New Chicago town attorney Lloyd Mullen said Wednesday that town ordinance violation tickets written by former police chief Earl Mayo have been dismissed by a judge.
Mullen’s comments came during Wednesday’s town council meeting held in the town’s firehouse.
Earlier Wednesday, FBI and Indiana State Police agents served a search warrant at the town’s temporary police headquarters inside the Hobart Township Trustee’s office, 1421 E. 37th Ave., in Hobart.
The town is beginning renovations of a new town hall and town offices have moved to a nearby River Forest school that’s been closed.
Wednesday’s police activity prompted the trustee’s office to close its doors to the public.
Midway through Wednesday’s town council meeting, council president Jimmy Gibson received a phone message and left.
Mullen said Gibson, the town’s police liaison, departed to meet with authorities at the trustee’s building after they concluded their search of the police office. Gibson said Thursday he couldn’t comment on what transpired during the meeting.
Mullen said he believes officials are just looking at Mayo, 45, of Merrillville.
“They’re really just looking to see if he’s done anything else,” Mullen said. “There’s no indication they’re looking at anyone else.”
Council members didn’t comment on Mullen’s statements.
“We’re going to have some tough times for a while,” Mullen said.
Mullen said the town doesn’t have an assigned worker “to ride herd” over monies taken in by the police department. “We’ll have to work that out in the future,” he said.
Mullen said Hammond Superior Judge Aleksandra Dimitrijevic dismissed the tickets Mayo had written and he said prosecution would be challenging.
“His testimony won’t be worth much if he’s convicted,” Mullen said.
It couldn’t be determined how many pending ordinance violation tickets issued by Mayo had been dismissed.
Police in Clark County, Ohio, arrested Mayo May 22. He’s been charged in Lake Superior Court with selling a gun, confiscated in a New Chicago police arrest, to a Hobart pawn shop.
Authorities raided the pawn shop on Monday.
Mayo has not made a court appearance yet. Mayo’s lawyer Jesse Harper filed last week to waive a June 9 hearing. His next court appearance is July 21 before Judge Samuel Cappas.
Mayo is facing seven felonies, including two theft counts, two official misconduct counts, attempted obstruction of justice, and two counts of possession of anabolic steroids. He is also charged with misdemeanor theft.
His co-defendant, Taneka Borders, 47, of Merrillville, pleaded not guilty June 9. She is charged with assisting Mayo and possession of anabolic steroids.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. Staff writer Meredith Colias-Pete contributed to this report.
