By Scott Tibbs, January 10, 2011
On September 29, 2002, Scott Wells (then a member of the Monroe County Council) was arrested by the Indiana state police and charged with "driving while intoxicated and resisting law enforcement." Over a year later, Wells was convicted of "driving while intoxicated and disorderly conduct." Ever since the arrest, Wells and his supporters have whined non-stop that he was "set up" by his political opponents because of his environmental activism.
That is silly. Scott Wells was not set up.
No one forced Wells to drink and become intoxicated. No one forced Wells to get behind the wheel of a car and try to drive while intoxicated. No one forced Wells to engage in disorderly conduct during the arrest. (See IC 35-45-1-3 for a definition of the disorderly conduct, which includes someone who "engages in fighting or in tumultuous conduct." Wells was charged, but not convicted, of battery on a police officer.)
One the night Wells was arrested, a dispatcher called deputy prosecutor Mary Ellen Diekhoff, a Democrat who was elected judge in 2004 and 2010, and is the wife of former Democratic city council member Mike Diekhoff. On the tape of her conversation with a dispatcher, Mrs. Diekhoff said "You can bet he is going to allege that he is set up. We've got to be prepared for the worst here because that's the nature of the game."
She couldn't have been more right. The whining has not stopped, and it has been over eight years now. Wells would have us believe that there was some sort of wide-ranging political conspiracy that involves the Republican Party, the Bloomington city police, the Indiana state police, and the Monroe County Prosecutor's office - including a deputy prosecutor who is now a Democratic elected official. It is just laughable.
It has been eight years since the arrest. It has been seven years since Wells was convicted of two crimes after a fair trial by a jury of his peers. Scott Wells drove drunk in 2002, and got caught. He needs to stop whining about it, grow up, accept responsibility for his behavior, and move on with his life.
