Communication at heart of prosecutor candidate’s platform

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Grey Chandler

HANCOCK COUNTY — A McCordsville lawyer hopes to bring his passion for prosecution to an elected county office.

Grey Chandler, a Republican, is running for Hancock County prosecutor in the upcoming primary election. He faces incumbent Brent Eaton, who’s finishing his second term after defeating Chandler four years ago.

Chandler has worked in prosecution for 17 years, that last seven of which as a deputy prosecutor in Madison County, a position he stepped down from in January.

He was also a deputy prosecutor in Hancock County from 2007 through 2014, serving under two prosecutors before going to Madison County. The 42-year-old now runs a private law practice in McCordsville, where he lives with his wife, Anne, and their three children.

Chandler said he’s gained a lot of trial experience throughout this career. Last year alone, he had three murder cases that went to trial along with a Level 1-felony rape case, Level 1-felony child molesting case and a case involving a violent felon with guns and drugs, all of which he achieved convictions for.

“I have a passion for prosecution,” Chandler said. “To me, it’s the only lawyer whose job is to do what’s right, what’s just for everybody. And they don’t have one individual or one corporation that they have to represent, at the expense of other people sometimes.”

Prosecutors get to make decisions based on what’s best for everyone in the community, he continued.

“And that includes the accused sometimes, and the victims and their families and everybody involved,” he said. “It’s nice to make decisions based on what’s right. Not that you always get it right, but if that’s your guiding light, then it’s kind of a luxury compared to other lawyers who have to just do what’s in the best interest of one person.”

Chandler also thinks there’s a need for a leadership change at the county prosecutor’s office.

“I don’t think that the current prosecutor is getting the job done,” he said.

Chandler wants to improve what he sees as a lack of communication between the prosecutor’s office and law enforcement.

He said that when he screens cases, he keeps in contact with law enforcement officers to explain why he doesn’t file a charge, get more information that may affect his approach to a case, or to prepare for charges that are filed.

“And invariably we’re on the same page when we file the case or plea negotiations,” he continued, adding he’d maintain that approach to case screening if elected in Hancock County.

Chandler also noted the turnover among deputy prosecutors in Hancock County lately.

“I think that’s a real problem,” he said. “You have to be able to hire and keep good, qualified, experienced prosecutors.”

He said as well that the prosecutor’s office has been filing about the same amount of cases a year as 20 years ago despite growing in staff.

Eaton has maintained that he frequently meets with law enforcement officers and works in close collaboration with them on many cases.

In response to caseloads, Eaton said his office is bringing forth more cases that are more complex, like the recent attempted murder trial that resulted in eight of nine guilty verdicts, as well as intensive sexual assault and domestic violence cases.

“We’ve made a real effort to have this office effectively serve the victims of crime,” Eaton said. “We’ve essentially re-calibrated everything with that in mind. It’s 100% true that it is much more difficult to work with human victims on cases than it is to work on cases that are kind of without that human element. It’s much easier to prove a case, like a lot of driving offenses, than it would be to prove cases where you have actual human victims. The amount of labor to support bringing a case to trial successfully is a lot more. It’s just not an apples-to-apples comparison.”

He added the prosecutor’s office has more responsibilities than it did two decades ago, including those associated with a child fatality review team, sexual assault response team, drug court, behavioral health court and the Zoey’s Place Child Advocacy Center, which had over 100 interviews with children regarding potential crimes last year.

“Each one of those things requires the input of prosecutors to do them effectively,” Eaton said. “…I’m focused on trying to have this office keep this community safe for the problems we have in the 21st century, not run this office the way it was run for problems in the 20th century.”

He also thinks the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the amount of arrests made not just locally, but nationally as well.

“The number of cases we get from law enforcement tracks pretty close with what we ultimately file,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of dead weight sitting around. Generally speaking, we’re pretty aggressive with filing because we want to protect the public.”

In response to turnover, Eaton said many of the recent resignations in his office were employees who applied for promotion and didn’t get it.

“Sometimes, as expectations increase and things become a little bit more challenging, people have to make the right decision for themselves, and we wish everybody well,” he said.