The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-02-29
CHECK SHOWS
TAMPERING ON
TlY RECORDS
Assessor BareS Effort to
Make Huge Change in
Valuations.
ENTRIES SCRATCHED OUT
Discrepancies Are Revealed
of Near Half Million
by Brattain.

Falsification of Marion County
tax assessment records, whereby
thousands Of dollar smight have
been lost in uncollected taxes.
was revealed today by Frank B.
Brattain, Center township assessor.
Discrepancies Of approximately
$500,O0O in ground valuation have
been discovered to date, and the
check-up still is in progress.
Entries in the assessors books
had been scratched out and other
wise tampered with, the books re-
veal. They were discovered only
by a recheck with other records.
Valuations in four instances were
changed for a total loss in valua-
Jion of So $4,000. At the tax rate of
1884 this amounts to $6,44l in
taxes.
Brattain believes the total will
be approximately double that
amount.
AS soon as the first Justification
was discovered last May, the routine
of the office was changed whereby
a clerk guarded all records while the
public was examing them. Prior to
that time, the records could be eX-
amined without such close Surveil-
lance of county officials.
Large Items Changed
"Only the large items were tam
pered with" Brattain said land this
was done in a crude way. 1t is evil
dent that the changes were made by
a person uninformed as to the rou-
tine of the office, for the field books
we're not changed 1t is by these
that we are finding the errors"
Three large property owners are
affected, he said, in particular.
Brattain has no evidence that would
connect these directly with the
changes in the records. For this
reason he did not divulge the
names.
In some instances, valuations on
as many as three pieces of property
of one person or one family have
been altered.
Brattain has not laid his facts be-
fore prosecuting authorities, due to
the absolute lack Of evidence con-
Meeting any one person with the
changes.
Not Made by Employees
He is convinced the changes we're
made by the public rather than by
a member of his own Office force.
Had the latter been the case, they
would have been familiar enough
with Office routine to change all
records rather than just the one.
In one instance the falsified
valuation was brought forward
through 1928, 1924, 1925, and 1926.
When it was discovered last fall,
and Brattain made demand for the
difference il taxes, amounting in
this particular instance to approx
imately $l,5OO, payment was made
without question or protest.
In one instance, a valuation of
SOL 900 was changed by scraping the
"9" with a knife until it appeared
to be a 81" leaving the figure
$1,000 instead of $91 1000. The
county here would have lost valu-
alton of 100000.
In another case, 100000 was
changed to $4,000. A $4,000 item
was scraped down to look like
$4,000.
Scratches Easily Seen
The Office routine is to change
valuation by drawing a red ink line
through the old figure, writing the
new valuation above and explain
ing in marginal references.
Scratches on the books were no
ticeable Immediately.
All downtown property has been
checked. The rest Of the year will
be required to finish the check-up,
Brattain said.
1t is the first time since 1919 thas
the assessment books have been
checked against the field books,
Brattain said.
Spurred on by the discoveries,
is instituting a card index
system Of keeping track Of real
estate valuation. This will not be
accessible as easily as the regular
book, and will afford an
absolute check in case Of doubt,