Court sanctions Allen County judge
The Indiana Supreme Court has suspended Allen Superior Judge Kenneth R. Scheibenberger for three days without pay as part of an agreement to resolve a judicial misconduct action.
Michael W. Hoskins
Articles
Judge takes on death penalty decision
In the week ahead, an Evansville judge could be the first Hoosier jurist to hand down a death sentence since state law changed in 2002. Vanderburgh Circuit Judge Carl Heldt is scheduled to conduct a sentencing hearing Friday morning for Daniel Ray Wilkes, who jurors convicted last month on three counts of murder for the April 2006 slayings of an Evansville mother and her two daughters, ages 13 and 8.While they agreed on the guilt phase of the trial, jurors came…
7th Circuit rules on FMLA case
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a medical-leave decision from an Indianapolis judge who’s since joined that appellate bench.
Justices affirm sentence in child torture case
For the first time, the Indiana Supreme Court today affirmed a trial court’s sentence of life without parole for a Lafayette mother who had pleaded guilty to torturing and killing her stepdaughter.In Michelle Gauvin v. State of Indiana, No. 79S00-0702-CR-65, the state’s highest court ruled 4-1 in a direct appeal that Tippecanoe Superior Judge Thomas Busch correctly sentenced the Lafayette mother for murder, confinement, and neglect of her 4-year-old stepdaughter, Aiyana. The girl died from head trauma in March 2005 after months…
Attorney spares client death sentence
An Indianapolis defense attorney who is nationally recognized as a death-penalty expert capped a two-month trial in New Hampshire this week, successfully keeping her client off death row and preventing him from becoming the first person to be executed in that state in 70 years.
State settles with legal malpractice insurer
A legal malpractice insurance carrier has agreed to pay $16.5 million to Indiana's insurance department, settling a federal lawsuit that had come on the heels of a state malpractice claim where an Indianapolis law firm got hit with an $18 million verdict.
Restitution can’t include security system costs
State statute doesn’t allow trial courts to order restitution to pay for installation of a security system in victims’ homes, the Indiana Court of Appeals decided today.Ruling on Keith Elton Rich v. State of Indiana, No. 79A05-0712-CR-687, the appellate court reversed Tippecanoe Circuit Judge Thomas Busch’s restitution order issued in October 2007. Rich had pleaded guilty to burglary and marijuana possession and received a 14-year sentence that was partially suspended to probation. As a condition of probation, he also was ordered to…
Counties, courts recover from flooding
Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner rushed to his downtown Franklin office on Saturday to save computers and files from floodwater.At first, water was about an inch high. Within an hour, the floodwater had creeped higher – he was being shocked while trying to salvage computers. The water suddenly reached 4 feet, making the prosecutor’s office look more like an aquarium than an office. Rushing floodwater rose even higher, crushing doors shut, trapping him inside so that he couldn’t even escape through…
Settlement may be largest of its kind
In what is believed to be the highest-ever payout of its kind in the state, the Indiana Department of Insurance will receive $16.5 million from a national legal malpractice insurer as part of a federal lawsuit settlement.
Leave act specific to alcoholism treatment
An Indiana man sued his former employer for firing him on grounds that he missed too much work, arguing that he was covered by the federal medical leave act because he was getting treatment for alcoholism.But the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals determined today that the Family and Medical Leave Act doesn’t protect workers from being dismissed. Because he missed three days of work just prior to being admitted for alcoholism treatment and that time combined with previous absences was enough…
Commission mulls retention, mandates
A legislative study committee on courts delved into a variety of topics on Thursday afternoon, ranging from a new judicial retention Web site, judicial mandates, and the first new court request of the year.
SCOTUS limits pro se rights
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that states may require a criminal defendant who suffers from a mental illness to have a lawyer rather than allowing that person to act as his or her own defense counsel, even when the individual is competent to be tried.Vacating an Indiana Supreme Court decision from more than a year ago, the nation’s highest court today issued its 7-2 ruling in Indiana v. Ahmad Edwards, No. 07-208, holding that states can restrict pro se representation…
Judge grants injunction for judicial candidates
For the time being, Hoosier judicial candidates can’t be sanctioned for answering a questionnaire about their views because of a federal judge’s decision today.U.S. District Judge Theresa L. Springmann in Fort Wayne issued a preliminary injunction earlier this afternoon, stopping Indiana from enforcing rules that prohibit judicial candidates from responding to surveys on their views.The 36-page order came in Torrey Bauer et. al. v. Randall T. Shepard et al., No. 3:08-CV-196-TLS. The non-profit Indiana Right to Life Committee filed the suit…
Agency sues DOC over mentally ill prisoners
A state agency created in response to a federal mandate is suing the Indiana Department of Correction for what it claims is poor treatment of mentally ill prisoners.
SCOTUS denies Evansville death penalty case
The nation’s highest court won’t review the case of an Evansville death row inmate who’d questioned the requirement he wear a stun belt during his eight-month capital trial for murdering three people in 1996.In a list of certiorari denials released today, the Supreme Court of the United States announced it wouldn’t review John Stephenson v. Indiana, No. 07-8237. He’d filed a petition for review in December, and justices decided at a private conference April 11 not to take the case.The denial…
Former Schererville judge sentenced
A former judge in Lake County received a 15-month federal prison sentence on Thursday, four years after being indicted for
extortion and fraud, and two years after she pleaded guilty to getting kickbacks from more than 1,000 defendants that she'd
sentenced to driving school and counseling classes she secretly owned and personally profited from.
Council confirms new chief defender
It’s official: Marion County has a new chief public defender.The City-County Council voted Monday to approve Robert Hill Jr. as the county’s top public defender, succeeding David E. Cook who left the office after 13 years to return to private practice.Hill, who has long ties to the agency and extensive experience in public defense, won the council’s support by a 27-1 vote. Councilman Monroe Gray was the sole dissenter, and Jose Evans did not attend the meeting. The public defender’s office…
Justices address parental discipline
A mother who spanked her 11-year-old son with a belt or extension cord didn’t cross the line between parental discipline and abuse, the Indiana Supreme Court has ruled.In its 4-1 decision late Tuesday in Sophia Willis v. State of Indiana, No. 49S02-0707-CR-295, the state’s high court established a bright-line rule on parental discipline privilege that it hasn’t addressed since the adoption of the Indiana Criminal Code.Sophia Willis was charged and convicted of battery as a Class D felony for spanking her…
Justices issue robo-call decision
The Indiana Supreme Court says the state's two-decade old law on pre-recorded, autodialed calls isn't limited to those placed to consumers with commercial messages. But justices stopped short of deciding how the law applies to political messages, leaving that question for another day.
Longtime Marion County judge set to retire
One of the first women elected as a trial judge in Indiana is preparing to leave the bench after 30 years.