WHERE THEY STAND: Longtime prosecuting attorney wants to continue work

Editor’s note: Republican incumbent Joe Villanueva is one of two candidates for Johnson County prosecutor, the top law enforcement position in the county. A Where They Stand interview with Villanueva’s opponent, Republican Lance Hamner, was in last Saturday’s Daily Journal. The Q&A below includes answers by Villanueva in his own words. It has been edited for length and grammar.

A former county prosecutor and superior court judge for the last three decades is running for prosecutor again, challenging the incumbent who was selected via caucus in 2019.

Prosecutor Joe Villanueva is running for his first full term in office. He was selected via caucus after former prosecutor Brad Cooper was removed from office due to his felony conviction. Villanueva, who was chief deputy prosecutor at the time, won the caucus against five other candidates.

He was caught off guard by Lance Hamner’s decision to run for prosecutor, he said.

Villanueva has spent his entire 22-year legal career at the prosecutor’s office. He has taken steps over the past two years to work more closely with law enforcement, including having prosecutors at every major crime scene, having regular meetings with police administration, providing numerous training seminars and legal updates and doing “ride alongs” with officers, he said.

Hamner resigned as Johnson County Superior Court 3 judge in February to run for prosecutor. He previously served as Johnson County prosecutor from 1991 to 2008.

He is disappointed at how the prosecutor’s office has fared in recent years, and its mission to fairly and effectively prosecute criminals is not being accomplished, he said.

Hamner says the prosecutor’s office has lost an “unacceptably high” number of cases at trial, and is not communicating the way it should with local officers and victims’ families.

Why do you want to serve as Johnson County prosecutor? What makes you the best person for the job?

I spent the last two years trying to rebuild what was an atmosphere of divisiveness between our former prosecutor and just about everyone he came in contact with, to an atmosphere of collaboration and cooperation. I’d like to build on those successes. We now have law enforcement agencies that work well with us and each other, and we’ve been able to accomplish some things that were never done in the past, including two child predator sex sting operations that involved multiple agencies both inside and outside the county. I want to continue to use technology to forward our progress. Everything is digital now. We live in a digital world. I would like to try to get one step closer toward our ultimate goal of being as paperless as possible. We have some new computers we’re working on getting for our office this year. We believe in using cutting-edge technology.

You’ve spent your entire career at the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office. Why?

It gets in your blood. The people I work with are great. They all have the same goal and drive and that’s to keep the county a safe and great place where people want to live, work and raise a family.

Some people say the prosecutor’s office has lost credibility and integrity over the last several years. From the Cooper scandal, to the Marcus Salatin murder case. What is your specific plan to ensure that the prosecutor’s office regains the level of integrity that the people of Johnson County deserve?

We’ve already regained that integrity. One of the things we’ve done is make sure everything is transparent. If we have issues with conflicts, we get special prosecutors on those things. We have ethical guidelines we follow. The way we demonstrated that the tide has turned is through me and my leadership – I lead by example. I am in our office everyday. I am in the courtroom regularly handling cases. I don’t have any kind of public scandals around me. In the Salatin case, part of being an ethical and diligent prosecutor is always evaluating your cases and what evidence you have with those cases, and as that evidence changes, so must your position in the case. It’s our job to follow the law and evidence, and I can’t base my decisions on optics or political expediency. We need to make our decisions based on the evidence and what the law says, and that’s what we do.

What is the prosecutor’s office getting right, right now?

We’ve gotten convictions in the last (15/19 jury trials, including a special prosecutor case in Hamilton County. There was also one mistrial, according to court records.) The three jury trials that we lost were sex crimes cases which have, historically, much lower conviction rates than other kinds of cases because they’re oftentimes devoid of any physical evidence, and you’re relying simply on testimony of the victim. But we still bring those to trial because we believe in what the victim said happened and we take our best shot. We have a much better relationship with law enforcement agencies that we did not before. We have regular meetings between the admins of the big three – sheriff, Franklin and Greenwood.

What is the prosecutor’s office getting wrong?

I’d like to be able to get our cases through the system a little faster, but we’re only one arm in the system, so we don’t have complete control of that. It’d be nice if we had some more people, but the budget doesn’t really allow for that. We’re making do with what we have.

