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Chicago Tribune
21-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Officials: Valparaiso University's enrollment expected to grow in coming academic year
Though the timing isn't right yet for solid numbers, Valparaiso University officials said during a Wednesday community town hall that they expect enrollment to tick up when the academic year begins anew in August. 'I'm sure all of you are wondering what we are looking at for fall,' said Rosa Alvarado, the university's new assistant vice president for enrollment. 'We are on a very strong upward trend.' While applications were a bit down, deposits to hold spots for the coming year are up, Alvarado said, adding the university will see a 'sizeable' group of new undergrads and a 'small but strong' cohort of graduate students. 'We are ahead at this time of where we were last year for incoming freshmen, incoming transfer students and incoming graduate students,' President José Padilla, who is retiring at the end of the calendar year, told the more than 50 community leaders and representatives who attended the town hall, held in the Harre Union. Commitment to attending the university includes a $200 deposit, though some prospective students decide to go elsewhere and give up that deposit, a slimming-down of the number of students Padilla called the 'melt.' 'Right now we're ahead of pace but it's premature for us to say the numbers,' he said, adding the figures will be shared in the fall after the academic year begins. The university's struggle for students has been ongoing, not helped by the closure of its law school in 2020 or the COVID-19 pandemic. The fall and new student headcount both dropped in the past two years after numbers began to climb slightly in 2022, as the direct impact of the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic began to wane. Still, according to enrollment figures on the university's website, both numbers are below where they were in the fall of 2019 before the pandemic began. The university had 852 new students in August 2024, compared to 1,004 in 2019. Likewise, this year's total fall headcount was 2,598 students, compared to 3,521 in fall 2019. Only 16 students from the latter count were in the university's law school, its last cohort before it closed. University officials have said they are working to 'right size' the student population count, something Padilla said they are discussing with the school's board of trustees. 'We're looking at 2,800 (students) as sustainable,' he said. Toward that end, Padilla noted the recent sale of two of three cornerstone pieces of art from the Brauer Museum, including 'Rust Red Hills' by Georgia O'Keeffe, as allowed by an August Porter Superior Court decision and affirmed by the Indiana Attorney General's Office. The sale required a modification of the Sloan Trust, which directly or indirectly funded purchase of the three paintings. 'The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate' by Childe Hassam also sold, a university spokesperson confirmed last week. The sale of Frederic E. Church's 'Mountain Landscape' is still in process. 'Now we have $12 million in the bank,' Padilla said, which allows the university to move forward with renovations for Brandt and Wehrenberg halls for its freshman village. The renovation includes a gallery to display lesser-known works of art from the Sloan Trust. The renovations are in the planning stages, Padilla said, but with the necessary funds in hand, 'we're off to the races with what we initially intended to do.' The university's marketing team is already working to push the renovated facilities. 'We're very excited about it. I think it's really going to help us in terms of getting students here,' Padilla said. About 30% of the incoming students are commuters, who do so to save money, Padilla said, adding he doesn't expect that to change much. Still, university officials prefer to have students living on campus, something that should increase with the dorm renovations, which include air conditioning, furniture and other upgrades. 'With these upgraded dorms, we think we're going to get more residential students,' he said. Meanwhile, Mark Volpatti, the university's senior vice president for finance and chief financial officer, said Scheele and Lankenau halls are dormant and likely will be razed, though how that space will be used by the campus is yet to be determined. Officials said the university also is selling off some of its unused property, including the site of the former Strongbow Inn, which the university purchased two years ago as controversy swirled on campus and beyond about the artwork sale. The property, Volpatti said, is in the area of Silhavy and Sturdy roads and includes everything but the baseball fields in that area. Other topics discussed at the town hall included a new facility to replace LeBien Hall, home of the university's nursing program. 'LeBien Hall has served us well but it no longer meets our needs,' said Christine Radtke, the university's assistant vice president for development. A new building will strengthen enrollment for the university's nursing and healthcare programs, allowing for more extensive simulation labs and professional collaboration, she said. The facility will be 92,000 square feet and three stories as proposed. 'We want to have existing medical practices in this building,' Padilla said. 