Rodney J. Cummings

Prosecutor 1995-2006; 2011-current. 

On January 1, 2019, Rodney Cummings began his 6th term as prosecutor and is currently in his twenty-fourth year, making him the second longest serving prosecutor in our county's history.  See his full biography on "Meet the Prosecutor" page.

Thomas J. Broderick, Jr.

Prosecutor 2007-2010.

Mayor Broderick is a 1975 graduate of Ball State and a 1978 graduate of IU McKinney School of Law. He served for 8 years as the Chief Deputy Prosecutor under William F. Lawler, Jr., and for 12 years on the Madison County Council, twice serving as the council's president. Broderick was elected Mayor of the City of Anderson in 2015 and has served in that position since.

William F. Lawler, Jr.

Prosecutor 1963-1978; 1983-1994.

A graduate of Purdue University and Indiana University School of Law, Lawler served in the U.S. Navy during both WWII and the Korean War. Lawler's seven terms and twenty-eight years make him the longest serving prosecutor in our county's history. After leaving the prosecutor's office, Lawler went on the serve on the Disciplinary Commission of the State of Indiana from 1994-2002. He was awarded the 1994 Prosecutor Emeritus Award and was twice named a Sagamore of the Wabash.  His son, Mark Lawler, served as the Mayor of Anderson for sixteen years from 1988-2004. Lawler died at the age of 76 having practiced law in Anderson for over 45 years.

Erskine Cherry

Prosecutor 1979-1982.

A graduate of Tulane University and Tulane University Law School, Cherry practiced law in Indiana from 1971-2001. 

Jack B. Campbell

Prosecutor 1941-1944.

Campbell, the grandson of former prosecutor Bartlett H. Campbell, was a graduate of Lincoln University Law School. Campbell served as the Anderson City Attorney from 1956-1963 and again from 1971 until his death in 1975 at the age of 63.

George P. Windoffer

Prosecutor 1939-1940.

A native of Kokomo, Indiana, where his father was the longtime police chief, Windoffer was a 1918 graduate of Notre Dame and practice law in Anderson for many years. He died at the age of 49 from heart disease.

Cecil F. Whitehead

Prosecutor 1933-1938; 1945-1946.

A native of Elwood, Whitehead graduated from the Indiana University School of Law and served in the U.S. Army in World War I. Following his last term as prosecutor, he served as legal counsel for the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, traveling to Germany as part of a team of six American industrialists assigned in assisting the economic reconstruction of West Berlin.

Lawrence M. Busby

Prosecutor 1925-1928.

Busby graduated from Indiana University Law School in 1923 and established a law practice in Lapel. Following his two terms as prosecutor, he was appointed by Governor Leslie to serve as the Madison County Circuit Court Judge until 1932. Later, Busby served as the director of the State Bank of Lapel and the Lapel Savings and Loan.

Charles E. Smith

Prosecutor 1923-1924; 1931-1932.

Smith began his career in politics when he was named as parliamentarian of the House of Representatives in Indiana. He served as the Anderson City Court Judge and one term in the Indiana House of Representatives. He also served two terms as Judge of the Circuit Court and one term as the Judge of the Superior Court.

Samuel E. Johnson

Prosecutor 1919-1922.

Johnson began his career as a common laborer in one of Anderson's industrial plants. It was there that he suffered an accident that deprived him of his left arm. He trained as a lawyer and following his two terms as prosecutor, he served 12 years a member of the Indiana State Senate. He was appointed as the Anderson City Court Judge before dying from an illness two years later.

Oswald Ryan

Prosecutor 1917-1918; 1929-1930.

Born in Anderson in 1888, he attended Butler University and Harvard Law School. Ryan was an nominated by President Roosevelt to the newly created Civil Aeronautics Authority, later called the Civil Aeronautics Board, and served as its chairman in 1953. He died on December 31, 1982.

Sparks Brooks

Prosecutor 1915-1916.

Born to a farmer in Champion, Pennsylvania on August 24, 1869. He attended Mt. Union (class of 1891) and Yale Law School. He came to Anderson in 1897 and died at the age of 87, having practiced law in Anderson for 61 years.

Jesse Shuman

Prosecutor 1911-1914.

Born in Pendleton in 1852, Jesse Shuman attended Kansas State University and graduated with an LLB degree in 1889. He engaged in the general practice of law in Anderson for more than 40 years. He served 25 years as the president of the federal farm program for Madison County before being elected as the Anderson City Court Judge in 1929 and died at his home in Anderson the following year in 1930.

Fredrick Van Nuys

Prosecutor 1907-1910.

