No charges filed in connection with the death of Vanderburgh Deputy Asson Hacker during training

EVANSVILLE — The Vanderburgh County District Attorney's Office has declined to file charges in connection with the training-related death of Deputy Sheriff Asson Hacker, the county's top prosecutor said, after a review by an independent Indiana State Police investigation reportedly found no evidence of wrongdoing by the instructors.

Hacker, 33, died in the hospital hours after participating in what Evansville police described as “routine physical tactics training” led by the Southwestern Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. The academy trains EPD recruits along with police and sheriff's office cadets from agencies throughout southwest Indiana.

A civil lawsuit filed last week by Hacker's wife, Kourtney Hacker, on behalf of her husband's heirs alleges the training, which took place at Evansville's Club Bushido martial arts studio, amounted to “state-sponsored harassment” and was part of a UFC-style sparring event called SWILEA, reportedly nicknamed “The Big Fight.”

The lawsuit names the City of Evansville, EPD and SWILEA as defendants, as well as the Knox County Sheriff's Office deputy who Hacker allegedly fought during the exercise and an EPD officer who served as an instructor during the fights.

More:Widow of Evansville deputy sheriff who died during exercise files lawsuit, calling event “state-sponsored harassment”

Neither the department nor the city of Evansville responded to questions when contacted by the Courier & Press on Tuesday, citing city policy. The city's outside legal counsel also declined comment, citing that pending litigation cannot be discussed publicly.

Prosecutor: ISP report contains no “indications of wrongdoing”

The 11-page lawsuit filed by Hacker's estate says he was “forced” to fight a veteran police officer who “choked,” “punched” and “slammed” Hacker to the ground until he “lay motionless on the fighting area.” Hacker died hours later in the hospital, according to EPD.

News of the lawsuit and the allegations it contained quickly made headlines across the country in law enforcement and legal publications such as Law and Crime News.

The lawsuit directly links Hacker's death to SWILEA training, writing in the complaint that the academy “placed Hacker in a dangerous situation that he would not have otherwise been exposed to.”

Vanderburgh County District Attorney Diana Moers, whose office is not named in Kourtney Hacker's civil lawsuit, answered written questions Tuesday afternoon about her handling of the ISP investigation into Hacker's death. Moers said her office received the ISP report in mid-May.

“We have reviewed the file and could not find any evidence of criminal activity or other signs of wrongdoing,” Moers said in response to a question from the Courier & Press.

Moers added that her office decided not to file criminal charges “shortly after receiving and reviewing the ISP investigation file.”

According to EPD and SWILEA, both of which operate under the City of Evansville umbrella, Hacker was participating in a “defensive tactics training” on March 2, 2023, when he became ill and had to be transported to a local hospital. A timeline in Kourtney Hacker's civil lawsuit states that Hacker was admitted to the hospital at 12:06 p.m. and pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m.

The district's top prosecutor personally reviewed the video footage of Asson Hacker's training fight

In her statement, Moers said district attorneys in Indiana are tasked with reviewing “allegations and investigative reports” detailing possible law enforcement misconduct to determine whether the case should lead to criminal charges.

“The sheriff's office, in particular, has the Indiana State Police conduct an independent investigation and then forwards that file to the district attorney's office for review,” Moers explained. “We look for any behavior that is outside the duties and responsibilities of law enforcement and that would be considered a criminal offense. In this case, we have not found any criminal or even suspicious behavior on the part of law enforcement.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Hacker's estate, alleges his death occurred after a well-known training event for SWILEA cadets called “The Big Fight.” According to the lawsuit, SWILEA hosted more than 20 fights, including Hacker's, at the Club Bushido martial arts studio on Evansville's north side on March 2, 2023.

“The 'Big Fight' was not a legitimate training exercise, but a state-sponsored harassment event that created an obviously dangerous situation,” the lawsuit states. The lawsuit refers to previously unpublished video footage of the training fights that took place at Club Bushido on March 2, 2023.

Moers said she viewed the footage as part of the Vanderburgh County District Attorney's Office's review of the case.

Regarding what the footage showed, Moers wrote: “I determined that this was routine training that all of our men and women in law enforcement participate in as a necessary part of their job duties.” However, according to the lawsuit, the female cadets were not required to participate in the March 2, 2023, fights.