'We don't want our students to learn in a vacuum.' The university already is in discussion with potential tenants that will bring the community to the campus, he said. The project includes a seven-year fundraising campaign, which university officials hope to complete in five years, with plans to break ground as the university comes close to reading its fundraising goal, Padilla said. The new building will be constructed near the intersection of U.S. 30 and Sturdy Road. Additionally, Rebekah Arevalo, the university's assistant vice president and chief of staff, offered a timeline for finding Padilla's replacement given his pending retirement, which he announced in January. The university has engaged in the services of Academic Search, a search firm specializing in higher education. Additionally, a search committee has held 15 in-person meetings with campus and community members and seven online meetings for input on the university's next president. A professional profile will be ready sometime in June, with recruitment taking place over the summer and a review of candidates and scheduled interviews through October. A new president should be named by late November, to take over on Jan. 1. Padilla will have served as president for five years when he retires. Outgoing board chair Robert Hansen, who also announced he is retiring at the end of the year after 18 years on the board, including the last five years as chair, is being replaced by chair-elect Jon Steinbrecher, a 1983 graduate of the university.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Porter fraudster Donald Johnson to remain in jail without bond as he continues to seek an attorney
Donald M. Johnson will remain in the Porter County Jail without bond for another six months after a Friday hearing in which he told the court that he still hasn't been able to find another attorney and the additional time will allow him to do just that. Johnson has cycled through attorneys at an almost dizzying pace — his last attorney stepped away in December — postponing time and again various elements of his most recent criminal case and, at least from the perspective of Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer and Special Prosecutor David Rooda, postponing payment of the hundreds of thousands of dollars to he owes to the victims of his securities fraud from his original case, which stretches back more than a decade. Clymer swore Johnson in from the jail for questioning about his ability to hire and pay for an attorney. He told the judge that his inability to hire an attorney was 'beyond my control' because he couldn't get a lawyer to call him back while he was in jail. 'Mr. Johnson had three months to hire an attorney and hasn't done so,' Rooda said, adding that it fits 'a pattern of conduct of Mr. Johnson intentionally delaying' the case moving forward. Johnson, 60, of Porter, has been held without bond in the Porter County Jail since late October after a late restitution payment, among other allegations, jeopardized his probation status. He also racked up a fresh criminal charge, a Level 6 felony count of obstruction of justice, during his Oct. 24 arrest at his parents' rural Porter County home. Johnson is on probation for four years after pleading guilty more than a year ago to a single count of securities fraud in a case that has stretched for a decade and involves multiple victims. Under the terms of the plea agreement reluctantly accepted by Clymer in January 2024, Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of broker-dealer registration violation, a Class C felony. The additional 14 counts against him were dismissed as part of the plea and he was sentenced to four years of probation and to pay $604,500 in restitution, the total owed to all of his victims. He has paid $58,031 of that so far, according to online court records. Johnson, Clymer said, has admitted in court that he was late with a restitution payment in October. The other matters to be resolved include the obstruction of justice charge and the other ways in which he reportedly violated the terms of his probation, including not reporting income from a job at a restaurant and bar; that in itself was a violation because he is not supposed to be at establishments that serve alcohol, much less work at them. Rooda, reminding Johnson he was under oath, asked Johnson if he had asked his family to hold off on hiring an attorney for him. 'I plead the Fifth,' Johnson said, referring to the Fifth Amendment right to be free of self-incrimination. When asked to speak up from the jail, he said, 'I choose not to answer that question.' Rooda asked Johnson if he had been in contact with an attorney who was willing to represent him, but whom he wouldn't hire. 'I plead the Fifth,' Johnson repeated before agreeing with Rooda that his family had the funds to hire a defense attorney. Johnson has continued to push Clymer's patience to the stretching point and Friday's hearing was no exception. He said he wouldn't have agreed to the plea agreement, 'which seems like a long time ago,' if it didn't include restitution to Johnson's victims. 'I would not have accepted the sentence if the admitted victims were not going to be made whole,' Clymer said, adding one victim is owed 'almost a quarter of a million dollars,' and another is out $100,000. 'They're entitled to be paid back,' Clymer said. He demanded to know how long it would be until Johnson got an attorney and Johnson said six months. If he hires an attorney in the meantime, Clymer said, the court will give the state notice and the hearing, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 23, can be held sooner. 'The delay is charged to Mr. Johnson,' Clymer said. 'The court finds he is not attempting to find counsel.' The fastest way for Johnson to get out of jail, Clymer said, is to provide the remaining $550,000 to pay his victims back. 'Five witnesses are prepared to testify and this is the second time we've done this,' Clymer said. 'You can tell the court is not pleased.' The securities fraud allegations against Johnson include multiple victims who, according to charging documents, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate investments gone bad when they did not get the returns they were promised and couldn't get back the money they put into the deals. Charges against Johnson were filed in March 2014. He was initially charged with 14 counts related to securities fraud, Class C felonies at the time. Two months later, he was charged with one count of forgery, also a Class C felony, and two counts of theft, Class D felonies, in a related case. An appellate court ruling trimmed that to 15 counts after determining that the statute of limitations had run out for one of the victim's claims, but the rest of the charges could stand. alavalley@
