This story was originally published by Based in Lafayette.
By Dave Bangert
Based in Lafayette
December 20, 2025
Former Fairfield Township Trustee Taletha Coles, already on the hook for more than $40,000 in restitution tied to a guilty plea in 2023, faces even more in a lawsuit filed this week by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.
The new lawsuit, filed in Tippecanoe Superior Court, asks to recover $138,304 in misappropriated or undocumented funds and costs associated from a State Board of Accounts audit that detailed problematic accounting and spending before Coles resigned from the post in 2022.
Among the charges, the filing includes $52,156 in township funds “knowingly, intentionally and wrongfully diverted.” The State Board of Accounts investigation costs are listed at $84,483.
As of Friday, Coles had not formally responded to the lawsuit and had not replied to attempts to reach her for comment. The court docket did not have a hearing scheduled, as of Friday.
Toward the end of a rocky four-year term as township trustee, Coles, elected as a Democrat, was indicted in 2022 on more than 40 counts of theft, tax exemption fraud and official misconduct. She pleaded guilty in 2023 to four of those charges.
In January 2024, Coles was sentenced to 180 days in the Tippecanoe County Jail and another six months with Tippecanoe County Community Corrections, followed by three years with a mix of supervised and unsupervised probation. The four-year sentence also included restitution and 180 hours of community service. Her restitution agreement detailed a series of charges she made with township money and credit cards at home improvement stores, a consignment shop, massage and pedicure shops and for online business and motivational training subscriptions. (Here’s a breakdown of the restitution and the money Coles spent.)
Part of the sentence was an order to pay $42,380 in restitution.
As of this week, Coles is $6,061 toward that total, paying $100 a week. Coles had been called out by Tippecanoe County prosecutors in late 2024 when her restitution payments had lapsed. She told a judge she was behind because she was having trouble finding work after potential employers learn of her conviction. She was ordered to the $100 a week, which court records show she’s done consistently since February 2025.
The attorney general’s lawsuit is based on the State Board of Accounts audit released in December 2023, covering Jan. 1, 2019 – when Coles took office – to Oct. 19, 2022, when she resigned.
In a September 2021 interview with BiL, after the State Board of Accounts confirmed an audit had started in August of that year, Coles insisted that she’d asked for “a soft audit” of the township, “just to prove I don’t have anything to hide,” as her township board and others grew frustrated by her unwillingness to share township books and receipts.
But the State Board of Accounts audit found a raft of problems, including purchases of furniture, equipment, home improvement goods, subscriptions to motivational and training programs and exercise equipment that weren’t “used for official township purposes.” The report called out paychecks cut for Coles that were flagged as advance pay that was flagged for repayment that wasn’t fully made. And it questioned money from rainy day funds used for massages and pedicures for staff, personal electronics, car repairs and more that were deemed misuse of public funds.
The attorney general’s filing covers many of those examples, asking the court to have Coles cover the full amount listed in the State Board of Accounts audit – including for the state investigation.
