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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Police reports uncovered by REAL News Michiana through a public records request show the Republican candidate for St. Joseph County Probate Judge and current Deputy Prosecutor, Loris Zappia, has been lying about the circumstances surrounding a crash in which he killed bicyclist in 1983. The reports show Zappia failed to yield the right-of-way to cyclist who appears to have been taking up the middle of the lane on a narrow road to prevent dangerous passing. The crash resulted in the death of 55-year-old Basil Thomas, a Brother of Holy Cross.
According to police reports, Zappia and Thomas were both headed south on Juniper Road near the intersection of Pendle Road in June of 1983. Reports state Zappia claimed he saw the bicyclist move to the middle lane of traffic at which point Zappia applied his brakes but was unable to stop before hitting Thomas. However, accident reconstruction shows Zappia didn’t apply his brakes until he hit Thomas, with more than 70-feet of skid marks starting at the point of contact.
In a recent op-ed published in the South Bend Tribune, Zappia also claimed his vision was obstructed by a box truck. However, that claim is also contradicted by police and witness reports at the time.
“The truck moved out of the way in time to avoid hitting the cycler. I did not.” Zappia wrote in his op-ed earlier this summer.
Nowhere in the police or investigation reports is a box truck mentioned. In fact, Zappia never stated to police or investigators that his vision was obstructed. To the contrary, immediately after the crash, Zappia told police he saw the cyclist heading in the same direction as him before taking up the middle of the lane.
For years, Zappia has also claimed he was a minor during the accident. Sometimes he has told people he was 16-years-old. Other times he has told folks he was 17, as is the case in that same South Bend Tribune op-ed.
It turns out, Zappia was actually a legal adult at the time of the crash — he had turned 18-years-old months earlier. This convenient lie may seem minor to some, however, for any journalist or opposing political researcher, it’s fairly evident it was meant to prevent folks from looking into the incident. You see, as a minor, all of the records involving Zappia would not be available to the public. In fact, REAL News Michiana has known about this incident for years, but never made any public records request until recently because it was assumed the requests would be denied due to Zappia’s age. RNM didn’t discover Zappia was 18-years-old at the time of the crash until we recently uncovered several archived news articles from the time. The articles were difficult to track down as Zappia’s name is misspelled in each one. His name is also misspelled in the police report.
A GRAND JURY
Details from 1983 news reports are limited. They simply describe the crash and, later, a grand jury convening regarding the case. Zappia has been open about the fact that the case went to a grand jury, but suspiciously gave very few details on that as well. You see, a grand jury isn’t just called for no reason at all — there has to be evidence of a crime. Zappia has never answered the question as to why a grand jury was necessary, what alleged crimes he accused of, and what facts or evidence the police uncovered where criminal charges were a possibility. Earlier this month, RNM confronted Zappia about the inconsistencies in his story. He refused to answer any questions. Video of that confrontation can be seen below.
It’s also well known that grand juries are frequently used to get people out of crimes. For instance, prosecutors have historically used a grand jury to get police officers off the hook for alleged crimes. The prosecutor, instead of just charging a suspect, takes it to a grand jury to see if members of the public believe the facts uncovered by the police meet the elements of a crime. However, this process gives the prosecutor a lot of power creating a narrative about what happened behind closed doors — as no victims, defense or witnesses are required to be presented. EVERYTHING is done in a secretive and sealed manner by only the prosecutor, making it very easy for the prosecutor to push the grand jury in one direction or another. This also allows the prosecutor to wash their hands of any charging decision one way or another.
A famous local case of potential grand jury malfeasance involved the death of a 22-year-old woman, Erica Flores, who was killed by a speeding SBPD Officer in 2018. According to an article in the South Bend Tribune at the time, “Presenting the case to a grand jury, attorney Thomas Dixon said, was the ‘preordained way to not get a charge against the officer.’”
So — why would the prosecutor in 1983 potentially be helping an 18-year-old Loris Zappia?
As it turns out, Zappia had a wealthy and influential family. Plus, according to sources, the lawyer he hired was good friends with the prosecutor.
According to multiple sources, Zappia hired Bill Stanley to represent him at the time. Stanley was widely known as the premier DUI lawyer in the region. Stanley was also close friends with the St. Joseph County Prosecutor, Mike Barnes. Barnes also had close ties to the Zappia family. RNM had requested all of Barnes’ campaign finance records to see how much money was donated to his campaigns from the Zappia family and Bill Stanley, however, due to their age, those documents appear to have been destroyed and are no longer available.
Sources also tell RNM, Zappia’s uncle was also an influential politician at the time — working at the Democrat Party Chair with aspirations to run for Mayor of South Bend.
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