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South Bend Tribune
SOUTH BEND Two St. Joseph County police officers are in the process of being fired from the department after officials say they lied about facts related to a fatal February crash that also left a teen girl partially paralyzed.
St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman filed paperwork Friday with the county police merit board requesting the termination of Brad Bauters and James Hart, both corporals. In a statement, the county police department said the officers “intentionally omitted” details about whether a North Liberty man was inebriated at a car crash on the afternoon of Feb. 5.
Hours later, the same man, Stephen Stopczynski, caused a second crash in which he crossed the median and collided head-on with a car driving the other way. The crash killed Stopczynski, 32, who was drunk at the time, and injured six passengers in a separate car, including a 13-year-old girl, who was airlifted to Riley Children’s hospital with a serious spinal injury.
The videos follow a familiar format.
The setting is a public space, often the parking lot of a mall or supermarket. The person holding the cell phone camera approaches the person believed to be meeting a minor for sex, and then the confrontation starts.
âWhat are you doing here today, Jimmy, come on, man! You come out here to meet a 15-year-old girl?â begins one such video, posted to Facebook last week by the group Bikers Against Predators.
In the video, âJimmyâ proceeds to stand outside the arcade area of the University Park Mall in Mishawaka repeating âThat was stupid of me,â as members of the group berate him and inform him that he has been messaging with them and not an actual 15-year-old.
SOUTH BEND — Citing a dramatic rise in catalytic converter thefts in the last few months, local law enforcement agencies and lawmakers are looking to address the problem through new
Unlike the City of South Bend, where police say the COVID-19 pandemic may have depressed property crimes, St. Joseph County police reported an increase in thefts and burglaries in 2020.