September 2024

“It never got weird enough for me,” says Hunter S.

I spent last week in isolation here in Lawrence, tending to my 13-year-old child as he recovered from COVID-19.Thankfully, he has returned to school, and I avoided getting sick for the time being.

The special prosecutors tasked with bringing charges based on the three dangerous and unconstitutional search warrants executed in Marion last year — Marc Bennett and Barry Wilkerson — need to explain how they have been able to serve in those roles despite advising an implicated official after the raids.Until this conflict of interest is resolved by disqualifying them or otherwise, the public has no choice but to wonder whether their decision to file only one charge against former Marion police chief Gideon Cody, for conduct taking place well after the warrants were conceived, falls short of protecting us from unconstitutional searches.Admitted conflictOn the last page of their report, the special prosecutors themselves disclosed circumstances that created the conflict of interest.Bennett reached out to Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey on Saturday, Aug.