By HOLLY GASKILL
Wells County Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Carnall is currently under investigation for misconduct by the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission.
In a written statement emailed to the News-Banner, Carnall confirmed he used his position to help his son, Aaron Carnall, who had allegedly been pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving. Andrew Carnall said he later reported himself to the disciplinary commission and asked for the appointment of a special prosecutor.
During Monday’s commissioner meeting, commissioner Jeff Stringer said there were three additional disciplinary requests by the county judges and an assistant prosecutor.
“We don’t have the details behind the whole situation other than it’s my opinion that if there’s an ongoing investigation with the county prosecutor, he should resign his position immediately,” Stringer said. “That’s my opinion, but I find it very odd that we would have a sitting prosecutor under investigation still conducting business.”
“The commissioners are unified on that statement,” added Mike Vanover, the county commissioners’ president.
Carnall declined to comment regarding the commissioner’s statement. Carnall’s term as county prosecutor is set to expire this year; he also declined to comment on the status of his re-election campaign.
Carnall said the incident occurred several weeks ago. He said that after receiving a phone call from the law enforcement officer involved in the case, Carnall requested to pick up his son, which the officer allowed.
“I responded as a father when I should have responded as a prosecutor,” Carnall wrote.
Carnall said he apologized to the officer the same day and later apologized to the commanding officer. The incident was not recorded in police logs.
Wells County Sheriff Scott Holliday declined to comment, citing the nature of the active investigation.
In concluding his statement, Carnall apologized to Wells County residents for his actions.
“Once a person has done something that cannot be undone, the best that the person can do is strive to respond appropriately and try to atone,” Carnall wrote. “I have tried, and am still trying, to do that. I cannot comment further due to the Disciplinary Commission’s investigation. The Commission will take appropriate action. I am very sorry to the people of Wells County that I did not live up to the standards that you should expect from a public official.”
holly@news-banner.com
Editor’s note: In the article above, published Tuesday, it was stated that the police log did not include the incident where a sheriff’s deputy pulled over Aaron Carnall for drunk driving and Prosecutor Andrew Carnall picked up his son. The incident actually was logged at 3:33 a.m. July 2 on Ind. 1 at 350N but was restricted to one sentence that read as follows: “Send another unit, possible 10‑55.” A 10-55 is police code for a drunk driver. There was no mention of a name of who that driver was, whether or not they were actually intoxicated or not, nor was there any logged conclusion to the call — whether or not the person pulled over was arrested or released. On Tuesday, Sheriff Scott Holliday confirmed this entry pertained to the incident.
