COLUMBUS, Ind. — Court dates have been set for a northern Bartholomew County man accused of intimidation against Bartholomew Consolidated school board candidates shortly before last November’s election.
Joseph Mark Noe, 63, of 2010 W. County Road 500N, has been charged with three counts of harassment by telegraph, mail or other written communication. While all charges are Class B misdemeanors, a conviction on all counts could result in nearly a year-and-a-half behind bars, as well as fines of up to $3,000.
During a recent hearing, Bartholomew Superior Court 2 Judge Jon Rohde agreed to delay hearings regarding the case. A pretrial conference or change of plea hearing has been rescheduled for 9 a.m. on April 24. A jury trial is tentatively set to get underway at 8:30 a.m on June 9.
The case was filed on Nov. 27, the same day no contact orders were issued to Noe by Magistrate David Nowak for the safety of District 3 candidate Whittney Loyd, District 5 candidate Leigh Britt and District 7 candidate Nicole Wheeldon.
On Oct. 28, Columbus Police officer Jesse Neikirk was sent to the school corporation’s administration building to speak to the three candidates, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Columbus Police Detective Adam Wisenbaugh.
After Britt’s campaign sent out text messages asking for support for the three candidates, a reply came back from a man believed to be Noe, Wisenbaugh wrote. According to the affidavit, the verbatim message (with grammatical and spelling errors) was:
“Are you republican? I will definatly vote for you. If you are democrat, I will like to see you ran out of this country. I will oppose democrats to the last breath. So if your republican, your cool. If your democrat, prepare to get assassinated. So get the (expletive) out of my country. We will defend her till the end.”
In Bartholomew County, school board candidates run as non-partisan candidates, and are not required to reveal their political affiliation. A bill is currently being considered at the Indiana Statehouse that would make school board races partisan and require candidates to list a political affiliation with their filing for school board.
Neikirk was able to learn from the person who organized the text messaging that the threats were sent by a phone owned by Noe, according to court documents.
During a later interview, Dakota Hudelson-Zipper of the Indiana Political Action Committee for Education (I-PACE) said he saw Noe’s comment while reviewing responses from the text campaign. Hudelson-Zipper told police he immediate notified his organization and the local campaigns.
When Deputy Tyler Cooper of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s office made contact with Noe at his residence, the telephone number Noe stated as his own was confirmed to be the phone where the texts originated, court documents state.
Cooper contacted Neikirk by phone, and allowed the CPD officer to talk with Noe, Wisenbaugh said in court documents.
The detective’s affidavit states Noe told Neikirk the message he sent was “out of frustration with all the political stuff going on.” He told Neikirk he saw the message was political and “thought of everything going on with Trump.”
The message came amid polling that found American voters were approaching the upcoming election with deep unease. Local law enforcement officials said they were aware of the heightened tensions, and had extra officers on duty on Election Day.
While Noe told Neikirk he had no idea the text was from the local school board race, Hudelson-Zipper was able to provide investigators the exact message Noe heard.
“Local teachers have endorsed Whitney Loyd, Leigh Britt and Nicole Wheeldon for our school board because they put students ahead of politics, promote safe schools, and bring stability to BCSC. Will you join us and vote for Loyd, Britt, and Wheeldon for School Board?”
Britt was able to supply investigators with screen shots of the message received from Noe that showed his name and telephone number.
Wheeldon was re-elected and Loyd won a board seat in the November election. Britt did not win, with the seat going to Tom Glick.
For more, see Wednesday’s Republic.
