JOURNAL REVIEW
Fallen officer will receive full police honors
Maria J. Flora
Funeral services with full police honors are planned for the Putnam County Sheriff’s captain who died after his car flipped into a creek. Jim Baugh’s squad car skidded off U.S. 231 and flipped into Big Walnut Creek north of Greencastle Friday. He was trapped underwater for about 15 minutes, police said.Baugh, 62, was on his way to a minor accident when his car left the road. He was taken to Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis, where he died about five hours after the 4:30 p.m. wreck, Sheriff Mark Frisbie said.The Marion County Coroner is expected to release a cause of death today. Indiana State Police accident reconstructionists were still investigating Sunday, but are also expected to release information today, Frisbee said.Baugh, a former Putnam County sheriff, was to retire in April after more than 30 years with the department.Montgomery County Sheriff Dennis Rice considered Baugh a close friend. Over the years, the two competed in pistol matches and were instructors together at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. Baugh taught firearms.”It is so sad that within the last 30 days Indiana has lost five officers in the line of duty,” Rice said. “It is especially sad that two have been longtime friends.”New Richmond Town Marshall Mark Clapp, 45, was the state’s first in 2003. He died Dec. 5 of a heart condition after arresting a teen involved in a domestic dispute. Clapp was the marshal more than 20 years and an integral part of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force with Rice and others.Law enforcement from throughout the state, organized by the Indiana Fraternal Order of Police, gave Clapp a hero’s sendoff with a full police honors funeral.The same is planned for Baugh this week, Indiana State Trooper Rich Meyer said.Visitation will be from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday in Greencastle Christian Church. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Neal Fieldhouse in the Lilly Physical Education and Recreation Center, DePauw University. Whitaker Funeral Home, Cloverdale, is in charge of arrangements.Baugh’s wife, Laura Lee, and two sons, Jason and Jerrod, survive. Jerrod is an Indiana State excise police officer.Baugh’s death followed the deaths of four Indiana police officers in the line of duty during December.The Marion County Coroner ruled Clapp’s death a homicide. Montgomery County Prosecutor Joseph Buser is evaluating evidence, but charges have not been announced against the 17-year-old Clapp arrested.Two Mishawaka officers were shot and killed Dec. 13 as they tried to arrest a man who later fatally shot himself. They were Cpl. Thomas Roberts and Officer Bryan Verkler.Indiana State Trooper Scott Patrick was fatally shot Dec. 22 after he stopped to check on a disabled car along a Gary highway.
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