“In the video, Hacker lands on top of the other officer and handcuffs him to end the exercise,” Moers continued. “Hacker does not appear to be in distress – he appears to be speaking, breathing and moving normally for someone who is exercising. The exercise was well controlled and therefore did not cause me any concern.”

Moers added that the footage showed Hacker and his opponent — who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit — wearing appropriate protective gear during their fight. According to Moers' description of the footage, a “trainer” and a “defensive tactics instructor” were on the mat next to Hacker “to give Hacker instructions on what moves to perform for training purposes.”

More:Sheriff promises changes after death of Deputy Asson Hacker

Video recordings are not public, but photos show similar SWILEA training in Club Bushido

Kourtney Hacker's Indianapolis-based attorneys wrote in a legal document that the fights were supposed to last only five minutes, but claimed Hacker's fight lasted approximately seven minutes. According to the video recording reproduced in the complaint, Hacker was seen “lying motionless on the fighting area” at the end of the sparring session.

Moers wrote that Hacker received medical attention “at the first sign” of distress. She made this observation after reviewing the footage and investigating the ISP. Kourtney Hacker's lawyers claimed in the lawsuit that Club Bushido lacked qualified medical personnel.

The video showing the fight is not public, but photos posted by the EPD on its official Facebook page on March 22, 2022, show similar SWILEA training exercises at Club Bushido to those that allegedly preceded Hacker's death. The images, seen below, appear to show recruits and instructors training in sparring gear.

It was not immediately clear whether the March 22, 2022 training session shown in the photos was an earlier “big fight.”

Tuesday afternoon, Evansville Police Chief Phil Smith told the Courier & Press he could not say whether SWILEA had made any changes to its training program following Hacker's death, citing the pending litigation. Smith also declined to comment on the type of training seen in the March 2022 photos.

Moers wrote in her statement that footage of the fighting on the day of Hacker's death showed nothing unusual in terms of the close combat that police engage in during training or on the streets.

“The exercise seemed well controlled and therefore did not cause me any concern,” Moers wrote. “I saw a lot of fighting (on body camera footage) and the exercise pales in comparison to the real fighting that officers sometimes face in the field. Several other officers who were training defensive tactics were also present during the exercise.”

In his statement, the prosecutor cites the coroner’s decision on the cause of death

Not long after Hacker's death in 2023, the Vanderburgh County Coroner's Office determined that his death was a “natural cause” due to “exercise-induced sickle cell anemia and sickle cell anemia.” This determination prompted the VCSO to implement new screening protocols to identify cadets who may be at risk of developing the disease, which predominantly affects African Americans.

In her statement on prosecutors' decision not to file charges in connection with Hacker's death, Moers said the autopsy showed that Hacker died “from complications related to sickle cell anemia.”

“Medical staff were also informed that Hacker was following a rigorous exercise regimen – starting at 5 a.m. every day -, taking several nutritional supplements and choosing to eat only one meal a day,” Moers explained. “No injuries were found on his body or head.”

Sheriff's office mourns hacker while questioning credibility of lawsuit

On Tuesday, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson, who is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said his office “continues to mourn the tragic and untimely death of Deputy Asson Hacker,” adding that Hacker's loss is “deeply regretted by all who knew him.”

Hacker was the father of four children and husband of Kourtney Hacker. According to his obituary, Hacker was born in Queens, New York in 1990. His family later moved to Indiana, where Hacker attended Bedford North Lawrence High School. He was a standout basketball player for the Stars and later played college basketball for Olney Central College.

“He enjoyed playing sports with his children, spending time with his family, taking weekend trips with his wife and especially loved his boys,” his obituary reads.

Hacker worked as a coal miner before making a major career change in hopes of becoming an officer with the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office. His fellow SWILEA cadets described Hacker as a star athlete. Among Hacker's SWILEA class was an EPD recruit who was hospitalized after the same drills Hacker participated in on March 2, 2023, according to Sergeant Anna Gray of the EPD.

As the sheriff's office mourns the loss of an up-and-coming colleague who had hoped to spend his life working in public service, the VCSO said in a statement released Tuesday that it “believes many of the allegations contained in the (complaint) to be inaccurate or misleading” and that it expects the defendants to “present a strong defense.”

Houston can be contacted at [email protected].

No charges filed in connection with the death of Vanderburgh Deputy Asson Hacker during training

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