Judicial Deception

In 1975, I talked to an editor at the Indianapolis Star about my being slandered. He introduced me to reporter Carolyn Pickering and asked her to follow up. I gave her copies of the Retail Credit report and Tuohy's malpractice. She said she'd look into it and did write a story, which was published on June 3, 1976, headlined Attorney Fees Seen Forcing Liquidation Of Insurance Firm discussing Judge Dugan's attempted reinsurance of UNAC's assets. Judge Dugan held an emergency hearing and awarded $300,000 in legal fees to be paid by UNAC to various attorneys. The emergency existed because Judge Dugan was going on vacation. A Chicago firm was paid $167,362.50; A Virginia firm was paid $64,237.50; Dillon, McCarty, Hardeman and Cohen (Dillon was the former Democratic attorney general for Indiana) was paid $17,887. Dillon and Gregory Hahn, treasurer of the Marion County Democratic Central Committee, were appointed by Judge Dugan as local counsel for the out of state firms, which means Dillon and Hahn were involved in total payments exceeding $230,000. The firm of Tuohy, Gleason and Mercer was paid $48,960. Tuohy was paid even though he had no records of time spent and didn't perform any legal functions on behalf of the company.

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Judge Dugan was tried before a jury in Indianapolis. The action was United States of America v. Michael T. Dugan, II, Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division, Cause No. IP88-78-CR*.* Other persons admitted paying bribes and taking payoffs. The jury verdict was returned May 26, 1989, finding Dugan guilty on a variety of charges of bribery and extortion, including a true bill of unlawfully obtaining money (a $1,000 bribe) from James Eckman, President of First Equity Security Life Insurance Company (which Eckman had admitted).