Back in 2015, the Marshall County Prosecutor’s Office was appointed Special Prosecutor for Kosciusko County to address cases related to former Kosciusko Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine, Warsaw Resident Kevin Bronson and a former college professor and Bronson’s “religious mentor” Mark Soto.
Today, Prosecutor Nelson Chipman announced the apparent conclusion of those cases. Continue reading
A Republican caucus is set to elect a new sheriff of Kosciusko County.
Former Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine was forced to step down from his duties as a law enforcement officer after pleading guilty in a plea agreement with the state to a felony charge of intimidating a police officer. He was sentenced on Tuesday to a year of reporting probation and 250 hours of community service. As part of the terms in his plea agreement, he cannot own a firearm. Rovenstine must also participate in an Offender Victim Reconciliation Program as an attempt to mend fences with the victim, Warsaw Police Detective Paul Heaton.
While Warsaw Police Detective Paul Heaton was satisfied with the sentence of former Kosciusko County Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine, the scars of the two-year ordeal still remain.
The felony charge to which Rovenstine pleaded guilty, intimidation of a law enforcement officer, was the direct result of a conversation between Rovenstine and Detective Heaton. In Heaton’s testimony given during Rovenstine’s sentencing hearing in Kosciuscko Circuit Court Tuesday morning he said that he was doing due diligence on an investigation on inmate Kevin Bronson and another defendant, Mark Soto. Information during the proceedings revealed that Heaton’s investigation also included the fact that Rovenstine was allowing Bronson special privileges such as unrecorded phone calls and other actions not commonly awarded to other inmates. When that came to the former sheriff’s attention, Rovenstine blocked Heaton’s access to the jail.
