A Different Perspective

It was poker night. Once a month the shift would get together and play poker. It rotated from house to house and this time it was my turn. My living room was crowded with about a dozen people. Eight of us were playing at the table and I was tucked back in against the wall. We were all drinking and having fun.

Cory stops bye. He liked to be the life of the party so when he came in it was high fives and greetings all around. Now Cory was a young officer, only been on the department for a little over a year or so, but I had known him for a couple of years already while he went to college and the IU police program. Back in those days he was cocky and that night was no different.

He started making fun of us being drunk, which was true and he said he could grab all the money from the table and take off and we wouldn’t be able to stop him. I called him out right there. I said “If you think you can grab that money and get out the front door before I stop you then go for it, and if you do, it’s all yours.”

Cory just laughed, knowing he was faster than me and I had a whole table between us. All he had to do was grab the money and get out the front door. I could see him measuring it up in his head.

But I had one little piece of information that Cory didn’t. I always…and I mean Always kept my front door locked.

Cory went for it. He grabbed a handful of cash and raced to the front, sure that he was going to make it.

I bounced him off a couple of walls.

[Insert Intro]

I went ahead and told that story because it is Cory’s favorite and he tells it all the time. A seasoned veteran with inside information and a cocky young cop who went on to be an FBI agent.

Cory Grass Graduated from IU in 1996 and worked for the Bloomington Police Department from 1996 – 2002. He then spent he next 20 years with the FBI. First in Miami with the Violent Crimes team and then in Terre Haute Indiana at the federal prison with counter terrorism, finishing up at the Bloomington Indiana office working on counterintelligence and source recruitment.

When I decided to focus on reform I knew I had to have Cory on the show. He is opinionated, outspoken, and really smart.