Husband Of Fired ICJI Director Speaks Out

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(INDIANAPOLIS) - The man whose 1.25-million-dollar grant led to the firing of the director of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute is defending himself and the program the grant was meant to fund.

Michael McKenna is a former New Orleans, LA attorney who moved to Greenwood, IN last year. He grew up in New Orleans with Corey Smith, whose wife heather Bolejack was fired last week for allegedly steering a grant to McKenna without approval from the ICJI board.

The ICJI ordered McKenna two weeks ago to halt work until further notice. McKenna says the mentoring program for children of prison inmates had been laying groundwork. McKenna declares he's done nothing wrong, and contends Bolejack was fired because it was the easiest thing politically.

McKenna's grant proposal called for nearly half the grant money to pay salaries for a projected three-person staff, including a $95,000 salary and car lease for himself. The project had received $80,000 when the ICJI issued a stop-work order because of the investigation. McKenna says he'd arranged preliminary partnerships with 13 community organizations, and had begun recruiting and training mentors.

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