Democrat Travis McConnell, left, and Republican Brad Voelz are running for Kosciusko County prosecutor and answered questions as part of the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce’s election forum on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at Warsaw City Hall. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Dealing with drug abuse, sex crimes and more were the topics that the two candidates for Kosciusko County prosecutor in the 2022 election addressed on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

The debate between prosecutor candidates was part of an election forum put on by the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce at Warsaw City Hall.

Taking part were Republican and current Chief Deputy Prosecutor Brad Voelz and Democrat and local attorney Travis McConnell.

Both had 60 or 90 seconds to answer seven questions posed by members representing InkFreeNews, The Times-Union and Kensington Digital Media.

One of the questions was: “Bikers Against Predators is making an impact. Do you support this kind of community involvement?”

The group, which documents child solicitation and share details with police, won praise from both candidates.

“We do support the community involvement in the Bikers Against Predators,” said Voelz. “We caution against vigilante justice because that can get very dangerous, so I know that our investigative division works with them as long as they’re not targeting and entrapping individuals, and bringing us good solid evidence, our investigative division takes the reports that they give to us.”

“We conduct our own investigation. We make sure that the case is solid,” continued Voelz. “We follow up on any electronic communication that may have been done between a predator and a child most of the time in these instances to make sure that we have good solid evidence to file a charge, but we do support the kind of work that they do in bringing us people that might not have otherwise come to the forefront, so we do take their investigations, do our own work and file charges when warranted.”

McConnell said he’d like “to work more with Bikers Against Predators.”

“I’ve met with them personally and their concern is that there’s more that could be done,” he said. “The prosecutor’s office does work with them when somebody confesses on video, but short of getting a confession video recorded … they’ve been met with some resistance from the prosecutor’s office, so I think that we need to better work with them on cases where maybe somebody doesn’t necessarily confess on video, but where there is evidence that would warrant filing charges and proceeding to a trial to try and get a conviction.”

“I also think that there’s other programs as well that we can (work with) similar to what Bikers Against Predators are doing through the Indiana State Police, which works with local law enforcement,” McConnell continued. “There’s been some local law enforcement involvement in that here recently to try to get that started, but that was not approved by our local prosecutor’s office that I’d want to expand that where you work together with ISP where they’re doing the work to catch people and the local agencies go out and make the arrests and that gets prosecuted.”

The two were also asked: “If elected prosecutor, what would you do to help victims of sex crimes get justice?”

“This is what our office is outstanding at doing,” said Voelz. “We have an entire investigative division that comes in and analyzes cases to make sure that we have a full and fair investigation before charges are ever filed to make sure that we are victim first in our approach to how we prosecute those cases. We keep full and fair and honest communication with crime victims as they go through the process.”

Voelz added that there’s an employee that helps with victims’ assistance that’s “on call 24 hours a day,” and “helps (victims) throughout the entire court process.” He also referenced the prosecutor’s office’s use of therapy animals.

“We need to focus on better communication,” answered McConnell. “I think Brad and I disagree on this one a little bit. The No. 1 complaint from lawyers from clients across the bar is a lack of communication, failure to communicate with the client. There needs to be better communication.”

He mentioned that the woman involved in the victims’ assistance program “does a great job, and I think she’s probably overwhelmed.” He stated that other employees could also help by communicating with sex crime victims and he himself would work to better communicate with the victims regarding their cases.

“The stories I’ve heard since announcing (my candidacy) have been shocking and disappointing and … it’s the main reason of why I decided to run is to try and close this gap of standing up for victims of sex crimes,” said McConnell.

Another question was: “Drugs continue to be a major problem in the county. What would you do as prosecutor to help reduce the scourge?”

“I think that addicts need to have help and we have two great programs that Brad mentioned (earlier) as far as JCAP (Jail Chemical Addiction Program) while people are incarcerated and as well as drug court through (Kosciusko Circuit Court) Judge (Michael) Reed,” said McConnell, mentioning that he’d want to expand those programs.

“We also need to focus then on the dealers and crack down on that and dealers need to be sent to prison,” he said. “We need to … get tougher on our sentences.”

Voelz mentioned he works currently as prosecutor in Reed’s court “which focuses on the drug cases.”

“We do strictly prosecute drug dealers and we do extend helping hands to those addicts through drug court and JCAP,” said Voelz, adding that he would do “everything that we’re doing now and more” regarding the drug issue.

He said he spoke with State Sen. Ryan Mishler who told him about grant funding to help those with drug issues.

It “would dovetail into … JCAP … and help with recovery for people once they’re released from jail,” said Voelz. “It would begin 30 days before their release. It would help with housing assistance and employment opportunities. It would help with aftercare.”

Voelz also said he’s involved with the Kosciusko Coalition on Drug Education, which also works to distribute grant monies to agencies fighting drug addiction in the county.

A fourth question was: “What are your impressions of NET43 and the countywide approach used during the past four years?”

“I think that we elected Sheriff (Kyle) Dukes on one of (his) platform ideas … to reestablish NET43 and I think they’ve done a great job,” said McConnell. “They continue to get out there and get additional arrests made.”

“There’s continuing work that needs to be done. Drugs continue to be a big problem,” he continued. “We just need to get tougher on prosecuting the crimes and making sure that people receive the sentences that would best get them off the streets, get those drugs out of there and continue to come up with innovative ideas on how to better catch people and catch them in the act and stop it from happening.”

Voelz pointed out he already works with NET43.

“It’s heartbreaking every time you see an overdose and it’s been more prevalent lately and so we at NET43 do all we can to stop the spread of drugs to prosecute the drug dealers and to help those who are addicted,” he said.

To view the entire election forum online, click on the city link here.