Are you looking at any ways to trim the budget?

We (already) cut a couple (deputy prosecutor) positions. We were also contracting to have an outside attorney handle administrative matters like specialized driving privilege cases and expungements. That contract work was terminated in September of 2019, and those duties have since been absorbed by my existing deputy prosecutors. So, the overall savings to the county by not continuing with those three positions was just under $175,000. When you consider health insurance, sick time, vacation and other benefit costs the county would pay out for those two deputy positions, I would estimate the total savings would have been more like $200,000. We’re running lean and mean.

What changes have you made internally, if any, to ensure that fewer jury trials are lost?

Juries are always a wild card. You can prepare until you’re blue in the face, but you never know what’s going to happen. You can prep with your witnesses, but you don’t know what they’re going to end up saying once they take the stand. People get nervous. I don’t know that there’s anything more we can do with preparation. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do differently. The facts are the facts. We don’t have the ability to change those things.

Should the prosecutor’s office be run like a top-notch law firm? Do you plan on making any changes if you’re reelected?

We do. Back in 2019, we didn’t have a policy manual. We immediately went to work with our commissioners and judges and created one. I also created, specifically for our office, a supplemental policy manual that includes dress code, firearms, etc. We continue to do annual performance reviews, which is something that’s done in the private sector. I didn’t have to make any major, wholesale changes to the office. The people who weren’t really a fit for what we were doing kind of naturally migrated away to other things. Positions sometimes require specialized knowledge. We looked outside our office and hired some experienced trial attorneys who worked in Marion County to come here as a lateral move. We wanted to put the best person for that job in that position as opposed to simply saying, alright, next man up.

How do you decide which deputy prosecutors get which cases? Do you play on strengths at all?

We have deputies who are assigned to different courts. We also have deputies who are assigned to specific types of cases – they have specialties. When we have trials, one of the things we try to do is to mix it up a little bit. If we have a domestic case, we have our domestic prosecutor handle that, but also another prosecutor who doesn’t specialize in domestic cases. That gives everyone some exposure and additional trial experience.

Are you an experienced trial attorney? Do you plan to carry a caseload and try your own cases as the prosecutor? Why is that so important?

Absolutely. That’s how I came up as a prosecutor. I always had cases and was in the courtroom. I still have them. I can’t have a full caseload like my deputies – it’s not feasible. There are certain administrative matters that need your attention, and you can’t go 100% in both directions. I have a decent caseload that puts me in all the courts. I believe you have to lead by example. In my eyes, if you’re going to get the respect of the deputies and the people you work with, you need to be in the trenches with them. Same blood, same mud.

Do you have a hand in every case? Why or why not?

No, I can’t. We filed more than 4,000 cases last year, including more than 2,000 in county courts. Part of doing this job is to surround yourself with good, competent trial attorneys. Either you trust your people or you don’t. If you have your hand in every single case, you’re micromanaging. These people all went to law school just like I did.

What training opportunities are available to your staff?

IPAC (Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council) seminars a couple times a year. We want to avail our deputies of every opportunity there is to get the training they want. Sometimes there is highly specific training that takes place out of the state. We try to minimize that due to the cost. But there are some instances where the training is so good and it really is something we can’t get locally, we’ll pay to have those things.

Do you have a good working relationship with local police agencies in the county?

It’s nice that if one of the police chiefs has a question on something, they just call me on my cell, whether it’s 8 p.m. or 6 a.m., and we’ll talk through it. There’s a trickle-down effect. If the admins are getting along, the rank in file are able to get along. It sets the tone in every place. We’re just scratching the surface on what we can do, and it’s better for everybody.

Under what scenarios would you seek a special prosecutor to handle cases? How would you be involved in that process?

We have an ethical obligation as prosecutors to seek a special prosecutor when there’s a conflict. In the most recent case, there was a police officer who was arrested on allegations of drunk driving. I personally know that officer; I’ve known him for many years in both a social and professional capacity. That is not something I think is appropriate for our office to handle. When we ask for special prosecutors, I don’t want anybody thinking we are trying to play favorites or protect this person because he’s a police officer. That’s why when I seek special prosecutors, I ask the court to have them appointed, not only to potentially prosecute but also to investigate. It’s important for me that we have nothing to do with any aspect of it. Let someone from another jurisdiction determine whether there’s enough evidence to go forward.

