Former Dubois County caseworker taking ethical complaints to state judicial commission

On Jan. 29, Sara Schroeder, 36, a case manager at Dubois County Community Corrections, was placed on suspension with pay pending an investigation into allegations of misconduct.

“I thought J.P. (Weisheit, director of Community Corrections) was coming in to discuss a case in the department,” Schroeder explained.

Weisheit was there to tell Schroeder the board had placed her on suspension while they investigated a series of allegations made by the Dubois County Community Corrections Advisory Board President Marc McConnell. McConnell is the superior court judge for Dubois County.

McConnell presented a three-page memorandum to the board on Tuesday Feb. 5, during a 75-minute executive session that included 12 members of the 16-member board. After the executive session, the board dismissed Schroeder from her position in a unanimous public vote.

According to Schroeder she was allowed time to address the board but was not allowed the opportunity to refute any of the six allegations and one documented report of misconduct listed in Judge McConnell’s memorandum.

A single report of misconduct is recorded in Schroeder’s personnel file at the Community Corrections Center. According to the report, a record keeping error on Schroeder’s part caused a previous participant in the community corrections program to be imprisoned for a second time to serve a five-day jail period.

Schroeder explained that corrections has nothing to do with the records of inmates in regards to their service commitments. The completion of those commitments is filed through the Dubois County Security Center and completed at the court offices.

During an end-of-the-year review in January 2012, Schroeder noticed that two participants’ commitments were not fulfilled according to court records. She notified the court accordingly and a warrant was issued from the court for the participants to fulfill their obligations.

According to McConnell’s memorandum, one participant had fulfilled her obligations but was arrested and imprisoned for two days before the mistake was cleared.

The second participant had also completed the commitment and the warrant was withdrawn before it was served.

Schroeder alleges she was told the misconduct report would be filed against her to save the county millions of dollars if the woman filed a lawsuit based on false imprisonment. Officials would not comment on Schroeder’s allegation but Community Corrections does have its own liability insurance separate from the county.

Other allegations listed on the memorandum include mistakes made with monitoring devices, accounts of Schroeder making statements against inmates, seeking personal favors from the court, and failure to properly notify the judge and staff of a threat from an inmate.

Other than the memorandum from McConnell, these incidents of misconduct are undocumented in her personnel file and Schroeder states many of these incidents can be refuted through testimony from witnesses and even recordings at community corrections.

At the end of McConnell’s request for Schroeder’s termination he states the allegations he lists in the document are evidence that she had a poor work ethic, was dishonest, had a disrespect for the authority of the prosecutor’s office and court, and a lack of understanding of her own role in the justice system.

Schroeder stated she is filing a complaint with the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications for ethical violations by McConnell and she would take documentation of allegations against several board members and community corrections employees to the Dubois County Commissioners.

Weisheit declined to comment on the situation and McConnell was unavailable for comments, but has declined to comment on the subject with other news sources.

Schroeder started working for the corrections center in 2009 and oversaw participants in the adult day reporting and community service programs.

Prior to working for corrections, Schroeder worked at the Branchville Correctional Facility for six years. During that time, a program she developed as Parenting Coordinator was the model used by the National Fatherhood Initiative to develop the program InsideOut Dad™. Schroeder was invited to Cornell University to speak about the success the program was enjoying in regards to recidivism.  She left Branchville after her mother passed away but then returned to corrections when a position became available in Dubois County.