Voelz Has Devoted Career To Criminal JusticeIt was about 30 years ago when Brad Voelz decided to run for county prosecutor.
“I’ve devoted my entire law career to criminal justice,” the Republican candidate said during an interview Oct. 12.
He faces Democrat Travis McConnell in the Nov. 8 general election in Kosciusko County after being unopposed in the May primary. Incumbent Prosecuting Attorney Dan Hampton decided not to seek re-election.
Voelz went to DePauw University in Greencastle and then IU Law School in Bloomington. His first job out of law school was as the law clerk for the criminal division in Allen County.
“That was four judges and a magistrate. My job there was basically do research for them, prepare jury instructions, do everyday filing and organizing for the judges and everything. I think I knew at that point that this was my career path,” he said.
He joined the prosecutor’s office from 1993 to 1997. He started off in child support, then misdemeanors, low felonies and then to major felonies and murders.
“So I kind of advanced quickly up the chain there. When I left in ’98, I was trying the most serious cases there,” Voelz stated.
He then opened his own practice in Warsaw.
“So, we moved and I was the chief public defender in Whitley County during the time I had my first practice with Dan Hampton, starting in ’99, we were partners in Hampton & Voelz. We represented cases in family law, criminal law. ... So did that for 15 years and came back to my roots in 2015 here in Kosciusko County. I accepted the chief deputy position and I’ve been doing that ever since,” Voelz recounted.
There was one year where Voelz served as judge in Whitley County while the sitting judge was called to active duty with the National Guard.
“As a law clerk, a prosecutor, a defense attorney and a judge, my entire career has been focused upon running. As soon as Dan Hampton announced that he wouldn’t seek the next term, it was just clear that I would run,” Voelz said.
The appeal to him to work in criminal justice, he said, is because he has a servant’s heart.
“It’s helping people. And sometimes helping people means helping crime victims. Achieve justice. And sometimes it’s helping criminal defendants who have committed low-level crimes, or drug addiction or something, get back on the right path,” Voelz said.
He said there’s a lot of programs to help criminals get back on the right path. He has a particular passion for veterans and Voelz helped to establish the Veterans Court program that was founded in Whitley County. When he came back to Kosciusko County from serving as temporary judge in Whitley County, he knew Kosciusko needed a court like that. The best course was to align with Whitley County, he said. It’s for honorably discharged veterans who are struggling with substance abuse.
“The goal of prosecution in the criminal justice system is to help people stop using drugs. And sometimes that requires strict punishment, sometimes it requires a program of intense supervision. Sometimes it requires a program of probation, so we devote a lot of resources to helping people out. Now, these are the people who are serious and sincere about ending their addiction, and sometimes we have to take stricter measures with those people who fail out, but it’s always worth a shot,” Voelz said.
He said the prosecutor’s office rarely sees a case or a defendant who is not also involved in illegal drugs. “And that doesn’t just mean in the court that deals with drug offenders. That means in the violent crimes, that means in misdemeanors, that means in the driving while intoxicated cases, property crimes, sexual assaults. It’s rare that you don’t also see them involved in drugs,” Voelz said.
In his 30-plus years in criminal justice, he said he’s drawn the relationship between drugs and crime.
“And I think that the best way to prevent crimes of all types is to continue to fight against the illegal drugs because it makes people do things they normally wouldn’t do. And sometimes the things that they do are so bad that we have to separate them from society for a while. Sometimes if you can address the drug problem, then they can come back to being good neighbors for all of us. That’s always the goal, no matter what the punishment is at the end of the case,” Voelz said.
He said it’s the hard drugs. When he started off his career in Fort Wayne, it was crack cocaine. Now it’s meth, heroin, fentanyl and opioids.
As for marijuana, he said, “It’s rare that you see someone who is only in possession of marijuana. Most of the marijuana possession that we charge is people who have methamphetamine and also have marijuana. They tend to run together.”
He said the prosecutor’s office doesn’t take away from any other aspect of the office in any of their prosecutions to deal strictly with people who are charged with a simple possession of marijuana.
“And I know that my opponent is advocating that he would no longer arrest or charge people who are in possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana,” Voelz said. “What I saw last week was that our Republican legislature just conducted a study committee on whether or not marijuana should be decriminalized in Indiana. And the way they went about it was that they called many legislators together on this committee. They took expert testimony from doctors, law enforcement officials, representatives from other states that have decriminalized marijuana and they’ve looked to see what the effects of decriminalizing marijuana was in those states.”
If that’s the way they’re going about it, then Voelz said that’s the way to go about it. He said he understands the point that people make about marijuana having benefits for people dealing with medical conditions.
“I really don’t have a problem with that if the legislature, after conducting a thorough study, decides that marijuana should be decriminalized. Then go for it. But as long as it remains against the law in Indiana, we’ll continue to enforce that law. You can’t just do it any other way,” Voelz explained.
As far as how the prosecutor’s office has handled sex crimes - which McConnell has made the primary reason for his campaign - while Voelz been a part of the office, Voelz said he’s extremely proud of his staff and the passion and professionalism that they put into prosecuting all crimes, including sex crimes.
“I think the best way to answer that is to tell you the life of a criminal case as it exists in the prosecutor’s office,” he said. It begins with a complaint and/or investigation, usually from law enforcement. There is an entire investigation division that takes them in and analyzes them. Once they receive it, they may determine more investigation is needed and that can take time, or that they have all the facts that they can possibly give.
“Once that happens, then we determine, really sometimes together as an entire staff ... whether the investigation has revealed substantial and reliable evidence that would allow us to go forward with the prosecution. Once we determine that, now we have to determine whether the evidence fits a particular crime, and you have to look at the act of the suspect in light of the law at the time it was committed, not the law as it is now. So we apply the facts to the law. And then after that, you look to see if there’s any other reason in the Constitution or the law that you can’t prosecute. ... And after that, after we’ve determined all of those things, then we take a victim-first approach. And we speak extensively with the victim and determine what their wishes are in the prosecution, whether they have the desire to go through the entire criminal process.”
He said they have a victim’s assistance staff who “are a comforting process throughout that entire process and always available for people to speak.” Voelz said that for him and most of the people in the prosecutor’s office, “Whenever a victim comes in and talks to us, our heart goes out to them.”
He said what’s important when you’re dealing with victims is that you listen to them, respect them and start by believing them and direct them to resources. “Study after study after study, that’s how you best help victims. And we do all that we can to make sure that we help them through the process as best as we can.”
