Johnson County

As a perfect example, they had a thriving community garden program.

Sweetwater Corn Tree down in southern Johnson County, they have a community garden.

Brown County has one.

So everyone in the central Indiana area, we looked at those and we looked at big ones too.

How is the park funded at the moment?

The Parks Department is completely funded by grants from entities that offer grants to improve a property.

For instance, Johnson County REMC gave us a grant last year in the Roundup program.

where you get your bill, and they ask you, do you want to round up? So they create these, create monies for entities such as the garden.

Sorry we missed you on Friday, which was, of course, day eight of the Faith Hedgepeth murder trial.

We had a bunch of stuff going on and ended up going down to Johnson County, Indiana, to try to get our hands on some documents that we did not get.

So we wasted a day.

But that's OK, because we're back and we're going to catch up and we're going to basically be taking you through everything that happened on Friday.

A conversation is too strong of a word, but it's kind of, uh, the people in this case are maybe reacting to things that happened in Delphi, and they say, "Oh, people in Delphi are getting criticized for this or this.

Let's really try to avoid this, that." And so the, the sheriff of, uh, Johnson County, this is the county that includes Franklin, Indiana, which is where this crime, uh, occurred.

That is Duane Burgess.

He wrote, uh, a letter to the sheriff of Brown County in which he said, "Hey, I wonder if you could take Michael Jerome James and maybe not isolate him, maybe let him be exposed to other prisoners, because maybe it's not such a big story there." The sheriff of Brown County said, "Hey, that sounds good to us." And so Sheriff Burgess, uh, wrote the judge saying basically, "I, I wanna move him.

So that's what's going on in, in this case.

An attorney has been appointed by the judge to at the very least advise Mr. James of his rights concerning this possible transfer to Brown County.

And if he's transferred to Brown County, perhaps he won't be kept in the same sort of isolation as he is in Johnson County.

But if he is transferred to Brown County, any time he has to be taken to Johnson County for a court proceeding or what have you, he will be transported by Johnson County personnel.

She had an older sister named Linda James, who apparently lived in California at this time.

And eventually, Linda James would move to Johnson County, Indiana sometime before June 2001.

But in the article, it says she's in California.

And she, or at least one of the news reports says she was living in California when a lot of this was going on.

From the Daily Journal, this is a special episode of Beyond the Headlines on location from the Johnson County Voter Forum at Franklin College.

From the Daily Journal, this is Beyond the Headlines, a local news podcast focused on story shaping Johnson County.

Welcome to our fifth voter forum.

Somehow, I've been lucky enough to be the moderator of all of these.

And so we appreciate every one of those for taking the time to respond, even though it's at 10.

So we're thankful for that.

You know, the forum was born from an idea several members of Bridges Alliance of Johnson County had a number of years ago.

2021? I believe 2022 may be the first time we did this.

This is a case that has gone unsolved for many years, and only just recently have we learned, okay, someone is being charged with this, someone has been arrested, and now the prosecution is looking to convict this man over this horrific case.

Kevin and I traveled down to Franklin, Indiana today to go to the Johnson County Courthouse, Franklin being the seat of Johnson County, and to attend the initial hearing in the case.

So we're gonna talk all about that today, right?

Yes, let's get to it.

Looked wonderful.

[laughs]

Let's say that couple years from now, the people in Johnson County, for whatever reason, pass a law saying people are not allowed to wear blue sweaters in Johnson County courts.

Obviously, we could say, oh, from that time on, if Anya were to show up to court the day after that law took effect wearing a blue sweater, yes, by all means, punish her to the fullest extent of the law.

And I would just say this.

If any of you out there are from Franklin, Indiana, or live in Franklin, Indiana now, or live in Johnson County, we would love to hear from you.

We're striving to make connections in that community in order to make sure our reporting is as good and as accurate as possible.

We've already heard from some folks and we're looking to kind of get some interviews set up, but Even if you feel like you don't have anything to add, please just reach out because you might know somebody or we might be able to bug you at some point for some details, and it could really help us out, and we would really appreciate it.

So that's kind of what we're going to do.

And.

My sources for this one at the top are mostly the Daily Journal, which is an amazing Johnson County newspaper.

We've actually reported for them on the Delphi trial before.

The Greenwood Common Council clearing the way for the Mega Travel Center giant to build its first store in Indiana at the I-65 and Worthville Road exit.

The Bucky's location in Johnson County will most likely look a lot like this one in Ohio.

The chain is known for its food options, clean bathrooms, and fuel stations galore.

120 gas and electric pumps coming to the Greenwood store.

This week on Beyond the Headlines, election equipment passes the public test, Greenwood is getting a Buc-ee's and an Amazon facility, and the Daily Journal takes on several awards from the Hoosier State Press Association.

From the Daily Journal, this is Beyond the Headlines, a local news podcast focused on story shaping Johnson County.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back.

It's Erica Malone, and I'm here with Hallie.

Yes, they did.

Tell us a little bit about how that went.

Johnson County's election equipment passed its public testing process with zero errors.

That's a rare outcome.