The Press-Dispatch
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Local ...........A1-8 History ........... A7 Sports .........B1-5 Classifi eds ..B7-9 Church ........C1-3 Home Life....C4-6 Obituaries....... C7 School.......... C11 E. Gibson ..... C12 WHAT'S INSIDE: CONNECT WITH US: NetEdition ...pressdispatch.net/edition Facebook.....facebook.com/pressdispatch E-Mail .........news@pressdispatch.net Phone:.................. 812-354-8500 Fax: ...................... 812-354-2014 E-Mail . editor@pressdispatch.net NEWS TIPS: PIKE PUBLISHING Wednesday, February 13, 2019 Volume 149 Number 7 Phone 812-354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) $ 1 Three sections 30 pages Nine inserts See WINSLOW on page 2 See DENIED on page 2 (All quotes in the following re- port are taken from Court of Ap- peals of Indiana, Memorandum De- cision 18A-CR-841, filed January 22, 2019.) The Indiana Court of Appeals has struck down an appeal from former Pike County resident Mick Rowe that he should not be put to trial for Class A felony charges re- lated to his alleged sexual miscon- duct with his daughter in 1997 and June 2006. In 2007, Rowe was charged with Class C felony incest after it was alleged he had repeatedly en- gaged in sexual intercourse with his daughter between November 2006 and February 2007. Rowe made a plea deal in that case and served 18 months in prison as a result. However, in May 2017, his daughter, who is now married, came forward with two new alle- gations: first, that Rowe sexual- ly molested her as early as 1997, when she was 9 years old; and sec- ond, that he forced her into anal intercourse in June 2006, injuring her in the process. A fter new charges of Class A felony child molesting and Class A felony criminal deviant conduct resulting in serious bodily injury were filed against Rowe based on these allegations in July 2017, Rowe appealed that he should not be tried for these charges. In De- cember 2017, Rowe argued that the new charges were based on the "same fact patterns" as the 2007 case, and that he "should have been prosecuted for the cur- rent charges" during that case. "To take alleged facts that were or should have been known to the complaining witness at the time of the 2007 case and dress[] them up in a different costume by fil- ing as different offenses... does not change the fact that if Mr. Rowe was to be prosecuted for these crimes, the opportunity to have done so was when the origi- nal cases were charged in 2007." The local court of appeals de- nied this motion in February 2018, and it went to the state court of ap- peals, which has now confirmed the local court's decision. This is based on two facts from the case: First, the new allegations are based on Rowe's actions in 1997 and June 2006, where the original 2007 incest charge was based on Rowe's actions in November and December 2006 and January and February 2007: "Accordingly, the 2017 charges were not only tempo- rally distinct from the 2007 incest charge, they were also not based on a series of acts 'so connected' to the 2007 incest charge 'that they constituted parts of a single scheme or plan.'" Second, the 2007 incest charge was based on reports to author- ities by Irwin Glispie and subse- quent interviews with other wit- nesses. By contrast, the 2017 allegations were reported by Rowe's daughter herself, who was deemed to be under Rowe's influ- ence during the 2007 case and therefore did not cooperate with Mick Rowe's appeal struck down A Winslow man and county employee were injured when a pickup truck slid in front of a county highway truck Tuesday afternoon. Indiana State Trooper Hunter Manning said Joe Mullins, 61, of Winslow was driv- ing west on Highway 56, near an entrance to the Charger Mine. Trooper Manning said a witness was following a semi-truck going west on Highway 56. When the semi slowed to turn into the mine, the witness slowed and said he heard a loud screeching noise behind him. The witness told Trooper Manning that Mullins lost control of his pickup truck and slid into the eastbound lane of High- way 56 and was hit by a county highway dump truck loaded with gravel. The dump truck was driven by Shawn Kendall, 47. A fter impact, the dump truck overturned and spilled its load onto the highway. Trooper Manning said both Mullins and Kendall were taken to the hospital. Mullins was cited for speed too fast for conditions and driving left of center in the 1:25 p.m. accident. The highway was closed for about an hour. By Andy Heuring The second meeting of a new- ly-elected Winslow Town Council covered numerous