Reporter arrested after alleging police corruption

INDIANA–A reporter was arrested in late April on two four-year- old misdemeanor warrants, several days after writing stories examining alleged mismanagement of funds by the Sheriff’s Department.

Daniel Yovich, a reporter with The (Munster) Times, was arrested at the newspaper office on a parole revocation charge from 1993 and a drunken driving charge from 1994. He was released on a $2,000 bond.

A few hours after Yovich’s arrest, Sheriff John Buncich released a statement blaming the Times for jeopardizing millions of dollars of federal drug task force grants to the county, according to the Associated Press.

“I have been advised that congressional funding may not be renewed because of negative reporting by the Times,” AP reported the statement said. “I, as your sheriff, along with other police chiefs throughout Lake County, will not permit this to happen.”

Yovich was also at the center of a controversy in February, when he said he was strip-searched by Lake County sheriff’s department officials in February while investigating allegations of corruption against the department. Buncich said that the search was a joke among friends.