SALINE/RICHLAND/LAWRENCE Cos.—A former Disclosure staffer has been arrested on two criminal counts, and the façade her former law enforcement husband has carefully constructed around himself and his family is beginning to crumble as bad decisions made by the two caused them to lose custody of her daughter.
Jade Wingard Green, 23, daughter of Disclosure co-owner Angela Howser, has been charged with a felony Deceptive Practice count in Saline and a misdemeanor Theft in Lawrence, these coming after a failed attempt to get an Order of Protection against her stepfather, Disclosure owner Jack Howser, dating back to September 19.
And all of it comes on the heels of the apparent destruction wrought on Wingard’s life by her new husband, former Lawrence County/Lawrenceville/Sumner/Bridgeport and Palestine police officer, Josh Green, 29, whose years of machinations with OPs in his own life are now starting to backfire on him.
Further, information has now emerged that shows that an “attack” on Green last summer in Vincennes might not be everything he has been saying it was…with revelations that may end up causing him to be charged with a significant crime in Knox County, Indiana, if indeed they prove to be the case.
Convicted meth felon hooked up with cop
Regular readers will recall that Wingard is a convicted meth felon (dating back to 2010) and lost custody of her then-infant daughter to her parents, who raised the child, then took Wingard back in when she cleaned up her life about a year after her arrest.
Wingard obtained full custody of the now-four-and-a-half year old girl in April 2013 on a “trial” basis while she struggled in mediation with the little girl’s father.
The one-year ‘trial’ period was up in April of 2014, about a month after the Howsers relinquished guardianship of the little girl, and about two months after Wingard’s meth felony probation ended. However, when mediation failed, the custody matter was set for court hearings in order to come up with an equitable solution in Family court.
That, too, however, was marred by conflict: By April 2014, Wingard was seeing Green, something she’d been doing for nearly two years but not out in the open, as he was not allowed, per the policies of the police departments he’d been working for, to consort with a felon on probation.
From about April, Wingard’s behavior, toward job responsibilities, her daughter, the home she was living in in Calhoun rent-free (belonging to the Howsers) and pretty much everything but Green deteriorated from that point…and never improved.
Concerned about what they were seeing, the Howsers took the opportunity of Green living in the home by April to convince Wingard that her little girl could do better by taking her to their home in Harrisburg more frequently, giving Wingard more alone time with her new beau. Wingard happily agreed, and this became the rule until things became more weird with Green’s presence, this in late May, when Wingard and Green married.
Selfies come in by mail
At that time, the Howsers were receiving photos of Wingard, very obviously taken by her (‘selfies,’ which is when a person takes a photo of themselves in a mirror with a cell phone or other photographic device), in the mail. Most of these photos were nudes.
Horrified, the Howsers increased their granddaughter’s time with them in Harrisburg, hoping to keep her from any adverse influence that might be going on in Calhoun until the whole thing could be figured out.
But matters deteriorated even further with Green in the mix: He wasn’t working; his vehicle (not really his, but his father’s, Dennis Green in Bridgeport) was about to get repossessed; he was facing a Battery charge in Crawford County after beating up his then-girlfriend Deb Crist in Palestine while on-duty and in uniform on March 18; and was under two OPs, one by Crist in Crawford and one by the maligned second babymomma, Lyndsey Polston in Lawrence County.
The Howsers began to see signs of severe neglect with not only their grandchild, but with Green’s other children (ages 1 to 7) when they were with the Greens in Calhoun. By July, they had nearly completely removed their granddaughter from the presence of the Greens in an effort to keep her safe.
Deterioration of work, harm to business
Things deteriorated so badly that the Howsers had to terminate Wingard’s employment with the paper September 13, as she was getting paid but producing no work whatsoever.
It was suspected that Green was behind the shut-down: In typical misogynistic fashion, he was slowly cutting Wingard off from everything around her, and working for the paper in the capacity she was, with the public, was apparently anathema to him; he had already caused difficulties for her and for the paper when he insisted on accompanying her on deliveries, in one incident in the Spring causing her to go into such a panic attack over something she was wearing that she ended up in the hospital in McLeansboro.
