Last week, a Grant County man turned himself at the Jefferson County Jail in Madison, Indiana after a warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of impersonating an Indiana StateTrooper.

The investigation by Trooper Nate Adams began in February of this year when a man, later identified as James L. Keirstead, age 44, Marion, Indiana, caused a disturbance at the Pizza Hut Restaurant located at 510 Clifty Drive, Madison, Indiana.  During the disturbance, Keirstead told employees of the restaurant that he was a state trooper. 

Multiple employees had additional contact with Keirstead in February and March when he complained about service he received at the business.  During each of those conversations, Keirstead again identified himself as a state trooper and threatened to charge employees with various offenses.  Employees became suspicious of Keirstead and reported him to the ISP-Versailles Post, prompting the investigation. 

With the assistance of Trooper Jeremy Perez (Peru Post), Trooper Adams located Keirstead at a residence in Marion, Indiana where he was interviewed. 

At the conclusion of the investigation, a warrant was issued for James Keirstead on a charge of Impersonation of a Public Servant.  Keirstead returned to Jefferson County and turned himself in on the charge.  He was being held at the Jefferson County Jail pending his initial appearance in court.

Friday at 10:53 a.m., an Indiana State Police Trooper observed a white Ford F-150 pickup truck,  following too close and traveling at a reduced speed  in the left passing lane of Interstate 70 near the 53 mile marker eastbound.  

The driver of the vehicle was identified as Christian Paz Recarte, 29, of Los Angeles California, with three passengers in the vehicle.  During the course of the traffic stop, the trooper observed criminal indicators. 

Putnam County Sheriff’s K-9 was called for assistance.  A positive K-9 alert to the odor of illegal drugs led to a search of the vehicle.

During the search of the vehicle, the trooper discovered 6 kilograms of fentanyl.  

The estimated street value of the Fentanyl is $450,000 dollars.  It is estimated that this seizure removed approximately 59,000 doses of this potentially lethal drug from the streets.  

The drugs were coming from California and destined for Ohio. 

Arrested:

Christian Paz Recarte 29, Los Angeles, California

• Possession of narcotic drug, Level 3 Felony
• Dealing a narcotic drug, Level 2 Felony

Hugo Rosales Moreno 45, Los Angeles, California

• Possession of narcotic drug, Level 3 Felony
• Dealing a narcotic drug, Level 2 Felony

Katherine Navarro 22, Los Angeles, California

• Possession of narcotic drug, Level 3 Felony
• Dealing a narcotic drug, Level 2 Felony

Kelin Morales Martinez 29, Los Angeles, California

• Possession of narcotic drug, Level 3 Felony
• Dealing a narcotic drug, Level 2 Felony

All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Sunday morning, shortly after Midnight, the Scottsburg Police Department requested assistance from the Indiana State Police on what was described as a “shots fired” call with one subject possibly shot and deceased at Lot 21 of the Scott Villa Mobile Home Trailer Park located at 815 West Lake Road in Scottsburg. 

The preliminary investigation reveals that at approximately 11:55p on April 13th, Scottsburg City Police were dispatched to the location after receiving a telephone call from neighbors advising of a disturbance with possible shots fired. 

Officers were also informed of a potential gunshot victim.  Just before Midnight, a second call was placed to Scott County authorities. 

The caller, Michael Brandon Jones, 29, advised he was the home-owner at Lot 21 and that he had just shot a man who he stated was trying to gain entry into his residence. 

Multiple ISP units arrived to assist and were informed by Scottsburg Police that an unidentified male who knocked on the door of the residence had been shot by the homeowner and was deceased. 

They advised Jones had then locked himself in the trailer and was not responding to attempts to contact him.  

Officers were also informed that witnesses heard a gunshot from within the trailer after Mr. Jones had locked himself inside. Troopers established a perimeter around the home and evacuated nearby residents while awaiting the Indiana State Police Emergency Response (ERT) Team.  

After obtaining a search warrant, officers made entry into the trailer and found the Michael Jones deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

The deceased male who was shot at the entrance to the residence has been identified as LARRY D MARLOWE, 34, Allen Street, Scottsburg, Indiana. 

Indiana State Police detectives were on-scene and are the lead agency in this investigation. 

Officers were assisted by units from the Scottsburg City Police Department, The Scott County Prosecutor’s Office, the Scott County Sheriff’s Department, and Scott County EMS.

This investigation is ongoing. 

Family members of both deceased have been notified. 

Indiana Conservation Officers are investigating after a body was recovered from the Ohio River this evening.

The Louisville Fire Department recovered the body of an unidentified male shortly before 6:00 p.m., near the junction of Silver Creek and the Ohio River.

An autopsy is scheduled for early next week. Assisting agencies at the scene included the New Albany Fire Department, New Albany Police Department, Louisville Fire Department, Floyd County EMS, and the Floyd County Coroner’s Office. 

Anyone with information concerning this investigation is encouraged to contact Indiana Conservation Officers’ Central Dispatch at 812-837-9536. No further information will be released until completion of the autopsy. 

