By Sadie Hunter
(Source: Hamilton Co. Jail)
The probable cause affidavit released by the Hamilton Co. Prosecutor’s office, shows that Brandi Marcum – the Noblesville Police Dept. employee arrested April 14 for stealing parking ticket payments – admitted to police that she had been committing the crime on multiple occasions since “late 2014.”
An investigation that began March 21 was initiated after a routine audit of records showed money missing from parking ticket fines, which led them to Marcum, 38, Atlanta, Ind., a civilian employee of NPD since 1997. Marcum was later terminated by NPD Police Chief Kevin Jowitt.
NPD Detective Tim Hendricks’, a 17-year veteran of the department, statement in the affidavit said NPD Captain Nick Campbell had “been running reports to determine the magnitude of potential theft.”
“Captain Campbell informed me that he had been obtaining the trash from the office space of (Marcum),” Hendricks stated. “Campbell stated that by doing this, he has been able to recover the parking ticket envelopes and cross-reference them with the original parking ticket violation entries from the computer. In doing so, Captain Campbell had notice that several tickets had either been voided each day or had not been entered into the computer at all … Between the dates of 3/21/2015 and 4/5/2015, 38 tickets were recovered from the trash can from Marcum’s work space that were either voided, not entered or were still showing unpaid in the computer. In each instance, the computer tracking for the voided entries showed Marcum as the individual making the entry.”
Later in the affidavit, Hendricks stated after being fired by Chief Jowitt, Marcum signed a Miranda Waiver form to discuss the case with NPD Captain Mark Cruea without an attorney.
“During the interview with Captain Cruea, Marcum initially denied any wrongdoing and said she has never taken any money,” Hendricks stated. “After further discussion, Marcum admitted to ‘voiding’ parking tickets that had actually been paid and pocketing the money. Marcum told Captain Cruea that she thinks she has been stealing money since ‘late 2014’ … Marcum said she did not know how often she had stolen or how much money she had stolen, but believes that it could be around $1,000.”
The statement by Hendricks says between March 21 and April 6, Marcum stole $520 from parking ticket fines.
Investigators from the NPD’s Criminal Investigations Division petitioned for and were subsequently granted two arrest warrants for Marcum, who surrendered to authorities at approximately 10 a.m., April 14.
Marcum was booked into the Hamilton Co. Jail based on the charges of one count of official misconduct, a level 6 felony, and one count of theft, an A misdemeanor.
A statement released by Noblesville Mayor John Ditslear shed light on why Marcum’s alleged crime may not have been caught earlier.
“When Noblesville became designated as a Second Class City (Jan. 1, 2016), the controller’s office began the process of auditing all municipal finances and procedures involving cash transactions,” Ditslear stated. “As part of their findings, the city is reviewing and implementing new safeguards with regards to the handling of money to prevent such misconduct in the future.”
An initial hearing for the case is set for 1:15 p.m. April 29 in Hamilton Co. Superior Court 5.
