(Michigan City, IN) - A petition drive is underway to try and cancel the memory of a former public official in Michigan City serving a 100 year prison sentence for child molesting.
Michigan City resident Carlie Dunn is collecting the signatures to bolster her chances when she takes her request before the Michigan City Park Department and the Michigan City Port Authority in the coming weeks.
Specifically, Dunn is requesting the name of John Rudisell be removed from plaques including those marking the construction of the bathhouse at Washington Park Beach and nearby Millennium Plaza along Trail Creek.
Rudisell was the city’s Port Authority Harbormaster when charged and later given two 50-year prison sentences in 2001 to be served consecutively on two Class A felony counts of child molesting.
According to authorities, it’s believed Rudisell actually had close to 20 male victims during at least a 13-year period, including some boys molested dozens of times.
“I think this is something the community can get behind,” she said.
Authorities said the now 64-year old Rudisell lured the boys by asking their parents if they could perform yard work on his Michigan City area farm where he kept exotic animals like Bengal Tigers. The parents trusted Rudisell because of his position as harbormaster and reputation as a stellar member of the community.
Rudisell was also an adult volunteer with the LaPorte County 4-H program.
Dunn, 33, said she never heard of Rudisell or the plaques until recently. She quickly decided it’s not right for him to continue being honored and his name remaining an open source of shame for the community.
Dunn said her concern is mostly about the impact on his victims if they happen to see his name on the plaques during any trips they might take to the lakefront.
“I wouldn’t want that person to be reminded of the horrific abuse they’ve had to endure,” she said.
In 2004, Ron Meer said he was on the city council when approached by relatives of some victims asking for the removal of Rudisell’s name.
Meer said he later presented a resolution calling for the removal and it was unanimously passed by the city council but the name, for whatever reason, was never eliminated from the markers. At the time, Meer said he received extreme “pushback” from board members with the Port Authority and Park Department, who felt removing Rudisell’s name would be “altering history.”
Meer said the issue seemed to have been mostly forgotten by the time he became mayor about eight-years later and was never revisited during his two four-year terms. He expressed support for Dunn’s efforts.
“This guy does not in any way, shape or form deserve to be on any monument with recognition,” he said.
According to authorities, Rudisell paid the boys as much as $150 to engage in sex acts that sometimes involved more than one boy at a time. He also seduced them with alcohol, marijuana and pornographic movies, authorities said.
Dunn also said her request is a chance for the city to save face years later and make things right with the victims.
“What does that say about us as a community that we’re still memorializing this individual? I think we should be on the side of the victim and think about what that does to them. How does that make them feel,” she said.
Dunn said her plan is to go before the Port Authority Board with her request on August 3 and Park Board on August 5.
Currently, Rudisell is downstate in the Pendleton Correctional Facility, according to the Indiana Department of Correction. His earliest release date is listed as February 21, 2050.