His adverse influence became so destructive with Disclosure’s vendors that complaints were coming in, and some vendors threatened to stop carrying the paper if Green continued to march around like he was going to beat someone if they looked at Wingard ‘wrong.’ Business at the newspaper was being what appeared to be irretrievably harmed, and it was due to Green.
Further, the Calhoun house was fast approaching untenable; and all vehicles had been removed from Wingard’s use due to neglect and in one case, damage. It was apparent that Green didn’t care for “other people’s” property…nor much of anything. However, by the time of Wingard’s termination, he was, to his credit, working. He just wasn’t reporting it to anyone, since he was in arrearages on child support in two states, and according to mail Wingard would display, he was being sought by creditors across several states as well, including medical, utility, and other consolidation billing services
The ‘stabbing’
One of these had to do with an incident in August 2013 in Vincennes, in which Green was ostensibly stabbed by Polston. Medical treatment following this “stabbing” was unpaid and collectors were sending notices to Calhoun regularly.
However, Disclosure has since discovered that the incident may not have been what Green was telling people all along it was—that Polston had met him at Denny’s in Vincennes for a visitation exchange, called there by Green under the auspices that his newest offspring, an infant mere weeks old, was sick and he needed to get her to the hospital.
Green’s story is that when Polston saw him with babymomma No. 3 in his truck, she went nuts and stabbed him with a pair of scissors she found lying on the floor of the truck. Vincennes officers upheld their fellow officer’s story.
As something of a ‘coincidence,’ Wingard just happened to have been going to Vinny for dinner when she came upon the scene, and photographed all the blood and mess for the newspaper and website.
However, Disclosure has since come upon new information, originally generated by Green’s mother Rosemary, that he “set up” Polston with the ‘sick baby’ story. Further, even more recent information indicates that Green himself has told several people that he actually stabbed himself in the arm with the scissors in an effort to try to pin a crime on Polston, reinforce his story that she’s “crazy,” and get her charged so he could take their then-three-year-old daughter.
Data extractions in process
The proof would be in any messaging that likely flew between Wingard and Green on the day of the incident in mid-August 2013.
Disclosure is in possession of the corporate phone Wingard had at the time, and is in the process of having it forensically examined so as to extract any text or Facebook messages between Wingard and Green that occurred in the days leading up to the “attack,” as well as the night in question.
The phone had been cursorily examined in early October 2014 and it was discovered that while messages remained on it dating back to 2011, conversations between the two for the entire block of time for the months of August and September 2013 are missing; and it’s presumed Wingard deleted them.
However, data extraction on phones such as the one she was using at the time are completely possible, and could reveal messages believed to have been deleted from the device’s memory.
Control becomes nearly total
While the Howsers didn’t know about the possible duplicity Green was attempting over the August 2013 ‘attack,’ they did see that he was being more verbally brutal to the children in the home, as well as obnoxious toward Wingard…and apparently, he was not aware of the nude photos having been submitted to the paper owners, although he was becoming aware of Wingard’s playing multiple men by Facebook when the two were only casually seeing each other, from mid-2012 until March of 2014.
About to go on vacation for a month, the Howsers advised Wingard that they felt it best that the granddaughter go with them to the out-of-state location; Mrs. Howser’s son and family had already made arrangements to be with them on vacation for a number of days, and the son didn’t wish to be around Green, so the request had been made of Wingard that Green not go (although Wingard was welcome; naturally, that wouldn’t fly, as Green now had her completely in his control, even forcing her to dress like him in juvenile-looking t-shirts, jeans with ridiculously-large belt buckles, unkempt hair, and of course, she was disallowed to wear makeup).
Wingard balked, despite the fact that Mrs. Howser had already been given the okay to arrange vacation time with the granddaughter’s father and other grandmother so that they wouldn’t miss any visitation.
