WARSAW — A Warsaw man was arrested after allegedly having sex with a mentally and physically disabled person.

Everett J. Compton, 57, of 1912 La Vista Drive, Warsaw, is charged with four counts of rape, level 3 felonies, and one charge of sexual battery, a level 6 felony.

He was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 5:14 p.m. Saturday on a $10,000 preliminary bond.

According to the probable cause affidavit, on Friday, the Warsaw Police Department received a report from Adult Protective Services requesting a welfare check on a physically and mentally disabled adult. The person alleged they were inappropriately touched.

A WPD officer spoke with the victim. The victim said Compton had inappropriately touched them at a campground in the county. The victim said prior to coming in for the interview, Compton told the victim he may not be their friend anymore if they told anyone about what happened.

The victim said Compton had sexual intercourse with them and the victim felt like they had to agree to the sexual activity.

On Saturday, a WPD detective spoke with Compton. He said he wasn’t forceful with the victim, and they were very needy and had trouble with men. He recalled one incident where he alleged the victim was “gleaming” at him.

Officers also interviewed another individual, who said she didn’t believe the victim could consent to sexual activity due to a lack of understanding.

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WARSAW — One of the 21 vote centers in Kosciusko County will not be open during the May 5 primary.

The Kosciusko County Election Board announced on Tuesday that the Amazing Grace Community Church Vote Center on Arthur Street in Sydney will be unavailable because of a water leak.

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SOUTH BEND — A South Bend developer who walked away from a high-profile economic development project in Warsaw several years ago is facing more problems.

Earlier this year, Dave Matthews filed for bankruptcy involving one of his South Bend housing projects.

On Tuesday, WNDU reported Matthews may soon be forced to demolish one of his unfinished properties in South Bend.

The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the city of South Bend's 2024 demolition order for an unfinished concrete and steel frame near LaSalle Avenue. 

Matthews was the developer of Warsaw's Buffalo Street redevelopment project, which was slated to begin in 2017.

Several condominiums in the project were constructed, but much of the work was never finished, and Matthews eventually walked away without notifying the city.

The city's code enforcement officials eventually had to force him to remove construction materials he had left behind.

The city is still trying to determine how to use a large space near Center Lake, where the old parks office had been located, that was supposed to be part of a multi-use development led by Matthews.

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WARSAW — The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office is alerting the public to a recent scam involving fraudulent requests for inmate bond payments.

At no time will an employee of the Sheriff’s Office contact individuals by phone to request money for bonding an inmate out of the Kosciusko County Jail.

All bond payments must be completed in person using the kiosk located in the vestibule of the Sheriff’s Office at 221 W. Main St., Warsaw.

No cash transactions or phone-based payments will be accepted by correctional staff under any circumstances.

If you receive a phone call requesting payment for an inmate bond, please hang up immediately and contact dispatch at 574-267-5667.

Residents are reminded to never provide any personal, financial, or banking information over the phone.

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Staff Report

AKRON — Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation will host its first-ever Corporation Art Show, showcasing student artwork from all Tippecanoe Valley schools.

The event will take place on Wednesday, April 30, from 4 to 7 p.m., will be hosted by Tippecanoe Valley High School and will become an annual celebration of student creativity moving forward, according to a news release from the school district.

This year’s art show will feature artwork created by students from Mentone Elementary School, Akron Elementary School, Tippecanoe Valley Middle School and Tippecanoe Valley High School, offering families and community members an opportunity to experience the talents of students across all grade levels.

The inaugural event was made possible through a KEYS Grant award, which supported the development and launch of this corporation-wide arts initiative. The grant reflects Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation’s continued commitment to enriching educational experiences and expanding opportunities in the arts, the release states.

“Art plays a vital role in student expression, creativity, and learning,” said Ashlie Schlemmer, director of communications. “We are excited to bring our schools together for this special event and to celebrate the incredible work our students are doing every day.”

Families, friends and community members are invited to attend.

Light refreshments will be available during the event.

For more information, contact Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation.

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WARSAW — Bids are now being sought for repairs to the Justice Building following the collapse of limestone slabs above an entrance nearly eight months ago.

