LAGRANGE â A LaGrange County man will be spending the next 20 years in an Indiana prison after he was sentenced Monday to a single charge of child molesting, a Level 1 felony.
Robert Hoff, 35, of 3900 block of North C.R. 200E, LaGrange, formerly of Wolcottville, was arrested last May along with his wife, Mandy Hoff, and charged with one count of child molesting and one count of incest. The pair was accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old child. Police said they believe Hoff had been molesting the child for at least four years.
Hoff was scheduled for a June trial when he agreed in March to a plea deal offered by the LaGrange County Prosecutorâs office. In that plea, Hoff agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of child molesting in return for the state dismissing the incest charge, a Level 4 felony.
ANGOLA â A Pleasant Lake man was arrested early Friday on a charge of Level 4 felony child molesting for an incident that allegedly occurred last fall in his home.
John A. Stalf, 50, allegedly fondled a girl that was 10 at the time, said charging documents filed in Steuben Superior Court.
The incident allegedly took place either Oct. 18 or 19, 2020, shortly before the girlâs 11th birthday, court records said.
The girl was spending the night at the Stalf home, sleeping on a couch. Sometime during the night, Stalf, allegedly only wearing his underwear, picked the girl up off the couch and carried her into his bedroom.
LAGRANGE â A Shipshewana man who police say drove the get-a-way car for a machete-wielding accomplice who was accused of robbing a Shipshewana hotel will be spending the next 10 years of his life in prison after agreeing to a plea deal with the LaGrange County Prosecutorâs Office.
Matthew David Felder, 26, of the 7600 block of North C.R. 920W, agreed to plead guilty to a charge of aiding in armed robbery, a Level 3 felony. He also agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of possession of dangerous material by an incarcerated person, a Level 4 felony, for an incident that occurred at the LaGrange County Jail. The LaGrange County Sheriffâs Department reported back in July, Felder was found in possession of a razor blade heâd fashioned into a weapon.
LAGRANGE â Saying it would be tough to enforce a county building mask mandate once the state backs away from a state-wide mask mandate, the LaGrange County Commissioners voted Monday to ease rules their regulations and no longer require those entering county buildings to wear a mask. Instead, the mandate is now merely a recommendation.
The move comes as coronavirus pandemic policies across the state are being eased. LaGrange County remains a blue county, meaning it has one of the lowest metrics for community spread of the coronavirus as calculated by the Indiana Department of Health. LaGrange is one of 53 blue counties in the state, down from more than 60 last week.
LAGRANGE — A Wolcottville woman arrested last year after being accused of having sex with a minor agreed to plead guilty to a single charge and has been sentenced to