This was when the Howsers broke it to her that nude photos had been sent to her in the mail.
Using reason
In a panic, Wingard began stating she was going to be leaving with the granddaughter. She was told that if she left, it had to be for good, since the house was in such a horrific state of filth and disrepair that they would unfortunately have to be evicted. She was also reminded that since others seemed to be in possession of photos, there was no way of knowing who else would be receiving them (the Howsers had destroyed the glossy photographs upon receipt), since it was evident that Wingard had indiscriminately sent them to whomever wanted them…and that if the matter came up in her custody proceedings, she was likely to lose her daughter.
For these reasons, the Howsers told her, she needed to think carefully and not make any snap decisions, but instead allow some time to pass, perhaps explain the photos to her now-husband without her daughter around to hear the ensuing arguments that might take place, and plan her next step, especially as it came to custody proceedings, very carefully.
Wingard seemed to give this consideration, and calmed down.
Left granddaughter but got OP
The next day, September 19, the Howsers were ready to go on research at courthouses for cases, and with the granddaughter present, asked Wingard if she’d like to take the child for the day instead of the little girl accompanying the Howsers.
Wingard responded that she “had things to do” that day, and opted, at about 8:20 that morning, to leave her daughter with the Howsers, who were planning on staying the weekend in Calhoun and helping clean up the filth in the place while the granddaughter was at a regularly-scheduled visitation with her father in another county.
The little girl went with her grandparents and they all arrived home that evening about 8 p.m. Mrs. Howser was concluding a phone interview at about 9 p.m. and Jack Howser was getting the granddaughter ready for bed when two vehicles pulled up in the driveway.
One was the Greens; the other was Richland County Deputy Kevin McCormick, who was there to serve papers on Jack Howser from an Order of Protection Wingard had managed to get that day from Crawford County Judge Chris Weber.
There was no OP on Mrs. Howser; the Greens sought to remove the granddaughter from the presence of the Howsers, then have the Howsers removed from their own home, which the Greens were declaring was theirs.
Apparently, it wasn’t fully explained to Weber that the home not only wasn’t theirs, but that they didn’t even have a lease, and weren’t even considered tenants as they’d never paid a dime toward rent, but were living there rent-free in exchange for maintenance and upkeep of the premises…which they also weren’t doing.
And apparently, it was such an emergency, with the Greens feeling like the granddaughter was in some sort of ‘danger’ in the presence of the Howsers, that they felt fine leaving her with them all day while they sought an OP.
Disturbing items found in the filth
While collecting articles of clothing for the granddaughter, Mrs. Howser went to retrieve shoes under the bed shared by the granddaughter and one of Green’s other children when she stayed the night.
Under that bed was a shotgun, originally belonging to Green but which Mrs. Howser had gone to purchase for herself after Green had hocked it when his OP in Crawford County was filed; the purchase was sort of an offer of goodwill, and the gun had been locked up in an attic storage location but was now under the girls’ bed.
Howser remembered that there had at one time been another shotgun secreted in the room, and pulled out furniture to find it where she’d been told it had been removed and locked up, months before.
While Mr. Howser was helping McCormick locate items of clothing Green was requesting, the two came upon a very sharp machete and hatchet within easy reach of Green under his side of the bed…which was also within easy reach of the very small children, including a toddling 1-year-old infant, if they were to be in the room (which was where the infant’s playpen was located; see photo below, which is part of the collection Richland County sheriff’s authorities have)
As the two delivered the granddaughter to the Greens then went to confer with McCormick further, they found other items that disturbed them, such as unidentified pills, both loose and in expired pill bottles; nearly-empty bottles of alcohol store downstairs next to baby food; and, perhaps most disturbingly, jars and cups of urine in the Greens’ bedroom.
McCormick made a report to DCFS about all the items, as well as the condition of the house, which was revolting, with mold in many locations, ants and maggots on countertops, dried feces in training toilets and on sheets, and other such repulsive findings.
(Be sure to pick up the next issue of Disclosure, as this will be continued in it.)