Porter County Highway Supervisor Jim Polarek is asking a former department employee to apologize to him publicly at a county council meeting after an Indiana State Police investigation cleared Polarek of any wrongdoing, including using department employees and resources to do work on private property.
“After a thorough investigation of findings to the appointed special prosecutor, John M. Espar, who determined that the information compiled as potential evidence of a crime, neither warrants further investigation nor the filing of any criminal charges. This case is now closed,” said a letter to Polarek on Friday from a detective with the Lowell District of the ISP.
In a statement provided by his attorney, Polarek said “it’s been rough for these past two months” since Jason Lomeli’s public accusations.
“No public official should be subjected to false accusations like this. I want my good name back, and this former employee needs to stand up before the Porter County Council and acknowledge he was wrong,” Polarek, “dead wrong.”
Lomeli stands behind what he said, noting staff changes at the highway department since he first brought his concerns to the county’s human resources department in April.
“My main goal has always been to shed light on the dark cloud that is the Porter County Highway Department. Everything I have said is true because I’ve seen it with my own eyes and experienced it,” he said, adding Polarek is threatening him with a defamation lawsuit. “My truth is my...
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