Structural supports have been in place along parts of two sides of the building since shortly after several slabs of limestone came crashing down on Aug. 29. Nobody was injured, but it led to an extensive look into other possible structural weaknesses in the Justice Building.

That damage on Aug. 29 led the county to conduct a complete review of the building, which led to the discovery of potential weaknesses in parts of the structure's oldest section on the north and east sides involving exterior walls.

Last week, the county commissioners announced plans to seek bids on a "comprehensive" project prepared by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates of Indianapolis.

WJE is a group of engineers, architects, and materials scientists that specialize in structural repairs and has a portfolio of work that ranges from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to the Third Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis that spans the Mississippi River, according to the firm’s website.

The bid package unveiled by the county is more than an inch thick with detailed plans for the improvements.

“It's not just the repair where the facade actually fell, but it's also reattaching other panels throughout the building with a new anchoring system to make sure that that wouldn't happen again, as well as all mortar joints being re-caulked and resealed, the whole cleaning of the exterior,” Groninger said during Tuesday’s meeting.

“It's a pretty comprehensive scope over the whole facade,” he added. 

The entire project, said commissioner Bob Conley, is being done “out of an abundance of caution.”

“It happened once, we don't want it to happen again,” Conley said.

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WARSAW — Downtown Warsaw will soon have another nearby coffee shop.

Three Crowns Coffee, which has been located on North Detroit Street for more than half a dozen years, plans to move into the former Refior Law Offices offices overlooking the southern shoreline of Center Lake.

The Times-Union reports the Warsaw Board of Zoning Appeals approved a variance request Monday night to allow the business in a residential 3 zoning district.

Petitioner John Foster said the owners, who are family members, plan to move into the new space this summer and that it will offer a more scenic view,  safer traffic patterns, and less noise while also being close to the downtown, the adjacent Nye Park (and cabin) and Center Lake Park.

Under previous ownership, Three Crowns was located in downtown on South Buffalo Street before moving to North Detroit Street in what used to be a gas station.

The new location is about two blocks from the courthouse.

Check out the full story from the Times-Union's David Slone by clicking here.

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By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

WARSAW — There were no injuries as a result of a house fire on Saturday afternoon.

Derek Tenney, fire chief for Plain Township Fire Department, said the fire department received the initial call about 3:28 p.m. Saturday to 267 E. Barrington Place, Warsaw.

When fire crews arrived on scene, the fire was in the garage and moving into the roof.

Tenney estimated there was damage to at least 50 percent of the residence.

Most of the fire crew left about 7:30 p.m. and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

According to county records, the property is owned by Chris and Jessica Powers.

Assisting agencies were WarsawWayne Fire Territory, Winona Lake Fire Department, Milford Fire Department, North Webster Fire Department and Atwood Fire Department.

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News Release

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Hoosiers in rural Indiana say drones are unlawfully tracking deer for poachers, inexplicably flying around chicken coops, and increasingly just making people uneasy.

The temptation for some is to simply shoot down the pesky contraptions. But, after consulting with law enforcement, many have learned that it isn’t a legal option. So they’ve found other ways to combat the rascals.

[caption id="attachment_130360" align="alignright" width="200"] Hunter Eric Pettit (Courtesy photo)[/caption]

Neighbors tired of seeing a drone follow a legendary and massive white-tailed buck in southeastern Indiana reported the matter to Indiana conservation officers.

An investigation led to charges against two men in what authorities believe may be the first prosecution under Indiana’s law banning the use of drones to track and hunt wildlife.

In northeastern Indiana, farmers fearful that drones might be spreading disease among livestock recently persuaded the Indiana General Assembly to pass a law that prohibits the devices from being used to harm or harass farm animals.

[caption id="attachment_130362" align="alignright" width="200"] Indiana conservation officer Josh Thomas (Courtesy photo)[/caption]

“Something has to move the ball forward here to be able to defend ourselves in the countryside from these kinds of operations,” Jay County farmer Lenny Muhlenkamp told a legislative committee earlier this year.

Unfair hunt?

Among hunters, the case that has caused the biggest stir unfolded last fall near Madison, along the Ohio River.

