Prosecutor says Straub's take on Bisard facts false

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Public Safety Director Frank Straub claims the Marion County prosecutor's office knew a vial of IPD Officer David Bisard’s blood had been moved from a refrigerated storage area nine days before Straub learned of the major mistake.

He revealed that information while addressing the City County Council's Public Safety Committee Wednesday. Straub was a man on the hot seat. But by night's end, he wouldn't be there alone. In his opening statement, he turned on the heat beneath a few chairs of his peers - casting doubt on whether the office of Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry had acted promptly and appropriately.

"Prosecutor Curry has stated to us that they became aware of this transfer on or about April 4 of this year," Straub said.

He and the chief of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department weren't notified until April 13 - nine days later, he said.

"That is absolutely not true," said Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry when I-Team 8 asked him about Straub's statements.

And that's not the only time the public safety director misspoke, Curry said. The prosecutor also took issue with the following quote by Straub: "Assistant Prosecutor Denise Robinson, who’s the lead on this investigation, asked Det. Heustis to retrieve that vial and bring it back to the property room here and refrigerate it."

When asked to respond to that statement, Curry said emphatically: "No. That did not happen."

Here's what Curry said did happen. As is customary in any case, Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson called a detective before a scheduled April 12 hearing to make sure needed evidence was at the City County Building. The next day, she received a log telling her one piece of evidence had been moved to the annex, a second evidence storage area.

Curry said prosecutors are not allowed into evidence storage rooms. That's why they call an IMPD officer before trial to locate needed evidence. Curry said neither he nor Robinson knew that the annex does not have a refrigerator. Therefore, neither had reason to suspect anything was wrong. It wasn't until last week when officers mentioned to Robinson that they didn't think there was a refrigerator at the annex, that she suspected a problem. She called a detective to confirm.

"And we received confirmation 7:15 a.m. this past Monday," Curry said.

It was a bombshell. Curry immediately notified IMPD's chief of police, who contacted Straub - putting him on that proverbial hot seat - a hot seat the prosecutor said he is unwilling to share.

I-Team 8 then contacted Straub - pressing him about the timing of when an IMPD officer knew about the problem with the second vial. The attorney for the Department of Public Safety responded to us via email: "These questions all relate to a pending investigation. The Department of Public Safety does not have any further comment regarding this investigation at this time. As I am sure you can appreciate, while an investigation is pending - especially given the magnitude of this investigation - it is simply not prudent for the Department of Public Safety to comment regarding specific details."