Board Hires Investigator

The same night Superintendent Judith DeMuth spoke of La Porte Community Schools’ “nightmare” $1.6 million budget cut coming from the state, the School Board unanimously voted to spend $250 an hour on a private investigator — with no limit on how much money will be spent.

The hiring of Larry Evans, an attorney with the Valparaiso firm of Hoeppner, Wagner & Evans, was approved Tuesday. He is supposed to find out whether any administrators or staff knew about former high school volleyball coach Robert Ashcraft’s alleged sexual relationship with a player.

There is no time or cost limit for the investigation, DeMuth said.

“This is ridiculous. There is already an investigation started by the (Indiana) State Police,” said La Porte resident Randy Mumms, who spoke at the meeting. “This is a waste of people’s money.”

DeMuth said the school district was “just made aware” that the State Police were going to investigate the same issue, and that they made the decision to hire Evans before they found out. Administrators can legally contract for services before those contracts are brought before the board publicly for approval, said School Board attorney William Kaminski.

School Board President Mitch Feikes said the board could have voted against hiring Evans, but didn’t because the investigator will look at a different aspect of what may have happened than State Police will.

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