Bloomington psychologist Dr. Albert Fink pleaded guilty to an obstruction of justice charge Tuesday afternoon.
In a plea deal, Fink admitted to submitting false evidence in the Vanderburgh County trial of Caleb Loving last August. Fink was charged with obstruction of justice and theft. The theft charge was dismissed in the plea agreement.
The plea agreement included an eighteen month jail sentence that was suspended to probation and a $10,000 fine. Fink must also surrender his professional licenses.
The legal process was lengthy, but Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Herman is satisfied with the final results.
“What we felt was important in this case was to make sure that as part of the plea he has to forfeit all of his professional licenses," said Herman. "He’s also getting a felony conviction so that insures that he won’t be able to do this again in the future.”
On August 2nd last year, Fink crashed his car into a tree outside Bloomington while on his way to testify in the Loving case. ISP detective Stacy Brown was the first officer on the scene. Fink told Detective Brown that he crashed his car while trying to commit suicide. He had falsified mental evaluations and feared his crime would be discovered.
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Tuesday, before the plea hearing, Fink was tense and withdrawn. He said, “It doesn’t matter. I’m ruined anyway. Nothing anyone can say or do will change that.” After the hearing however, he was willing to talk, briefly saying he was relieved, but still has some concerns.
For Herman reaching a conclusion in the case was satisfying, "I think that anytime you have a case like this, it just takes some time to work through. This was a complicated case. Involved a lot of paperwork and a lot of different things."
There are many implications with the guilty plea Tuesday. Fink had an active practice in Southwest Indiana. WNIN has been following this case since the initial incident.