Monroe County commissioners hire attorney for legal action over Stinesville ICE agreement

Monroe County commissioners voted unanimously at their regular Thursday (Nov. 12) meeting to approve a legal-services agreement with Bloomington attorney Larry Allen.

The work that Allen will do is in connection with a lawsuit that asks the Monroe County circuit court to clarify whether Stinesville’s police department can sign an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) without approval from the town’s elected board.

Early Thursday afternoon, commissioners issued a news release about the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday.

The agreement was added to Thursday’s agenda at the start of the meeting, on a 3–0 vote. The commissioners later voted 3–0 to approve the contract, with a maximum payment to Allen $2,500, to be made from the county’s general fund.

County attorney Jeff Cockerill said during Thursday’s meeting that Allen would perform most of the work without charge. His compensation would be $250 an hour, for limited work involving court hearings.

Allen is a former Bloomington city attorney who previously served as deputy mayor under John Hamilton as well as an assistant city attorney before that. Before joining Bloomington’s legal department in 2018, he worked in the Indiana attorney general’s office, handling appeals. He left city government at the end of 2024 for private practice and returned temporarily this year to provide legal services to Bloomington’s city council.

The lawsuit itself was already on file when the commissioners approved Allen’s contract. Filed in Monroe County circuit court at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 10), the complaint names the town of Stinesville, police chief Shane Pittman and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita as defendants. Allen is listed as one of the county’s attorneys, along with Daniel Canon and Jonathan Little.

The filing came hours before the Stinesville Town Board voted 2–1 Tuesday evening to ratify its police department’s agreement with ICE. Board members Scott McGlocklin and Richard Carter supported ratification, with Kimberly Cunningham opposed.

Commissioner Jody Madeira made a point of the sequence during Thursday’s meeting. “Of note, the lawsuit was filed before the town council vote,” she said.

The agreement, signed by Pittman while he was deputy police chief, allows trained Stinesville officers to exercise certain federal immigration-enforcement powers. The county commissioners adopted a resolution on Sept. 17 asking the town board to review the agreement publicly and take a recorded vote on whether to continue it.

After that, Rokita issued a letter with an opinion that concluded that police chiefs and town marshals can enter such agreements without approval from elected governing bodies. His Oct. 6 letter also warned that government actions discouraging participation could violate state law and expose the county to civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.

Madeira said at Thursday’s meeting that the commissioners respect Stinesville’s decision to ratify the agreement. But she said the vote does not settle all the legal questions raised by Rokita’s opinion.

The lawsuit asks the court to determine whether the agreement was legally authorized when signed and what effect Stinesville’s subsequent ratification has on its validity and applicable filing requirements.

It also seeks an order prohibiting Stinesville from carrying out the agreement until lawful authorization and statutory compliance are established. The commissioners are also asking for an order preventing Rokita from taking enforcement action against them based solely on their Sept. 17 resolution or the filing and pursuit of the lawsuit.

The commissioners said they are not asking the court to overturn Stinesville’s vote. However, the complaint does ask the judge to declare the agreement void or unenforceable unless lawfully authorized.

At Thursday’s meeting, Madeira also addressed a Nov. 5 letter from U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, who urged both the town board and county commissioners to ratify the agreement and release federal funding associated with it.

Madeira said the county commissioners have no authority to ratify Stinesville’s agreement and do not control the federal money, which goes directly to the town. “Monroe County hasn’t touched a dollar of it,” she said. She also disputed any suggestion that the commissioners had with their resolution, passed on Sept. 17, threatened to withhold county funding from Stinesville.

Their resolution, Madeira said, was aimed at ensuring that elected town officials made a public decision. “This was your decision, not ours, and not an attorney general’s, and not a U.S. senator’s,” Madeira said, addressing Stinesville’s officials.

Before the vote on Allen’s contract, commissioner Julie Thomas brought the discussion back to the matter that was actually on the agenda: “The item is the attorney representation agreement,” she said.

No members of the public spoke on the item. The agreement was approved 3–0. All three county commissioners, including Lee Jones, attended the meeting in person.