***MEDIA ADVISORY***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 22, 2015

LOCAL DEALER CONVICTED BY ELKHART JURY AFTER SELLING COCAINE WITHIN 1000 FEET OF PARKS

Media Contact: Curtis T. Hill, Jr. (574) 296-1888

On April 21, 2015, an Elkhart County Circuit Court jury found Tracey Hardy, guilty of one count of Dealing in Cocaine, a Class B felony, and two counts of Dealing in Cocaine, both Class A felonies, because the cocaine was sold within 1,000 feet of a public park. Under the supervision, direction, and control of the Elkhart Police Department Drug Unit, a confidential source purchased “crack cocaine” directly from Tracey Hardy on August 14, 2013, September 9, 2013, and September 11, 2013. The drug from each buy was scientifically tested by the Indiana State Police, which tested positive for cocaine. When Tracey Hardy was arrested by the police after the third purchase, they located previously traced, police-owned “buy money" in his pocket.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Don Pitzer and Eric Ditton presented the twelve person jury with testimony from multiple undercover police officers, a confidential informant, the cocaine sold by the defendant, and photographs of the two houses from which the defendant sold the cocaine. While the defense argued that none of the police officers witnessed his client sell any cocaine, the State argued that the testimony from the confidential source, coupled with the indirect evidence of the purchases as explained by the police officers, proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Hardy in fact was a drug dealer.

The maximum penalty for a Class B felony conviction is 20 years and the maximum penalty for a Class A felony conviction is 50 years in the Indiana Department of Correction. The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Terry Shewmaker on May 14, 2015.

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“Under Indiana law, all persons arrested for a criminal offense are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”