changes dur- ing its two-hour session Monday night. It included reinstating the thrice-disbanded town park board, replacing their resigned wastewater treatment and street supervisor, plus accepting a bid for more than $ 90,000 of paving. Councilmen voted 3-0 to rein- state the park board the previ- ous town council had disband- ed on three different occasions. Council president Josh Popp said a lawsuit had been filed against the Winslow Town Council claim- ing the park board had been dis- banded improperly. He said that group's attorney had said if they reinstated the board, the lawsuit would be dropped. "Are you saying you are going to reinstate the members as they were, even though we had all that trouble? " asked former council- man Terry Strobel. "We are going to reinstate them," said newly-elected coun- cilman Debra Lamb. "I want to put it on the record. I spoke up and gave you fair warn- ing. If you are reinstating the same park board, I gave you fair warning," said Strobel. Councilman Dick Brewster said there is an Indiana statute for how a town park board member is to be removed. Lamb said they have learned the town's four appointments can have no more than two members of one party. Stacy Russell, who resigned from the park board, said there was another state statute that agreed with how the board was disbanded. She told councilmen two mem- bers of the park board took it up- on themselves to start acting on their own without consent of the board. She said their actions in- cluded policing where people were parking at a business and telling them they were going to have to move the building by one foot because it was on town prop- erty. "It was so bad, they were getting ready to close down." She said another started telling peo- ple they couldn't ride their four- wheelers through the park. Winslow going through changes By Andy Heuring Pike County has recently received al- most $ 3 million from the Federal Highway Administration. It was actually two sepa- rate awards for one project to improve CR 300 N., between Highway 61 and the Indi- ana Southern Rail, just south of Petersburg. "This is great news," said Pike County Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Ashley Willis. "This is a major win for economic devel- opment for the heavy industrial sites that are in the master planned area and rail- served by the I-69 interchange. The road infrastructure will allow traffic to comfort- ably pass through the area and make our sites more attractive for development. It's also helping our existing employer with the immediate needs of Indiana Southern Rail- road," said Willis. The Indiana Dept. of Transportation announced the grants Friday. One is for $2.696 million to make improvements to CR 300 N. The road will be upgraded to handle industrial traffic. The other award was for $256,000 to make improvements to County Bridge 30 that is located between the I-69 overpass and Indiana Southern Rail. The awards are on an 80/20 percent ba- sis. Pike County will be required to put up 20 percent of the cost of the project. Willis said, "CR 300 N is the number one critical piece of infrastructure for business attraction. When we conducted the master plan and put together our action plan and prioritized infrastructure needs, CR 300 N was the top of the list. Several of our heavy industrial projects need rail for their busi- ness requirements and we can deliver that, and now our roads will also be wide enough for heavy haul to easily pass through." This is the first of two phases to improve CR 300 N. Future plans call for it to be im- proved from Indiana Southern Rail west to Highway 57 in a second phase. "This grant award took great collabora- tion from a collective team and the EDC wants to give them a huge thank you for their support and help in the application process: Pike County Commissioners, Pike County Council, Pike County Highway De- partment, Bowman Family Holdings, Indi- ana Southern Railroad, and INDOT. Eco- nomic development is a team sport and we have a terrific team," said Willis. County granted $3 million for road, bridge Two injured in Tuesday crash near Pike Central Emergency personnel tend to Joe Mullins, 61 of Winslow, who suffered a cut to his head in a crash on Highway 56 at 1:25 p.m. Mullins was hit by a County Highway dump truck hauling rock. The truck overturned and spilled rock onto the road, closing Highway 56 for more than an hour. WES Twist contest Winslow fourth grade student Ethan Nelson gets his groove on to the 50s music during WES's twist contest. See additional photos on page A-4.