Background Information
On June 24, 2024, Vernon T. Bateman received a summons from the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office ordering him to appear before Marion County Juvenile Paternity Court on August 19, 2024. The order was to establish the Paternity of Promise N. Scales (case number: 49C01-2407-JP-006771). There was only one glaring, remarkable oversight in the suit filed by Deputy Prosecutor Martha M. McDermott, #18800-49 on behalf of Dorothy N. Scales: Where Vernon T. Bateman was during the times they listed for the conception and birth of the child. During this time, Vernon T. Bateman was in solitary confinement, shackled and chained by the Indiana Department of Corrections, and therefore unable to consent to any sexual activity.
Amongst the countless other injustices the state subjected–and continues to subject–Bateman to, this press conference organized by the Coalition to Free Vernon T. Bateman draws out two more. The most immediate is his release from prison in 2023, when the IDOC transferred guardianship to a predatory Parole Officer named Jason M. Cottey. We detail the bizarre text messages Cottey sent to Bateman that tried to lure him too Cottey’s house in violation of Bateman’s parole stipulations.
Those parole stipulations are the final matter addressed. The Coalition to Free Vernon T. Bateman argues these are illegal, citing the 2014 Indiana Supreme Court Decision in “Bleeke v. Lemmon.”
Watch the Press Conference