This story begins with a bizarre car crash and a confession.
Please also review the entire reporting project here-
When Indiana State Police talked with Bloomington psychologist Albert Fink at the crash scene that day in August of 2016, he told them the crash was deliberate- that he was trying to commit suicide because he was afraid of testifying in a Vanderburgh County court case the next day.
The 85-year-old Fink had been an active witness in Southwest Indiana courts for many years. WNIN and other media outlets reported on a mistrial prompted by Fink’s confession that he falsified a mental evaluation in the criminal case for which he was to testify. Dr. Fink would eventually plead guilty to a single felony charge of obstructing justice.
For the most part, that is where media coverage of the case of Albert Fink ends. Only WNIN reported on the full impact of Albert Fink’s public fall from grace.
While that single, sensational criminal case prompted our inquiry, the impact of our reporting is significant and ongoing. Our discovery that over two dozen more evaluations were suspect prompted action at the highest levels of the state’s court system. Discussions are beginning on ways of improving that system after we showed that even though court officials were suspicious, if Albert Fink hadn’t confessed, he might never have been caught.
A tip early in our reporting project led us to another, much larger pool of potential victims. Our investigation revealed that Albert Fink also had a Social Security disability claims practice that would have stretched the endurance of a much younger man. Our research turned up 10,567 cases for which Fink provided exams or testing, beginning at age 73.
While those responsible for the disability claims process have largely stonewalled our inquiry, there have been two important results. We learned recently that our reporting prompted a referral of Fink’s case to the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General. The OIG will not confirm whether an investigation is underway. We have also shown that despite repeated denials, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration is responsible for any shoddy work done on disability claims by Albert Fink.
In both phases of this project, we showed not only that there was a problem, but why there was a problem. We went beyond the inherently sensational nature of this story to talk about larger issues and solutions to already existing problems brought to the forefront by Albert Fink’s misdeeds.
WNIN, the community licensee NPR affiliate in Evansville has a staff of just five full-time employees to host programming, operate the FM radio station and produce news reports. Despite the resource challenge, the decision was made to pursue this investigation to ensure public disclosure of the larger ramifications of the Albert Fink case.
We hope you enjoy reviewing our work as much as we enjoyed producing it. We ask for your support for the high honor of an Associated Press award.