For months, some residents saw a drone seemingly tracking a fabled 17-point deer so recognizable and coveted by hunters that they had dubbed it the Nucor Monarch. That’s because the deer frequently bounded across the wooded terrain and open prairie near the Nucor steel fabrication plant.

So when the animal was suddenly bagged by hunters on Oct. 2, just one day into the crossbow hunting season, neighbors quickly grew suspicious, authorities said.

One witness contacted Indiana conservation officers and reported the animal likely had been taken with the aid of a drone in violation of a state law that seeks to prevent unfair hunts.

Investigators say their probe confirmed those concerns.

According to a probable cause affidavit, officers confiscated videos, photos and flight logs recorded by a suspect’s drone that showed the unmanned aerial aircraft was used to track the deer for weeks.

Ultimately, cousins Rodney and Eric Pettit were charged with misdemeanors in the case.

Rodney, who owned and operated the drone and killed the deer, was sentenced in February to 60 days probation. His hunting and fishing license was also revoked for a year.

Eric, who was accused of assisting Rodney in the hunt, agreed to a pretrial diversion program that will lead to dismissal of the charges if certain conditions are met.

Rodney Pettit did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Eric Pettit, a reserve officer for the Jennings County Sheriff’s Department, chalked the case up to his cousin being a novice drone user who was unfamiliar with the particulars of the law and to jealous hunters who turned him in because they didn’t bag the prized deer themselves.

Conservation officers’ desire to prosecute the first deer-hunting case under the state’s drone law also was a factor, Pettit said. Indiana first banned drone-aided hunting in 2016. It tightened the law in 2024 and also clarified that drones could be used after a kill to help locate and recover a legally taken animal.

“There’s the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. (My cousin) broke the letter of the law, one hundred percent. But he did it unknowingly,” Pettit said. “His character is not one that is, you know, a lawbreaker.”

He said that while conservation officers made a big deal of the fact that his cousin flew his drone on the morning of the kill, he noted that it captured no video of the Nucor Monarch on that day.

State law, however, prohibits using a drone to track a deer starting 14 days before and throughout hunting season. Authorities said Rodney Pettit used his drone in the areas the deer had been spotted nearly every day in that 14-day leadup.

The great irony of the case is that no one really needed a drone to track the deer, Eric Pettit said. It was frequently spotted traveling the same area near U.S. 421, including on his cousin’s property. Motorists and covetous hunters often stopped along the roadside to get a better look.

But the deer’s prized antlers won’t adorn any hunter’s wall now. Instead, they were confiscated by authorities and are expected to soon be on display in the Department of Natural Resources’ “Turn in Poachers” traveling trailer that helps educate the public about the state’s hunting laws.

Indiana conservation officer Josh Thomas, who investigated the Pettit case, said it is the first deer-hunting case to be prosecuted under Indiana’s drone prohibitions and should serve as a warning to others.

He said the law was invoked during earlier investigations. One case involving waterfowl never came to fruition. Another case involved the hunting of coyotes in northern Indiana, but Thomas said he was uncertain of the outcome.

“It’s something that’s hard to enforce, it’s hard to detect and then hard to prove,” the conservation officer explained, while expressing certainty that drone-aided hunting is happening with some frequency.

Thomas said attention brought to the Pettit case by the hunting community has resulted in 15 drone-related tips in his southeastern Indiana district alone, raising the possibility of more prosecutions.

The most troubling aspect of the Pettit case was the level of detail the drone was able to gather about the Nucor Monarch’s movements, Thomas said, essentially turning the hunt into an unfair chase.

““It was unbelievable how much they knew about where that deer was anytime they wanted to,” Thomas said.

Farmer protections

In northeastern Indiana, concerns from farmers helped drive a new state law aimed at reining in unauthorized drone activity over private property.

The legislation, signed earlier this year and set to take effect July 1, expands Indiana’s “remote aerial harassment” law to cover not just people, but also livestock, crops and farm operations.

It makes it a crime to operate a drone over someone else’s property with the intent to harass or disturb animals, damage crops or interfere with agricultural activity. Violations are Class A misdemeanors, punishable by up to a year in prison and a maximum fine of $5,000.

The push for the new law came after a wave of reports from farmers who described drones flying over barns, hovering near livestock and, in at least one case, entering a poultry barn.