Chicago Tribune
11-04-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Porter fraudster Donald Johnson to remain in jail without bond as he continues to seek an attorney
Donald M. Johnson will remain in the Porter County Jail without bond for another six months after a Friday hearing in which he told the court that he still hasn't been able to find another attorney and the additional time will allow him to do just that. Johnson has cycled through attorneys at an almost dizzying pace — his last attorney stepped away in December — postponing time and again various elements of his most recent criminal case and, at least from the perspective of Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer and Special Prosecutor David Rooda, postponing payment of the hundreds of thousands of dollars to he owes to the victims of his securities fraud from his original case, which stretches back more than a decade. Clymer swore Johnson in from the jail for questioning about his ability to hire and pay for an attorney. He told the judge that his inability to hire an attorney was 'beyond my control' because he couldn't get a lawyer to call him back while he was in jail. 'Mr. Johnson had three months to hire an attorney and hasn't done so,' Rooda said, adding that it fits 'a pattern of conduct of Mr. Johnson intentionally delaying' the case moving forward. Johnson, 60, of Porter, has been held without bond in the Porter County Jail since late October after a late restitution payment, among other allegations, jeopardized his probation status. He also racked up a fresh criminal charge, a Level 6 felony count of obstruction of justice, during his Oct. 24 arrest at his parents' rural Porter County home. Johnson is on probation for four years after pleading guilty more than a year ago to a single count of securities fraud in a case that has stretched for a decade and involves multiple victims. Under the terms of the plea agreement reluctantly accepted by Clymer in January 2024, Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of broker-dealer registration violation, a Class C felony. The additional 14 counts against him were dismissed as part of the plea and he was sentenced to four years of probation and to pay $604,500 in restitution, the total owed to all of his victims. He has paid $58,031 of that so far, according to online court records. Johnson, Clymer said, has admitted in court that he was late with a restitution payment in October. The other matters to be resolved include the obstruction of justice charge and the other ways in which he reportedly violated the terms of his probation, including not reporting income from a job at a restaurant and bar; that in itself was a violation because he is not supposed to be at establishments that serve alcohol, much less work at them. Rooda, reminding Johnson he was under oath, asked Johnson if he had asked his family to hold off on hiring an attorney for him. 'I plead the Fifth,' Johnson said, referring to the Fifth Amendment right to be free of self-incrimination. When asked to speak up from the jail, he said, 'I choose not to answer that question.' Rooda asked Johnson if he had been in contact with an attorney who was willing to represent him, but whom he wouldn't hire. 'I plead the Fifth,' Johnson repeated before agreeing with Rooda that his family had the funds to hire a defense attorney. Johnson has continued to push Clymer's patience to the stretching point and Friday's hearing was no exception. He said he wouldn't have agreed to the plea agreement, 'which seems like a long time ago,' if it didn't include restitution to Johnson's victims. 'I would not have accepted the sentence if the admitted victims were not going to be made whole,' Clymer said, adding one victim is owed 'almost a quarter of a million dollars,' and another is out $100,000. 'They're entitled to be paid back,' Clymer said. He demanded to know how long it would be until Johnson got an attorney and Johnson said six months. If he hires an attorney in the meantime, Clymer said, the court will give the state notice and the hearing, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 23, can be held sooner. 'The delay is charged to Mr. Johnson,' Clymer said. 'The court finds he is not attempting to find counsel.' The fastest way for Johnson to get out of jail, Clymer said, is to provide the remaining $550,000 to pay his victims back. 'Five witnesses are prepared to testify and this is the second time we've done this,' Clymer said. 'You can tell the court is not pleased.' The securities fraud allegations against Johnson include multiple victims who, according to charging documents, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate investments gone bad when they did not get the returns they were promised and couldn't get back the money they put into the deals. Charges against Johnson were filed in March 2014. He was initially charged with 14 counts related to securities fraud, Class C felonies at the time. Two months later, he was charged with one count of forgery, also a Class C felony, and two counts of theft, Class D felonies, in a related case. An appellate court ruling trimmed that to 15 counts after determining that the statute of limitations had run out for one of the victim's claims, but the rest of the charges could stand.
