Former Republican Councilman/IMPD Charged in Federal Indictment

I just received a news update e-mail from 93.1 WIBC-FM. Former City-County Councilman Lincoln Plowman, a Republican who resigned amidst controversy, has been named in a federal indictment. He is charged with one count of attempted extortion and one count of bribery.

Plowman was also an officer within the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. IMPD was conducting an internal investigation before he resigned, and stopped the investigation once he did.

This is the first major federal action against a local politician ever since it became known that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into corruption among local politicians last year.

You can read Abdul Hakim-Shabazz's investigation into what exactly Plowman did here. What he wrote was largely confirmed by a The Indianapolis Star report filed a couple of weeks after he published his post.


This is the most significant action taken by federal authorities since last year's raid on Tim Durham's office in downtown Indianapolis. Durham has so far not been charged with a crime and has been able to avoid court orders to freeze his assets.

UPDATE: Wish-TV is also reporting the story with a few more details. Plowman was allegedly helping a "developer"/undercover agent in obtaining licensing and all that good stuff for a new strip club in return for bribes and campaign contribution.

Advance Indiana has the entire press release up.

UPDATE II: The 25th floor takes to Facebook to speak out:

Earlier this year, IMPD’s Professional Standards Division investigated former Officer Lincoln Plowman on concerns of wrongdoing. Shortly before the conclusion of that investigation, Mr. Plowman retired from IMPD & resigned from the City-County Council. Though Mr. Plowman is due his day in court, today's announcement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office supports IMPD's concerns.

Furthermore, we hold all of our public, elected officials to the highest standards and expect them to conduct themselves with integrity in a manner in which they never abuse their power or influence.

I honestly wasn't expecting them to say anything about it.