Should the public be informed of the details of the crimes that are committed in the county? What level of transparency would you guarantee?

Yes, they have a right to things we are authorized to disclose. Once charges are filed, we’re happy to provide public documents. When someone is just being investigated for something, we are limited in what we’re allowed to say and disclose because they’ve not been formally charged. I’ve operated under a philosophy that if I can give it to you, I’m going to give it to you. I live here, too. I would like to know what’s going on in this county.

Are the drug roundups solving the local drug problems? What evidence have you seen of that?

They are. We have people who are dealing drugs and putting poison in our community. They are getting sent to the Department of Correction, which has some of the best treatment opportunities outside of high-end, private facilities that a lot of people can’t afford. Those who are dealing to support an addiction are now in the system where they’re given the opportunity to try and get some help. Our new drug court, one of the things my office worked with the courts and probation to establish, is helping people who are addicted. They’re finally getting the chance to get some treatment. Having those problem-solving courts helps the people we’re getting from these roundups.

Do you plan to continue the sex trafficking roundups? Why or why not?

Our mission is to protect kids. These people are preying on children. Whatever we can do to get these people identified and convicted, that’s keeping our kids everywhere – not just in Johnson County – safe.

Let’s talk about the Marcus Salatin case. Do you truly feel like you did everything in your power to get the murder case to trial?

We filed that case based on the information and evidence we had at the time. Additional evidence came to light later on that totally changed the dynamic and what we believed to be the circumstances of that situation. That was coupled with allegations, at this point, that the two main witnesses lied under oath about things having to do with that case. As I’ve said before, we took an oath to follow the law and the facts, and that’s what we did. It wasn’t a popular decision; I’m well aware of that. But it was what we had to do.

Looking back, how might have you handled the case differently?

I’m sure there are always things you would have liked to have done differently, but everything we did and all the decisions we made were appropriate at the time based on what we had.

In your pre-caucus interview, you named Mr. Hamner as your top influencer. You said: “I’ve always looked up to him and how he conducted himself and handled difficult situations. I go to him with legal questions. He’s a great mind, a good person, and someone who is not afraid to say to me, ‘Hey Joe V., what are you thinking on this?’” Is this still accurate?

No, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. Over the last two years, I’ve used that time to make the office more my own and do more myself. I’ve shifted a little bit who I talk to about things. It wasn’t anything negative. We just didn’t talk about much anymore. If anything, you have two spectrums here – the way Brad Cooper governed and the way Lance Hamner governed – and I swing more toward the way Lance did it.

Who are your top influencers now?

Daylon Welliver is my No. 2, my chief deputy and a great legal mind. He’s always a good sounding board, whether it be administrative or other things. Mark Lloyd has done it all. I respect his opinion on a lot of different things.

What is your plan if you lose the race for prosecutor?

Since I am not of retirement age, I will be looking for a new career which would still allow me to provide for my wife and children. I also anticipate writing letters of recommendation for several experienced deputy prosecutors and support staff who will also be leaving the office (voluntarily or otherwise) because of what would be the impending transition. On a personal level, my involvement with the various community related organizations I belong to would remain the same.

The Villanueva File

Name: Joseph M. Villanueva

Residence: Bargersville

Family: Wife, Carrie; two children

Occupation: Johnson County prosecutor

Educational background: Schaumburg High School, Schaumburg, Ill.; University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana; Indiana University Maurer School of Law

Past political experience: Prosecutor, 2019-present

Memberships: Adult and Child Health Board of Directors; National Rifle Association; Boy Scouts Troop 245 committee chair; Emmanuel Church; Johnson County Women’s Republican Club; Johnson County Bar Association; Johnson County Community Corrections executive board member; Indiana State Bar Association member; Johnson County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 154 member; Free and Accepted Masons Devol Lodge #766 master mason; Franklin Elks Lodge 1818 member; Johnson County Special Olympics.