A man who was the key witness in the trial of suspended Hope Town Marshal Donald R. “Randy” Bailey has been charged with five felonies.
Anthony W. Paul, 51, 15602 E. Lake Shore Drive South, Hope, faces two felony counts of battery on a person younger than 14, felony strangulation and two counts of felony neglect of a dependent, according to Bartholomew Superior Court 1 documents.
He turned himself in at the Bartholomew County Jail on Thursday and was released on $75,000 bond, jail officials said.
Bartholomew Superior Court 1 officials declined to release probable-cause documents in the case, except for the cover page, saying the documents were filed as confidential by the Indiana State Police. State police investigator Dan Elmore, working out of the Versailles post, said specific court documents can be sealed if a case involves minors or confidential informants.
Elmore was a detective when he began working on the case in July and now works as a crime scene investigator for the state police.
According to the court documents, the allegations stem from incidents June 14 and June 19 last year that occurred in Bartholomew County.
The charging documents indicate Paul is accused of neglecting two dependents who were in his care.
The two battery charges accuse Paul of touching each of the two minors in a rude, insolent or angry manner.
The strangulation charge accuses Paul of applying pressure to the throat or neck of one of the minors and/or obstructing the nose or mouth of the minor that impeded normal breathing or blood circulation.
Bartholomew Circuit Court appointed Jackson County Special Prosecutor AmyMarie Travis to prosecute the case.
Travis said Friday morning she was unaware of Paul’s involvement in the Bailey case prior to Feb. 2 filing the charges against Paul.
The special prosecutor said it was a coincidence that the charges were filed within about a week of Bailey’s conviction, as she has been working on the case since late summer of last year.
Travis said she had asked Elmore to do additional investigation in the case, but his job reassignment caused a delay in the case. A series of staffing issues at the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office further delayed the case, Travis said.
Elmore added that the case was not under investigation constantly the entire time between July 2014 and when the charges were filed.
When she went to file the charges against Paul, Travis said she did not know that Bailey had been convicted so recently or any details of the Bailey case, she said.
Bartholomew Circuit Judge Stephen Heimann, who heard the Bailey case in which Paul was a witness, transferred the Paul case to Bartholomew Superior Court 1 on Tuesday, according to court documents.
In the Bailey case, the suspended town marshal was convicted last week of making false accusations that led to the wrongful arrest of Paul in May 2012.
Several witnesses testified Bailey told Bartholomew County sheriff’s deputies and the Indiana State Police that Paul had threatened him, refused his demand that he leave his property and fled after being told he was under arrest.
Eleven months after Paul was arrested on intimidation and criminal trespassing charges, Bailey’s allegations unraveled after a digital audio recording surfaced of the actual conversation.
Bailey faces penalties ranging from six months to four years in prison, as well as fines of up to $15,000 at his sentencing March 24 in Bartholomew Circuit Court.
