An Indianapolis nonprofit that says it aims to help police is squaring off in court with a seemingly unlikely foe: a Detroit-area police department.

The National Police Association says in a lawsuit filed in Michigan that two Trenton Police Department officers made defamatory remarks on social media and in interviews with reporters from IndyStar, which published an investigative story on the organization in March. The officers criticized the National Police Association's fundraising letters, which, they said, sought to raise money under the guise of being linked to their department. The National Police Association denies that assertion.

The nonprofit said in a news release that suing police officers is at odds with its stated mission.

"While suing a municipality and its police officers was not an easy decision to make for an organization founded to assist law enforcement, among the laws the National Police Association supports enforcing, are those meant to protect it from fake news attacks," the nonprofit said in the statement.

An alternative explanationfor the lawsuit, one expert told IndyStar, is that the National Police Association could be trying to chill criticism from police departments. Law enforcement officers across the U.S. have denounced the National Police Association's fundraising tactics and warned residents not to contribute money.

This Indianapolis charity says it helps police.Police chiefs say it's a scam.

IndyStar's investigation revealed that the fledgling nonprofit — launched by a fraud investigator in the Indiana attorney general's office with a colorful background — raised loads of cash off of letters sent across the country warning of dire threats confronting law enforcement. Four police departments in four states told IndyStar that the letters were "scams."

In Trenton, Michigan, for example, an elderly man received a letter asking for a donation as part of the "2019 Trenton Area Annual Fund Drive" in order to "give our law enforcement officers the crime prevention tools they need." He thought that the Trenton Police Department needed money, so he went to the station. That prompted the department to issue a "scam" warning on Facebook.

"People think they’re doing something beneficial to the community (by donating) and the community doesn’t see any benefit from this," Todd Scheffler, the Trenton police chief, told IndyStar for the story. "They’re just giving money to somebody. We don’t know who this is. It comes back to a P.O. Box."

Scheffler, who is one of the defendants in the lawsuit, declined through an assistant to comment for this story.

An attorney representing the National Police Association did not return a Tuesday message left on his voicemail. But the National Police Association's president, Ed Hutchison, sent a brief response to an email. He said his lawsuit spoke for itself.

Hutchison, the attorney general fraud investigator, said in the lawsuit that he was fired from his job. His last day was March 18, the day after IndyStar's investigation published.

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A colorful background

The National Police Association, formed in 2017, is not a membership organization. Its only physical presence is a P.O. Box in Indianapolis. With no paid staff, the nonprofit is run by three volunteers.

Hutchison, though, has been successful in pushing his small organization into national conversations by sending out news releases and filing court briefs in support of conservative viewpoints on criminal justice policies and cultural issues, such as urging a boycott of Nike over the company's ad featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

And while Hutchison's organization raises money off of messages about sanctuary cities and giving tools to law enforcement, the National Police Association spends its money to hire attorneys and pay for media communications and fundraising, according to a previous interview with Derek R. Peterson, the nonprofit's treasurer.

The National Police Association spent more than $217,000 in its first year, according to its 990 tax document in 2017 — which is more than twice as much as it received in donations. Fundraising expenses alone totaled nearly $107,000.

All of its revenue — $103,000 — resulted from donations collected through a third-party fundraising company's national letter campaign. Figures for 2018 are not yet available.

Hutchison's background, meanwhile, includes a brief congressional run in the 1990s, spots on talk radio, and past jobs in the sport of boxing and operating USA Dream Girl, a model search website that displayed photographs of scantily clad women and then asked users to rate their appearances.

The year before he established the National Police Association, Hutchison owed more than $13,000 in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service dating back 10 years, according to a bankruptcy filing.

Neither Hutchison nor Peterson are paid through the National Police Association, according to an earlier interview.

Protecting from 'fake news attacks'

The defamation lawsuit, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court in Michigan on June 26, is disputing some language used by the Trenton police officers.

Whereas the officers said the fundraising letters were falsely identifying the Trenton Police Department as a beneficiary of any donations, the letters actually said "2019 Trenton Area Annual Fund Drive."

The letter did not specifically "state that donations would be distributed to either the city or the police department," Hutchison's attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.

The legal arguments surrounding defamation suits can be complicated. But the intent behind such lawsuits is not always to succeed in the courtroom, said Nancy A. Costello, a law professor at Michigan State University with expertise in defamation law.

"Sometimes they bring defamation lawsuits to silence the speech because they don’t like the speech," Costello said. "They want to discourage this speech. That’s why people bring defamation lawsuits."

For example, other police departments might be less likely to issue scam alerts if they think they will be slapped with expensive and time-consuming litigation, Costello said.

The Trenton police officers have not yet responded to the defamation suit in court.

Although Hutchison declined an interview request from IndyStar, the National Police Association issued a news release that said the nonprofit is taking action to "hold fake news purveyors legally to account."

The National Police Association has not challenged IndyStar's reporting. But in a brief email, Hutchison asked why IndyStar included critical comments from the Trenton Police Department officers.

Referring to IndyStar's investigation, Hutchison asked: "Was the Star article the result of malice or negligence?"

This year IndyStar is deeply examining the level of violence in Indianapolis: why it is occurring, what is being done about it and what may inspire solutions. The project, called The Toll, also includes a weekly email newsletter. Subscribe for free at indystar.com/thetoll.

Contact IndyStar reporter Ryan Martin at 317-444-6294 or ryan.martin@indystar.com. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter: @ryanmartin

Contact IndyStar reporter James Briggs at 317-444-6307. Follow him on Twitter: @JamesEBriggs