Property Rights Alliance leader seeks protective order against councilwoman

A heated council meeting in Dubois County crossed into the courtroom when Property Rights Alliance President Jason McCoy filed a protective order against councilwoman Deena Lewis after remarks she made at the April 27 meeting. McCoy also said he would pursue further legal action, escalating a dispute that began in public session and now carries direct legal consequences.

The filing matters because Lewis is not a private figure speaking casually from the sidelines. She sits on the seven-member Dubois County Council, which controls county finances, tax rates, employee salaries and appointments to boards and committees. That makes the clash more than a personal dispute. It raises questions about how elected officials speak to one another, how far public criticism can go before it becomes a legal matter, and how fragile trust can become when county government is already under strain.

The confrontation lands in the middle of the long-running Mid-States Corridor fight, one of the most divisive land-use disputes in southern Indiana. The corridor was outlined in a Tier One study as a roughly 50-mile route along Highway 231 from Spencer County to I-69 in Greene County, and the study’s second phase focused on Dubois County. McCoy told WFIU in late 2024 that the Dubois County segment would bypass Huntingburg and Jasper and connect to I-69, and he said the Property Rights Alliance had been formed to unify opposition and secure legal help. He also said the group’s membership grew from more than 20 people before one meeting to nearly 200 afterward.

County politics around the project have remained volatile. On March 31, the Dubois County Council voted 6-1 to begin the process of withdrawing from the Mid-States Corridor Regional Development Authority, then approved an ordinance authorizing withdrawal the following week. The county said that ordinance carried either a 12- or 18-month notice period, underscoring that the county’s move away from the project was not immediate even as the political argument intensified.

With Lewis named on the county’s official council roster and McCoy now seeking judicial protection, the April 27 exchange shows how quickly official debate can spill into the courts in Dubois County. For residents watching the corridor fight, the filing signals that the battle over land use, authority and public conduct is still far from settled.