Indiana County Dismisses Criminal Charges against OmniSource

The Marion County (Indiana) Prosecutor’s Office (MCPO) has dismissed all criminal charges and the resolution of all civil lawsuits pending against OmniSource Corp., based in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry says, “The judge in the pending criminal case has ruled that OmniSource was improperly charged as a corrupt business enterprise under Indiana’s law. Having now carefully reviewed the case, which was initiated by Grand Jury indictment under my predecessor (Marion County County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi), I can say that the evidence does not support those allegations. There is simply insufficient evidence that OmniSource or its employees knowingly engaged in any unlawful transactions. This office, therefore, will dismiss all pending litigation, and all money seized from OmniSource by criminal investigators will be returned to OmniSource, subject to the terms of the agreement below.”

According to the prosecutor’s office, OmniSource and the MCPO will work cooperatively to address the issue of metals theft, building on OmniSource’s training and internal anti-theft programs and procedures, to seek ways to enhance the detection, identification and prosecution of metal thieves in Marion County through enhanced law enforcement, local scrap dealer training and advocating for various legislative and local ordinance initiatives.

“I also want to make clear,” Curry says, “that there is no evidence that any of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) officers who worked part-time for OmniSource at its retail facilities as part of its anti-theft program were involved in any kind of criminal activity. During their service, dozens of arrests were made and police reports filed. There is no evidence that officers either condoned or facilitated the sale of stolen goods.”

Subject to current guidelines and the approval of the Department of Public Safety, officers will be able to resume their part-time off-duty scrap theft interdiction positions with OmniSource.

Jointly, OmniSource and the MCPO will train scrap company employees, law enforcement officers and property crime prosecutors throughout Marion County on how to spot potentially problematic materials offered for sale, how to properly question the would-be sellers as to the circumstances surrounding their possession of such goods, how to make responsible purchase determinations and how to properly preserve potential evidence, should it turn out that purchased materials were in fact stolen.

“My thanks to Prosecutor Curry,” says Mark Millett, president and COO of Steel Dynamics, OmniSource’s parent company, and former president of OmniSource. “He approached this case with fairness and professionalism. Long before this investigation occurred, our company invested over $1 million in anti-theft measures in Marion County, hired IMPD officers, lobbied for stronger scrap purchase regulations and installed cameras and monitoring software that takes and stores the photos and pertinent identifying information of every seller and his or her goods.”

He adds, “Prosecutor Curry has renewed our faith in the system, and we pledge our full cooperation to help reduce the incidence of stolen metal transactions in Marion County.”

As a good faith gesture, Millett says OmniSource will donate the money that was seized from its yards as part of the investigation launched by Brizzi to the city of Indianapolis Law Enforcement Fund. The $300,000 is to be used by law enforcement as it deems appropriate for training and law enforcement programs.