Last Updated on October 17, 2021 by News release from Noah Schafer
LOGANSPORT – Cass County Prosecutor Noah Schafer announced Thursday, Oct. 14 that he will be seeking another term in office in 2022.
Schafer grew up in Lafayette, the oldest of six children and a product of a Catholic blue-collar family. After graduating from Central Catholic High school in 1992, he went on to attain degrees in Business and English Literature from Purdue University, all while working a variety of jobs, including in his father’s roofing business. Schafer credits his family and his time spent learning a trade for his faith, his work ethic, and his sense of justice.
After his time at Purdue, Schafer pursued a doctorate in law at Indiana University at Bloomington, and felt the strong urge to pursue litigation after excelling in moot court competitions and trial procedure class. Following graduation, Schafer worked as an intern in the Marion County Prosecutor’s office while preparing for the bar examination, and upon passing he accepted an invitation to become a prosecutor over other more lucrative job offers. He recently celebrated his twentieth year of being a prosecutor.
Early in his career Schafer was assigned to courts which specialized in domestic violence cases, then exclusively drug cases. Starting in 2004, he was assigned to handle major felonies ranging from robbery, burglary, fraud and arson to rape and child molesting. A few years later, based on his outstanding successes in major felony jury trials he was chosen to be part of the new Homicide Unit formed in response to a spike in violent murders in Marion County. For several years, Schafer handled exclusively murders and attempted murders, and has tried more than two dozen murders to juries, winning more than ninety percent of those cases.
Following his time in the Marion County prosecutor’s office, Schafer served as the Chief Deputy of the Pike County prosecutor’s office, in which he became accustomed to small community law enforcement, working with multiple law enforcement agencies and prosecuting cases ranging from misdemeanors to felonies in a county of fewer than twenty thousand people. Among other trials during that time, he successfully prosecuted a murder in which a defendant shot his own mother and set her body and the house on fire. His successful prosecution resulted in a sentence of life without parole for the murderer.
Starting in 2015, Schafer became the Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney of Cass County, in which position he served until December 2019, when he was elected by caucus to replace outgoing prosecutor Lisa Swaim. As Chief Deputy, Schafer handled the majority of criminal jury trials in Cass County for five years, managed all manner of preliminary hearings and sentencings, supervised attorneys and staff, screened cases, worked with victims, and taught younger attorneys how to prosecute. He also worked extensively with local law enforcement agencies, earning their respect and confidence and forging excellent working relationships with officers and deputies. Among his accomplishments at that time was the successful prosecution of a former law enforcement officer for child molesting, which led to a sentence of 154 years incarceration.
Since becoming prosecutor in December 2019, Schafer has presided over the difficult “COVID months” with great success. Following the shutdown of courts in 2020 and the subsequent backlog of cases, the Cass County prosecutors office has conducted nearly three times the average number of jury trials in 2021 (including several Schafer tried personally) with more expected before year’s end. He has initiated procedures to update and streamline case management within the office, taking advantage of advances in technology to decrease dependency on paper and increase efficiency and has expanded the capacity of the prosecutor’s office to communicate in multiple languages. Other areas of the office have also enjoyed continued success, as the IV-D division of the office was awarded for the sixth consecutive year for collection of child support, and the Adult Protective Services unit successfully implemented new operating procedures to increase the safety of endangered adults in Cass and surrounding counties.
Of his bid for reelection, Schafer said: “Since taking office, I have done my best to honor the faith you placed in me. I want to continue my efforts to see that justice is done, and to lead our courts and law enforcement agencies in holding criminals accountable and keeping our community and our children safe.”
Schafer is active in numerous Cass County community activities, including coaching and sponsoring youth sports leagues, membership in Logansport Noon Kiwanis and Cass County Domestic Violence Task Force, service as a Republican Precinct Committeeman, enthusiastic support of 4H activities and active participation at All Saints Catholic church, where he serves as a lector and has chaired men’s prayer groups and fundraisers. He and his wife Daphne live in Logansport with their four young children.
Schafer will file formal paperwork to become a candidate in January 2022.
SOURCE: News release from Noah Schafer