE THEY GET THE ELITE EDUCATION. SPENCER YOU ARE JUST ANOTHER PEON OF THE ORANGE BLIMP. LEAVE OUR STATE, THE POOR RED STATES IN THE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE. SPARE US YOUR MAGA EXISTENCE. AND TAKE THE PISSANT PEANUT WITH YOU.