David Hardy Deserving of Maximum Sentence

The Govenor, Mitch Daniel, has been charged with misconduct. While he has been charged with misconduct, advocates are saying that David Lott Hardy is just as guilty and deserves a maximum sentence for corruption while the Governor served his two terms. He has been charged with three felony counts, according to The Bloomington Alternative.

John Blair of ValleyWatch says, “Although assaults on democracy are bipartisan and in Indiana date back to the Bayh administration, Mitch Daniels has taken crony capitalism to new heights.” He also says, “It seems there is nothing he won’t do to enrich his corporate friends at the expense of taxpayers and ratepayers. And although he must share the blame with his appointed IURC, which is still inherently corrupt, it is clear the problem here runs to the top of the Daniels administration.”

With such charges against Hardy, the Executive Director for the Citizens Action Coalition, Kerwin Olsen, has said that Hardy tainted the IGCC which is a power plan in the Knox County area. Olsen says, “These indictments show a direct link between the IGCC project and the improper communications.” He also says in a statement that, “This fact raises further questions about the legitimacy of the Edwardsport IGCC project, the behavior of others who may have been involved, and more importantly, the money that Duke Energy Indiana ratepayers have been forced to pay for this fiasco to date.”

Detailed information on the indictments was released by the Indianapolis Star on December 12^th. The information provided states that Hardy was fired in late 2010, specifically October. The first indictment has to do with the fact that Hardy aided and abetted Scott Storms, the regulatory attorney, when he chose to speak with employees about Duke Energy and Scott Storms expected employment. The second indictment has to do with the fact that Hardy did not expose the secret with an employee of the Duke Energy about the major concerns about the costs at the utility plant. The third and final indictment accused Hardy of also failing to expose a secret with Duke Energy, this time in 2010, about the concerns of the cost at the power plant.

Kerwin Olsen says, “CAC remains firm in our belief that the failure to disclose the communications between Duke Energy executives and the former chairman of the IURC at a very minimum were improper and represented a serious violation of the public trust.” He also say, “Now we know that the Marion County prosecutor believes the chairman’s behavior violated state law.” In the meantime, an environmentalists for Evansville has said, “David Lott Hardy deserves a maximum sentence because it is scandals like this that makes citizens so cynical that they think they have no power to change things.”