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A Randolph County judge has been permanently banned from judicial service by the Indiana Supreme Court after it found that he committed judicial misconduct through a pattern of mismanagement, delay and dereliction of judicial duties.
Despite his ban from the bench, Randolph County Superior Court Judge Dale Arnett will retain his law license.
In its ruling Friday, the court said the punishment “recognizes the seriousness and breadth of respondent’s violations while protecting the judiciary and the Randolph County community at large.”
Arnett did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Arnett was elected judge in 2020, and the Commission on Judicial Qualifications found that problems with the court began shortly after he took office. The commission said he was put on notice by multiple officials regarding the issues in his court, but he failed to address them.
One of his offenses includes the repeated failure to set timely hearings for defendants after their arrests, according to the commission. In one instance, a defendant was held in jail for 227 days without an initial hearing.
The commission also found that 10 criminal cases between April 2023 and August 2025 were dismissed because defendants were not timely tried in Arnett’s court.
Additionally, the commission identified 90 cases with missing judgments of conviction, sentencing orders, and/or abstracts of judgment. In some cases, there were significant delays in Arnett issuing the needed orders.
The commission identified one case in which Arnett held a change of plea hearing in March 2024 but had still not issued a sentencing order when he took a leave of absence in April 2025.
Arnett has been on leave since April 2025. He has agreed that his conduct violated several Code of Judicial Conduct provisions.
Though he is banned from judicial service, the commission determined that there are sufficient mitigating factors that allow Arnett to retain his law license.
Prior to taking the bench, Arnett had no disciplinary actions taken against him throughout his extensive career. He also accepted responsibility for his misconduct and cooperated with the commission throughout the matter, the commission wrote.
Arnett must tender his resignation to the governor and leave office on or before Nov. 26, 2025. From that time on, he is no longer eligible for judicial service.
The case is In the Matter of the Honorable Dale W. Arnett, Judge of the Randolph Superior Court, 25S-JD-198.
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