A Marion County judge dropped the criminal case against a former Broad Ripple bar owner on July 14 after ruling that the prosecutor’s office conducted a “blatantly unconstitutional” search of his tax returns.
All 27 counts filed against Robert Sabatini were dismissed with prejudice, which means they can’t be filed again. Sabatini was accused of failing to report nearly $4 million in sales at Rock Lobster, Mineshaft Saloon and Average Joe’s Sports Pub before he sold off all three businesses in October 2024.
But the evidence used to charge Sabatini was fruit of the poisonous tree, according to Judge Clark Rogers.
“Without any doubt, the Marion County Prosecutor conducted a warrantless ‘search’ that blatantly violated the Fourth Amendment,” Rogers wrote.
Ryan Mears’ office spearheaded a sweeping multi-agency probe of several Broad Ripple businesses that began in July 2023 after a triple shooting rocked the neighborhood’s lively bar scene. The financial investigation was inappropriate, Rogers wrote.
“No articulable individualized suspicion existed that any of these business owners had committed any crime–let alone tax evasion,” the July 14 ruling read in part. “Law enforcement officers may not ‘look into’ or search the private documents of any business (or person) based on their proximity to acts of violence alone.”
Sabatini’s businesses were among 11 Broad Ripple establishments “arbitrarily selected” for scrutiny by an investigator for the prosecutor’s office in the wake of the shooting, according to the ruling. The investigator requested tax returns for each business and their shareholders from the Indiana Department of Revenue.
She then sought further confidential information about five of the businesses, including Sabatini’s, reasoning that their reported sales were “extremely low.” That shouldn’t have been a reason to presume fraud, Rogers wrote.
Rogers also ordered that a probable cause affidavit detailing allegations against Sabatini must be either redacted or sealed because it contains confidential tax information that’s illegal to make public under state and federal law.
Rogers’ dismissal of the case stood in contrast to a different judge’s ruling in another case filed as part of the Broad Ripple bar sweep, a representative for the prosecutor’s office pointed out.
Earlier this year, Marion Superior Court Judge Marc Rothenberg wrote that the tax record search at the heart of the investigation was constitutional because the prosecutor’s office had a legitimate reason to look for connections between businesses and recent violence in the neighborhood.
“The area-wide examination of businesses was prompted by genuine public safety concern, not arbitrary selection…The examination of tax records in this case, albeit with a tenuous connection, served this legitimate governmental purpose,” Rothenberg wrote on Jan. 22, 2026.
The case against Yaggi remains pending. The prosecutor’s office is consulting with the Indiana Attorney General’s Office about “appropriate next steps,” Michael Leffler, a spokesperson for the office, said.
Neither Sabatini nor his defense attorney, who also represents Yaggi, immediately responded to IndyStar’s request for comment.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Judge drops Broad Ripple bar case after ‘unconstitutional’ search from Mears’ office
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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By Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
