ELIZABETHTOWN – Elizabethtown officials say they can’t afford security at their town council meetings even after accusations of physical harm occurred between the family of a board member and the clerk-treasurer, which resulted in law enforcement being called.
Town council President Rick Mullins said the incorporated community of about 400 residents cannot afford to pay for security at council meetings. And there is no longer a town marshal in Elizabethtown, he said.
“And we can’t afford to hire an off-duty deputy from the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department,” Mullins said. “It costs over $300 a meeting.”
He added paying for security is hard to justify when there’s no need for it “99% of the time.”
Following a Monday evening town council meeting, Elizabethtown clerk-treasurer Shirley Nugent was placed under arrest and taken to the Bartholomew County Jail on an accusation of battery. Deputies were called to the town’s governmental building after Brandy Brown, the wife of councilman Levi Brown, accused Nugent of striking her and leaving a welt on the back.
By Wednesday morning, the staff of Bartholomew County prosecutor Lindsey Holden-Kay concluded there was insufficient evidence to file charges against Nugent in the matter.
However, Mullins says a legal question remains about whether Brandy Brown, who claimed the welt on her back was caused by Nugent, was allowed to knowingly walk into the same room as Nugent.
Court documents confirm there has been animosity between the Browns and Nugent for a number of years. On March 22, 2022, Nugent filed a civil lawsuit in Bartholomew Circuit Court accusing the Browns of defamation of character.
A mediation agreement filed on Aug. 25, 2023 states that, among other things, the Browns and Nugent were to avoid having contact with each other. Contact between Levi Brown and Nugent would only be allowed to communicate if Brown was elected to the council and the conversation was confined to official business, the agreement states.
“Before Mr. Brown was on the council, he had a no-contact order with Mrs. Nugent when he wasn’t supposed to come to the meetings,” Mullins explained. “He wasn’t a councilman yet. He was brought up more than once about why he was in the council room with Mrs. Nugent. His reply was: ‘Well, I’m here. What are you going to do about it?’”
While Brown was elected to the council that fall, Nugent said the no-contact order remains in effect between Brandy Brown and herself.
“The court order should ban Mrs. Brown from being there, but she’s got the same attitude (as her husband),” Mullins said.
The last town marshal in Elizabethtown was Lucas Thorneycroft, a veteran who has worked with a number of law enforcement agencies. But the council president said it’s been at least two-and-a-half years since Thorneycroft left the post.
“We can’t afford a town marshal,” Mullins said.
Bartholomew County Sheriff Chris Lane said Elizabethtown is an incorporated town, with their own responsibilities for police protection and ordinance enforcement.
“Obviously, when something happens and we are called, we respond,” Lane said. “But we can’t dedicate a deputy just to Elizabethtown when we have the whole county to patrol.”
Elizabethtown may use the city and county’s “off-duty management system,” which allows off-duty officers to accept security assignments by request on a paid basis. Officers may sign up as security for various events or board meetings if requested, but the system is voluntary on behalf of officers, and the officers must be paid for their time.
“Towns are their own government body,” Lane said. “We can’t just do that (assign a deputy) as a normal duty assignment.”
Even if law enforcement was present at the council meetings, Mullins said he believes Monday’s confrontation would have still taken place.
The council president expressed a desire that town officials focus on the town’s business during council meetings, rather than get caught up in a bureaucratic circle of protective orders.
“Am I going every month to the prosecutor, the judge or whoever?” Mullins asked. “They’ll just say if it happens again, get a hold of us. Then, it’s the same thing, you know. We’re not getting much (enforcement) on those no-contact orders. They’re just pieces of paper, I guess.”
