About Me
Clay County is my adopted home. My three sons were raised here and my grandson was born here and lives here. My wife Yvette and I plan on paying off the mortgage on our home and remain here for the rest of our lives (with the possible exception of snow birding down south in the winter after we are retired).
I was born in 1966 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the beating heart of Amish country. Dad worked for RCA in Lancaster and accepted a transfer to Marion, Indiana in 1971. It took a long time to get used to not living in the mountains and not taking regular trips to the New Jersey Shore. Back then, you folks talked funny. Now I am fully Hooserized and the people out there talk funny. I wouldn't move back East for anything.
I spent two years in St. Paul Elementary, four years in Kendall Elementary, two years at Justice Jr. High, and four years at Bishop Bennett High. All of this in Marion Indiana. I started looking for part time employment on my 14th birthday when I became "legal." Before that, I worked for anyone in the neighborhood who would let me; cutting grass, shoveling snow, landscaping, painting, cleaning gutters, repairing roofs, and anything else I could do. My siblings and I never got an allowance. Dad said, "You live here, you eat here, you work here." By age 17, I had saved enough money to take a trip to Europe and visit 14 countries.
I went to college at Ball State University in 1985. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in three and one half years. I was admitted to the "Honors College" and graduated number one in my department. During that time I worked in the dormitory cafeteria, for Bob Evans Restaurants, and managed a Subway Restaurant in nearby Anderson, Indiana.
After college I became an insurance agent. I sold insurance by day and worked at RCA at night making television picture tubes. I was one of the top insurance agents in my district at the time. In the fall of 1989, I was accepted to the Law School at Indiana University, Indianapolis. I continued to sell insurance during my first year, but later realized I couldn't do both and resigned from my insurance company. I allowed my license to lapse when the law changed, requiring continuing education to maintain the license.
In the summer of 1990 I went to the East China Institute of Politics and Law in Shanghai to study Chinese law. That summer I earned an honorary Chinese law degree. (Note: with that degree I still need a couple of yuan to get a cup of tea.) While in Asia, I toured some of China and visited South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand.
I graduated law school in 1992. That summer I missed passing the bar exam by three points. It was the year of the infamous "generation skipping tax" question, which postponed many a graduates plans. ( at the next Bar exam, the tax question was "what is income" to kind of make up. Needless to say, I passed.)
For those of you who remember, 1992 was "the worst economy in 50 years." There were plenty of people who wanted to rent me office space, but no one who wanted to hire me. I opened my own office and started my solo law practice as a trial lawyer. With no one to show me the way, I had to be a quick learner and "fast on my feet" to avoid learning some hard lessons.
To read about my one really hard lesson, see "Skeletons" in my campaign section
In 1996 I took a job with the State of Indiana while maintaining a small law practice on the side. My job with the state was to write all of the statutes and administrative rules for 13 regulated professions. In December of 1996 I added teaching night classes at IVY Tech to my schedule. In 1997, I added teaching adult continuing education classes to my weekend schedule.
In July of 1999 I married my lovely wife, who works for the Indiana Attorney General's Office, and inherited three teenage boys. (Since then, my sons have all grown, moved away, and done fairly well for themselves.)
In 2000, I left state employment to take a position with a corporation. I continued teaching at IVY Tech at night and adult continuing education on the weekends. In January of 2001, I lost the corporate job because I went to my mother in law's funeral. She had the nerve to die right before Christmas. As I was terminated in front of witnesses, I had no trouble wining my unemployment comp case. (I wonder if it was a coincidence that they simultaneously downsized and fired about 1/3 of the employees at the Indianapolis office.)
In 2003, I brought my law practice to Clay County. In 2005 I added the slogan "Fighting For You" to my office materials. The slogan was given to me by my clients who said over and over that I was the only attorney in the area who really fights for his clients. (In my opinion, there are plenty of other good attorneys in the area.) That slogan has been my goal in each and every one of my cases. I despise losing a case and will do anything within the bounds of the law and ethics to win; even if the client can't always pay the bill. I never let the money effect how hard I work on a case.
In 2010, I seek your approval to become Clay County's next Prosecutor.
Paid for by the committee to Elect Charles Hear