Chicago Tribune
19-03-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Trial begins for man charged in Pine Township traffic death of girlfriend, injuries to toddler son
Opening statements took less than 15 minutes Tuesday morning in the trial of Marcus Wright, the 35-year-old Michigan City man accused of causing the death of his girlfriend and catastrophic injury to their toddler son in an auto accident in Pine Township three years ago. Prosecutors say Wright's blood alcohol level was over twice the legal limit and he tested positive for THC. The husband and wife, whose backyard pond in the 1600 block of Ardendale Avenue on the Porter County side of Michigan City was the site of the accident, each took the stand in Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer's court immediately following opening remarks by Porter County Deputy Prosecutor Kiré Pavlovski and defense attorney Mark Chargualaf. Prosecutors played the 911 recording from around 4:30 p.m. on March 22, 2022. 'Oh my God! Oh my God! I can't even figure out where they came from. I don't know how they got there,' says a distraught Dana LaRocco on the recording. She testified she had been in her kitchen preparing side dishes for dinner when she saw out the window something fly through the air in her backyard. Around the front of the house, her husband Brian LaRocco was grilling the main course in the doorway of their garage. Dana LaRocco said she went into the backyard to find a car upside down in her ½-acre pond and bubbles coming to the surface. She ran around to the front of the house to get her husband and then they parted ways, he to get to the bank of the pond despite a broken leg, and she to run back into the house for her cell phone to call for help. When Dana LaRocco returned to the pond she saw Wright standing in the water. 'He was struggling for air,' she said. 'He didn't go anywhere. He stood in the water.' She then ran out to the street to watch for emergency personnel but returned to the pond when the dispatcher asked her to. There she found her husband performing chest compressions on Wright's 22-year-old girlfriend Alisa Oman on the dock. 'Marcus Wright tried to pin this crash on Alisa Oman,' Pavlovski told the jury, but he said evidence such as the driver's seat being pushed all the way back, will support the state's claim that Wright is lying about not being the driver. Pavlovski said the seat position supports the argument that Wright, who is 5-foot-11-inches, rather than Oman, who was 5-foot-4-inches, was the driver. Pavlovski added that further testimony would also reveal, contrary to Wright's claim, that 'in fact, the brakes were fully operational,' and that Wright had purchased a bottle of brandy earlier in the day. Chargualaf told the jury there was no disputing that the 2000 Buick LaSabre flipped and came to rest in the LaRoccos' pond, but that they should 'pay attention to the evidence of how the vehicle was found' to support his client's claim that he was not the driver. 'You will see the body camera footage showing Marcus speaking to the officer in the hospital,' Chargualaf added. 'You will hear Marcus say at least 10 times he was not driving. He was the passenger. You will find the state has not proven Marcus was operating this vehicle.' Brian LaRocco testified that people often speed down the road in front of his house and then slow down for the turn at a T intersection. 'I heard a car coming down the road,' he said. 'It seemed like a high rate of speed. I didn't hear any brakes or nothing and thought it was odd.' Brian LaRocco testified that he saw a hand emerge on the driver's side of the vehicle and then Wright came out of the water. He told the court he dragged Wright's girlfriend onto the dock himself and Wright eventually joined him. LaRocco also testified that a diver arrived just minutes after the first emergency responders to the scene and was underwater 10 to 15 seconds before pulling the toddler from the vehicle. Wright faces four counts, including three felonies: operating while intoxicated causing death, a Level 4 felony which carries a sentence of two to 12 years and a fine of up to $10,000; operating while intoxicated causing catastrophic injury, a Level 4 felony which carries a sentence of two to 12 years and a fine of up to $10,000; operating while intoxicated with a child under 18, a Level 6 felony which carries a maximum sentence of two-and-a-half years and a fine of up to $10,000; and operating with a blood alcohol level above .15, a Class A misdemeanor which carries a sentence of up to one year and a $5,000 fine. The trial is expected to conclude Thursday.
