Leary faces 17 felony charges in real estate scheme

  • 02/05/2010 1:18 am in

This has been a season devoid of predictability for Indiana on the court, but nothing could compare to this.

Former Hoosier Todd Leary, a color commentator on IU’s radio broadcast team alongside play-by-play man Don Fischer, was arrested Thursday evening on 17 felony counts “in connection with a scheme to misappropriate real estate title funds,” according to the above-linked report from the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette.

I’m not great with the legalese, I just got home from a Notre Dame game and it’s my birthday, so I’m just going to quote heavily from this report, which would frankly be a better plan of action no matter the circumstance:

Leary once worked for former title insurance broker Joseph Garretson, who pleaded guilty this week in Allen Superior Court to conversion or misappropriation of title insurance escrow funds, corrupt business influence and unlawful loan origination activities in a scheme that court documents say totaled $2.7 million in losses.

IU police arrested Leary – an analyst for the Indiana University Radio Network – on Thursday evening, and he was booked into the Monroe County Jail in Bloomington about 6:45 p.m., 15 minutes before IU’s home game against Purdue.

Leary, 39, of Carmel, is accused of conspiring with Garretson between July 2008 and February 2009 to commit a variety of felonies, including conspiracy to commit conversion or misappropriation of title insurance escrow funds, conspiracy to commit theft and conspiracy to corrupt business influence. The majority of the charges are Class C felonies, with penalties of up to four years in prison each.

So yea, not good. Not good at all. I take from the report — though this isn’t a claim to fact, I’m just surmising — that Leary was actually arrested at Assembly Hall, since it apparently happened close to game time and IU police were the ones who actually took him in, according to the report.

That same report also states that former Hoosier Brian Evans, who is a co-owner of the Uncle D’s franchise on Kirkwood Avenue in Bloomington, cooperated with investigators in some fashion.

I won’t opine too much on this; it’s radioactive on its own, just read the report for yourself. I would imagine we’ll have more for you as this story develops.

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