Brizzi Loses when Jury Acquits Man on $122,000 Non-Support Charge
20 March 2007 Indianapolis -
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi was handed a stunning defeat in Cause Number 49G04-0506-FC-102257 when a Superior Court jury deliberated less than a half hour before returning a verdict of ‘not guilty’ in the case of Eric D Walker who had topped Marion County’s list of “Deadbeat Dads” with an arrears of $122,000. Brizzi brought the charge around Father’s Day 2005 in a political move wherein he boastfully touted that he would be helping the children of Marion County.
Contrary to his purported mission of “helping the children of Marion County” the effect was quite the opposite. It seems his greatest accomplishment has now been in wasting taxpayer dollars and jailing a man who had been providing for his children. Mr Walker lost his high paying maintenance job because of Mr Brizzi who had been told by the mother of the children prior to filing the charge that the father was providing support and she would testify in the defense of the father. .
Deputy Prosecutor Rom Byron provided a record from the Marion County Clerk of the Court’s office indicating Walker, 46, owed the full amount to his ex-wife, Tawanna Walker, 44. They divorced in 1990. That wasn’t enough to sway the jury to misapply the law and find that Mr Walker was failing to provide “food, clothing, shelter or medical care” to his dependent children as required for a finding of guilt under I.C. 35-46-1-5(a) just because he had not paid a debt.
Public opinion has been mixed with some people calling the jury “stupid” for not finding him guilty anyway “because he is a man”. Still others have praised his support of his children and lashed out at the prosecutor for the politically motivated persecution.
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