Episode #2228 - Hammer and Nigel Full Show

**Nigel** (0:00)
Hammer and Nigel.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:01)
Can you believe these characters?

**Nigel** (0:02)
They're weird of us.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:03)
So let's rock it!

**Nigel** (0:05)
My name is Nigel. Jason Hammer, right over there. Probably heard the news talking about this. FOP President Rick Snyder holding a presser earlier today about prosecutor Ryan Mears. Serious questions still remaining after that bombshell court ruling.
Prosecutor ruled to have violated constitutional protections. This all having to do with the Broad Ripple Bar owner and the dismissal of a huge case that they were working on. And our very own Ryan Hedrick from the WIBC Newsroom was at that press conference. As I understand it, Rick Snyder was calling for the IG, the AG, the governor, and more to start looking into this seriously. Like, what are we doing here?

**Ryan Hedrick** (0:49)
Yeah, even the Department of Justice. Good afternoon, guys. So what I got from the press conference really was a strong belief that something nefarious in the way of Ryan Mears just kind of throwing the fishing line out to his investigator and saying, okay, find a crime, any crime. And that's disturbing in and of itself.

**Jason Hammer** (1:12)
Now, I'm no Matlock, but that's not how you do it.

**Ryan Hedrick** (1:14)
Absolutely not. You build a case on evidence and probable cause. And then, and I'm putting my lawyer hat on, even though I'm not an attorney, I just get paid for one on the radio.
And then, you bring the evidence to the prosecutor, who then determines whether you have enough evidence to proceed with the case. Ryan Mears told one of his investigators, go out and find a crime, and then that investigator, documented in a 40-page determination by this judge in Marion County last week, brought up tax crimes and used Yelp to go find the tax crimes.

**Jason Hammer** (1:50)
And the thing that's important to point out, this isn't some sort of allegation, or somebody's anonymous source has told another anonymous source this. This has all been documented in a court filing.

**Ryan Hedrick** (2:03)
Yeah. And here's the two biggest takeaways I probably took away from the press conference today, that Ryan Mears' office engaged in investigative tactics. And if anybody knows anything about the prosecutor's office, they're not an investigative body.
The police are the investigative body.
His office got into investigation, and that's exactly what they determined in this court filing, that they broke state rules and federal rules, and the Indiana Attorney General's office should be involved, and the DOJ should be involved. And it's just, this is a big story. And if I can, I want to tell you, I spent two and a half hours in Broad Ripple yesterday, talking to businesses. And I'm not going to tell you which business is because it would give away the owners. Everybody is scared. I got a text message at four in the morning this morning from a business owner who told me, I would love to talk to you about this, but I'm scared. He said, I'm scared of public officials, and I'm scared of anybody that can take my business away from me. And if that's not weaponizing the justice system, this is not an opinion.

**Nigel** (3:12)
Ryan, this is Stalin. This is the secret police kind of stuff. Give me the man and I will give you the case against him. You said it yourself. Go out and find me a crime is basically what was charged here. So two years ago, I don't blame him for being scared.

**Ryan Hedrick** (3:28)
Two years ago, the city of Indianapolis ranked businesses in broad ripple. Not a lot of people know this. They ranked businesses in broad ripple, a credit card payments to cash payments, and they wanted to show a ratio of cash to credit coming in. That's how they got Rob Sabatini. But I think this goes a little bit deeper.
People in the business community in broad ripple believe that Sabatini was a target for the prosecutor's office because of his stance on COVID. He was outspoken. He was a proponent to open up businesses. And a lot of business owners I talked to yesterday believe in their heart that Sabatini was targeted, not for tax crimes, but because of his stance on COVID in 2020

**Jason Hammer** (4:11)
Ryan Hedrick from the WYBC Newsroom joining us. He was at the press conference earlier where the Fraternal Order of Police president Rick Snyder, among others, speaking about this scandal. I guess that's the right word of what's going on with the Marion County Prosecutor's Office right now. Them going after businesses without really having a reason to do so.
Ryan, as a news reporter, as somebody that works in our news room, do you feel like outside of WIBC, the local media in this city has taken the story as seriously as they should?