Eric Beer, chief deputy for the Adams County Sheriff’s Department, said complaints about drones poured into his office for nearly a month last year and culminated one January evening with many concerned residents, including some from the Amish community, reporting a cluster of eight drones or more buzzing around poultry farms and elsewhere.

“We heard from different people throughout our county, both north and south, that there was one drone that was about as large as a small car,” Beer said.

At that time, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security issued a news release noting that drones were spotted flying around poultry farms in Adams, Allen, Jay and Jackson counties, where avian flu had been reported.

The news release warned that entry by the drones into infected barns could spread the disease and noted that the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration were monitoring the airspace in those areas.

When asked April 15 about the January 2025 drone activity, the homeland security department said in a written statement that “reports of unidentified drone sightings were determined to be mostly unfounded, and any drone activity in the area was tied to a legitimate purpose,” such as a local farmer using a drone to spray their crops.

The farmers’ lingering concerns prompted Rep. Kendell Culp, a Rensselaer Republican and vice president of Indiana Farm Bureau, to urge the legislature earlier this year to impose new drone limits.

While his House Bill 1064 failed to win approval, some aspects of it were incorporated into House Bill 1249, which addressed various criminal matters and was signed into law by the governor in March.

Farmers who testified at a House Courts and Criminal Code Committee meeting in January described a sense of vulnerability and frustration with how little they could do about unwanted drone activity.

Barry Miller, a Jay County farmer, told the committee that drones were flying over barns without the operators in sight and causing great anxiety about their intentions.

Others raised fears about biosecurity, noting that some of the drone sightings occurred just before outbreaks of avian flu—though no direct connection has been proven.

“It’s an inconvenient coincidence that wherever these drones were, that’s where we were also seeing bird flu happen,” said Muhlenkamp, a fellow Jay County farmer.

He also recounted an Amish farmer’s claim that a drone sprayed a substance into a barn, leaving a nearby child with respiratory problems for a week.

Farm industry groups say the concerns highlight how state law has struggled to keep pace with rapidly evolving drone technology.

“The proliferation has outpaced the legal development,” Ryan Hoff, Indiana Farm Bureau’s senior director of government affairs, said during committee testimony.

Hoff said in an interview this month that the updated law is meant to clarify that some property rights extend to low-altitude airspace by ensuring that unauthorized drone use — particularly when it threatens livestock or farm operations — can carry legal consequences.

At the same time, lawmakers tried to strike a balance by preserving legitimate uses of drones in agriculture, such as crop monitoring and chemical application, so long as those activities are conducted with a landowner’s permission.

Even with the changes, officials and industry advocates say the issue is far from settled — and that additional legislation is likely as drones become more common.

An uneasy balance

For Sandy Rush, the idea of balancing competing interests in rural communities isn’t abstract.

As a recently retired employee of the Shelby County Co-op ag service, Rush has seen firsthand how drones are becoming part of modern agriculture — and why farmers rely on them.

“They’re good,” she said. “They have their place.”

Drones can apply fertilizer when heavy equipment can’t reach muddy fields, monitor crops and help farmers respond quickly to changing conditions.

For someone who spent a career around agriculture, those benefits are obvious. But Rush also has also experienced the other side.

Last fall, a hunter on nearby property told her he was followed out of the woods by a drone. Then one night, Rush saw one herself — hovering just outside her home near Shelbyville..

She estimates it was only about 50 to 60 feet from the house, close enough to feel like it was watching her through a window.

“To me it was obvious that it was watching us,” Rush said. “And that kind of freaks me out.”

Rush doesn’t know who was operating the drone or why. But like many rural residents, she also knows there’s little she can legally do to stop them.

Drones are largely regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, which controls the airspace and allows the devices to fly over people’s homes.

If the drones are being used in the commission of a crime, the operators can be prosecuted. But gathering enough evidence to prove invasion of privacy can be tricky, authorities acknowledge.

“You’d really like to just go out and shoot the darn thing,” Rush said, while recognizing that’s not allowed.

For her, the answer isn’t banning drones. It’s finding a way to draw clearer lines about what’s allowed and what isn’t and protecting privacy when possible.

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