Dyslexia Intervention Plans Throughout Washington County:
Did you know that dyslexia affects roughly 20% of the general population? This neurological learning
disability can mean difficulty with word recognition, poor spelling, reduced reading comprehension, and often
children with dyslexia are reading below grade level and unable to get the support they need to be successful
readers.

But there is good news: 95% of reading failure can be prevented by intervening during early school
years, using the correct reading system, and well-trained teachers.

The particular method of systematic
multisensory phonetics is incredibly effective when implemented early in an academic career. In the spirit of
this hopeful statistic, Creating Avenues for Student Transformation, (CAST) is working to implement a
community-wide dyslexia intervention plan to ensure that Dyslexic students have the academic support they
need to excel.

This intervention has three major phases. Phase 1 includes a 2 week training that will be offered through the
Dyslexia Institute of Indiana. This extensive 50-Hour Orton Gillingham Reading Specialist training will be
offered to selected educators in all 3 county schools so they can begin implementing these reading strategies
in classrooms.

In the 2019-2020 school year, all Indiana students in Kindergarten -2 nd grade will be screened for
Dyslexia.

Because of this new legislation, many new diagnoses are likely. As teachers are trained in this
teaching method, it will begin making a huge difference in student success, but many students will need
additional support in addition to classroom instruction. Phase 2 will seek out volunteer tutors.

These tutors will also need to attend the 2 week Orton Gillingham training and will then be matched with dyslexic students as they are identified through screening and diagnosis. Tutoring sites for Salem and West Washington school districts will be at Southern Hills Church and Mt. Tabor Christian Church respectively. A tutoring site for the East Washington school district is still to be confirmed.

This project is the brain child of Erin and Dustin Houchin, who are passionate about this issue.

They have personal experience with the effectiveness of this intervention. They were able to get their son the help he
needed but they quickly learned that other children in our community are not afforded the same opportunity:

“After coming to terms with the fact that there is no infrastructure here, we decided to try to build a support system. Through the help of our church, Mount Tabor, as well as Southern Hills Church and the CAST program, the Washington County Community Foundation, and corporate and private partners and donors, we
are on the verge of launching what we hope will become a Southern Indiana Dyslexia Institute that can
provide help in detecting, accommodating, treating and tutoring children with dyslexia, as well as providing
dyslexia training for teachers in our school systems and serving as a resource for parents of newly diagnosed
children.”

This Southern Indiana Dyslexia Institute is phase 3 of the Dyslexia Intervention Plan. The hope is that Washington County can grow to be a hub of services in a severely under-served region.

CAST is currently working along with Southern Hills Church, Mount Tabor Christian Church and various other organizations to bring all 3 phases of this ambitious plan to fruition. This teacher and tutor training would not be possible without the substantial investment of the Washington County Community Foundation.

Judy Johnson, Foundation Executive Director, is enthusiastic about this partnership, “This is a great follow-up
to the training we offered last summer to our county teachers when we brought in the Ron Clark Academy.
  

Although this event is more targeted, I think this training will have widespread effect in our county.   We are
happy to partner with CAST on this and we are so grateful to our generous donors who made this possible. 

Our donors are having a tremendous impact throughout Washington County.” The Touch Tomorrow funds
that have made such a huge impact on this dyslexia project will continue to be important to the development
of the community: “Our donors to the Touch Tomorrow Funds made this training move from dream to reality. 
Because of their generosity, we were able to fund this training in a very big way. 

The Touch Tomorrow funds allow us to be responsive to the ever-changing needs of our community and respond to opportunities like this. 

Currently, we are offering a matching grant for donations to a Touch Tomorrow Fund.  For every dollar a
donor gives to this type of fund, we will match that dollar with two dollars. 

This is a great time to start or build
a fund in the Washington County Community Foundation.”
The 50 hour Orton Gillingham training will be held at the Washington County Community Foundation
from June 3 rd – June 14 th with possible additional training dates added in the near future.

Space is extremely limited and applications must be turned in to CAST by May 1 st to be considered. Individuals who attend the
training must commit to at least 1 year of tutoring or be teachers in Washington County, Indiana.

Funds are still being collected to fully fund this and future trainings and may be directed to CAST.

Enjoy fried morel mushrooms while taking in live music at Brown County State Park’s Mushrooms and Mash Festival on May 4 beginning at 6 p.m.

 Indiana Boys and Grass Hound will provide live music at the festival, which will also include s’mores around the campfire, mushroom crafts, and other activities. Adult beverages will be for sale.

 Tickets are on sale now for $5 in advance. They will cost $10 the day of the event. Purchase tickets at browncounty.com/store or at the Brown County State Park office or nature center. Kids 12 and under are free.

 Park admission during the event is $7 per vehicle for in-state residents and $9 per vehicle for out-of-state residents. 2019 annual passes will also be available.

 Brown County State Park (on.IN.gov/browncountysp) is at 1450 S.R. 46 E in Nashville, 47448.

 To view all DNR news releases, please see dnr.IN.gov.