Born in Falmouth, he graduated from Earlham College and what is now Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 1900. Van Nuys served as a member of the Indiana Senate from 1913-1916, U.S. Attorney for the District of Indiana from 1920-1922, and as a United States Senator from 1933-1944. He died on January 25, 1944 and is buried in East Maplewood Cemetery, Anderson.

Albert Henry Vestal

Prosecutor 1900-1906

U.S. Congress 1917-1932

Born on a farm near Frankton on January 18, 1875, he attended what is now Indiana State University. He taught school for several years and attended law school at Valparaiso University. He was elected to Congress in 1917 and served as House Majority Whip from 1923-1931.

William F. Edwards

Prosecutor 1898-1900.

Not much is known of Edwards' accomplishments but his life seemed to go downhill after his service as Prosecutor. After his wife filed for divorce, Edwards was located wandering in Alabama. As the Anderson Herald warned at the time, "Edwards had stuck a pace that was hard to keep up and his expenses had outgrown his income, leaving nothing to do, but desert the community or face a suicides grave. This incident might well serve as a warning to others who are dangerously near the same ground."

Daniel W. Scanlan

Prosecutor 1894-1898.

Scanlan graduated from Georgetown Law School and spent twenty years practicing law in Madison County before he moved to Chicago. He served as a 1924 presidential elector from Illinois. Scanlan died at the age of sixty.

Bartlett H. Campbell

Prosecutor 1892-1894.

Campbell was born and raised in Anderson, Indiana. He served as a teacher and a deputy sheriff prior to his admittance to the bar. Campbell's law partner, John L. Forkner, was elected Mayor of Anderson in 1902 and Campbell served as city attorney until his death in 1907.

Albert C. Carver

Prosecutor 1890-1892.

Born in 1848, he was elected Prosecutor in 1890 on the promise that he would do all in his power to break up the saloon and gambling dens which then were all over the county. When the sheriff and constables refused to serve arrest warrants, he undertook this effort himself and once had to shoot and kill an attacker. Carver was found to have acted in self defense. After his term of office, he moved to Gary, Indiana, where he inspired his young nephew, David E. Lilienthal, to enter politics. Lilienthal later represented clients with Clarence Darrow, headed the Tennessee Valley Authority, and was the chair of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

David W. Wood

Prosecutor 1889-1890.

David Wood was first elected as the prosecuting attorney for the 17th Judicial Circuit in 1884 and was appointed by the governor as the first prosecuting attorney for the 50th Judicial Circuit in 1889. He died in Anderson on June 26, 1901. In the 1914 book "The History of Madison County" by John L. Forkner, he was remembered as follows:

"Mr. Wood was one of the most companionable of men. Sunny by nature, he took time and occasion to cultivate the jovial and joyous side of life. His death, sudden and tragic, was a shock and a sorrow to the whole community, and to the bar a loss that agreeable nature the touch of which indeed, "makes the world kin."

Francis M. Trissal

Prosecutor (24th Circuit) 1872-1873

Born in Johnsville, Ohio, on September 30, 1847. Trissal was a deputy clerk in the Hamilton Circuit Court and practiced in Noblesville, Tipton, and Indianapolis. He was one of the founders of the Illinois College of Law. Died in 1931.

William O'Brien

Prosecutor (17th Circuit) 1868-1869.

Graduate of DePauw University 1861. Served as a Lt. Colonel in the Civil War. Wounded at Chickamauga and Peachtree Creek. Returned to Indiana and served in the Indiana State Senate after his term as prosecutor. Died in California in 1874.

Notable Former Staff Members

Melvin Biddle

1945 recipient of the Medal Of Honor.

During the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, Biddle reconnoitered the German lines alone, killed three enemy snipers, and silenced four machine gun placements.

When presenting the medal to Biddle, President Truman whispered, "People don't believe me when I tell them that I'd rather have one of these than be President."

Biddle served many years as an investigator for the MCPO.

Wendell Willkie

1940 Republican Nominee for President

A native of Elwood, Willkie briefly served as a deputy prosecutor after his return from law school. In what was likely his first courtroom case, he delivered a three hour closing argument in the trial of an accused arsonist. Once finished, his father, Herman Willkie, who was the defense attorney in the case, stood up and said to the jury, "I believe my son is going to make a great lawyer as he can make so much out of so little."

The Honorable Rudolph R Pyle, III

Judge, Court of Appeals of Indiana

Judge Pyle served as a deputy prosecutor from 2004-2009. He was appointed as Judge of Madison County Circuit Court I in 2009 and appointed by Governor Mitch Daniels to the Court of Appeals of Indiana in 2012.