Chicago Tribune
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Porter County students hear oral arguments in appeal weighing child discipline vs. abuse
Chesterton High School senior Karalena Heredia had a memorable 18th birthday Tuesday, serving as a student bailiff for a three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals. About 100 students in the criminal justice class at Wheeler High School heard oral arguments in a case involving parental privilege when it comes to disciplining a child – and where to draw the line. All three judges – Nancy Vaidik, Elizabeth Tavitas and Mary DeBoer – served as judges in Northwest Indiana before their service on the appellate court. After the oral arguments were heard from defense attorney David Joley, of Fort Wayne, and John Oosterhoff, of Indianapolis, representing the state, the three judges answered students' questions about anything except the case. The court's opinion in Norwood v. State is expected in about a month, DeBoer said. The court holds about 40 of these Appeals on Wheels events every year, Vaidik said. 'It's a great event for us, but it's a lot of work,' she said. It's good for students to have a positive first encounter with the legal system, but it's good for the judges, too. 'We get to see people. We get to interact with people,' she said. When Vaidik was Porter Superior Court judge, she got about 100 calls a day, she said. It's now just a handful a week. Vaidik pointed out to the students that the three-judge panel was all women, something she would not have encountered when she was their age. In fact, when she began her legal career, she encountered few women serving as judges or even attorneys, she said. Now the 15-member Court of Appeals has seven women. DeBoer told the students she first served as a deputy prosecutor, then magistrate, then was appointed Porter Circuit Court judge by then-Gov. Eric Holcomb in 2019, then was appointed to the Court of Appeals last September. 'My first judgeship, I ran for office,' replacing a predecessor she disagreed with, Vaidik said. 'I think I can do better,' she thought. 'How arrogant I was.' Running for judge meant campaigning, including passing out candy at Fourth of July parades and 'going to every single pancake breakfast there was in the county, and I can't eat pancakes,' Vaidik said. 'We're here to encourage you' to pursue careers in the legal field, Vaidik told the criminal justice students. Instructor Ralph Wheeler said the students in that course had already covered court procedures, including a field trip to the federal court. Appeals on Wheels was a good experience for them, he said. Porter Superior Court Judge Christopher Buckley thought so, too. He was enlightened by the Norwood v. State case and the three judges' questions directed to attorneys on both sides. The case involves a mother of an 11-year-old boy who was frantic when she left her son home alone during work and couldn't contact him by phone, text messages or even through a videogame, Joley explained. He provided the narrative for the three judges, but also to explain the case to the audience. 'She actually calls her DCS (Department of Child Services) caseworker: 'Can you help me? I don't know where he's at,'' Joley said. The mom leaves work and finds her son in a shopping center parking lot. While the mom is pulling the boy out of the car by his hair, as he's refusing to get out, he punches her. They get into a scuffle, and she's sitting on top of him, restraining him, Joley said. 'She was angry at this point,' he explained. When police arrived, they found the mom had her son in a chokehold and the boy was gasping for air. The mother was found guilty of felony domestic battery and felony strangulation and sentenced to a total of six years, four incarcerated and two on probation. 'The amount of force she used against LN,' the unnamed minor, was excessive, Oosterhoff said. DCS had been involved with the family because the boy had run away before this incident, he said. In that case, the mother drove across a golf course to chase down the boy, Oosterhoff said. Joley argued that parental privilege, the right to determine appropriate discipline, applies in his client's case. Oosterhoff countered that the mom's measures were excessive, crossing the line as to what's acceptable.
