FRANKLIN, Ind. — Johnson County prosecutor Brad Cooper and Daily Journal editor, Michele Holtkamp are sparring over the appointment of Brown County prosecutor, Ted Adams to review a domestic battery case involving Franklin police officer Bryan Burton and his wife.
Specifically, Cooper is disappointed that Holtkamp did not contact him to get comment about interactions between himself, Burton and Adams.
The piece written by Holtkamp questions the relationship between Cooper and both Burton and Adams. She raises concern that Adams may have had direct dealings with Burton more than 10 years ago when he worked in the Johnson County prosecutor’s office with then deputy prosecutor, Cooper. Cooper has insisted his appointment of Adams is ethical.
The dispute reached a boiling point when Cooper penned a letter to the editor that was not made public. The letter questioned the actions of editor Holtkamp and presented the facts from Cooper’s perspective. The following letter was submitted by Cooper on January 9, 2017.
I’d like to address the January 7th story written by Michele Holtkamp, which questioned the appointment of a special prosecutor with ties to me, my predecessor’s office and this community to review Bryan Burton’s recent arrest. It is quite troubling and telling that Holtkamp would write such a story without so much as a phone call to me. Indeed, the NYU Journalism Handbook states:
“Fairness means adhering to the “no surprises” rule when critically writing of someone: affording the source the opportunity to answer allegations or criticism before publishing the work.”
If Holtkamp had called, she would have discovered I wholeheartedly believed a prosecutor with no connections to Johnson County should have been appointed to review the Burton matter and that I did everything within my power to make such occur. Immediately after Burton’s arrest, Franklin PD Chief Tim O’Sullivan contacted me to apprise me of the situation, which I deeply appreciated as we both knew media hysterics would follow. As soon as the case arrived at my office, I immediately filed a motion for a special prosecutor to review the arrest. The County Clerk randomly assigned the case to Superior Court 2. I personally went to the Court and specifically requested this matter be sent to a prosecutor with no connections to Johnson County.
Nevertheless, Judge Emkes, whom I respect, appointed Ted Adams of Brown County. When I learned of Ted’s appointment, I contacted Ted and suggested he not accept the appointment.
While I have no doubt Ted would conduct a thorough investigation and make an open and honest decision as to whether or not to charge Burton, I still believe Ted should remove himself from the case. To be fair to the accused and the accusers and to uphold the integrity of the system (and quite frankly to placate conspiracy theorists such as Holtkamp), the decision to file a charge (or not) should come from a prosecutor completely disconnected to Johnson County. For Holtkamp to have tied me into her conspiracy theory without speaking to me first was unfair, unprofessional, inaccurate and could have been avoided had she simply picked up the phone and followed the basic rules of journalism ethics as outlined by the NYU School of Journalism.
A final note, the information contained in six year old “report” referenced by Holtkamp was reviewed by the Indiana Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Commission who rejected the contents of the report in its entirety and found I committed no ethical violations, a fact Holtkamp conveniently omitted from her story.
Brad Cooper
