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Former IU basketball player and radio commentator Todd Leary will not call any more Hoosier games this season.
Charged with 17 counts alleging involvement in an Allen County mortgage title fund scheme, Leary was arrested Thursday night moments before the beginning of the IU-Purdue game at Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
By Friday afternoon, Leary, a Carmel resident, had been transported to Fort Wayne where he was booked into the Allen County Lockup. He is scheduled to appear for an initial hearing in Allen Superior Court on Tuesday morning, officials said.
Leary was released from Allen County Jail on Friday night after posting $60,000 bond.
The Indiana University Athletics Department and Learfield Sports, which oversees the IU Radio Network, issued a statement Friday expressing concern for Leary and his family but said they would use the broadcast team of Don Fischer and Joe Smith to call Hoosier basketball games for the remainder of the season.
Leary played for coach Bob Knight’s Hoosiers from 1990 to 1994; the team advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1992.
Leary once worked for former title insurance broker Joseph Garretson, who pleaded guilty this week in Allen Superior Court to conversion or misappropriation of title insurance escrow funds, corrupt business influence and unlawful loan origination activities in a scheme that court documents say totaled $2.7 million in losses.
Garretson is accused of arranging mortgage refinancing loans for area clients and failing to use the money to pay off the initial loans, causing mortgage holders to default.
Leary is accused of conspiring with Garretson between July 2008 and February 2009 to commit a variety of felonies, including conspiracy to commit conversion or misappropriation of title insurance escrow funds, conspiracy to commit theft and conspiracy to corrupt business influence.
The majority of the charges are Class C felonies, with penalties of up to four years in prison each. Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards said the amount of money involved in Leary’s case totals nearly $3 million.
After Garretson was arrested last fall, Leary called Brian Evans, a mutual friend and former IU teammate, to tell him that Leary that was involved in Garretson’s situation. Evans, who was not involved, relayed the conversation to Garretson and then gave a statement to state investigators, according to court documents.
Through his attorney, Garretson told investigators that Leary pressured him on numerous occasions for money, threatening to disclose Garretson’s financial misdeeds, according to court documents.
According to court documents, between March 11, 2008, and Feb. 12, 2009, more than $1 million in wire transfers went from a Fort Wayne Title bank account into a National City Bank account opened by Leary. Between March 2008 and March 2009, Leary withdrew $690,000 from the account, according to court documents.
