Judge orders state inspection of embattled Charlestown zoo
A controversial Charlestown zoo whose owner has already lost his federal exhibitor’s license has been ordered to comply with a state inspection on Friday and Saturday.
A controversial Charlestown zoo whose owner has already lost his federal exhibitor’s license has been ordered to comply with a state inspection on Friday and Saturday.
The owner a controversial Charlestown zoo who recently lost his federal exhibitor’s license is now also facing a state lawsuit that would shut down the zoo’s underlying nonprofit organization and remove him as its director, citing allegations of animal abuse, financial improprieties, intimidation and more.
The owner of a controversial Charlestown zoo that has been the subject of a bitter years-long court fight has lost his federal exhibitor’s license and is on the hook for more than $300,000 in civil penalties.
A lawsuit alleging the Charlestown city administration is unconstitutionally using fines to force low-income residents to sell their homes to a developer is scheduled for trial next month.
A federal judge is doubling down on an animal-rights ruling that prohibits the owners of a southern Indiana zoo from moving its large cats out of its possession, though the judge stopped short of issuing sanctions for an alleged failure to follow that order.
A federal judge has dismissed a portion of a lawsuit brought by landlords that alleged racketeering by Charlestown officials related to a planned redevelopment project.
A southern Indiana community’s sale of its water utility was affirmed Monday after a challenge by a nonprofit group opposed to the deal. The Indiana Court of Appeals let stand the sale of the City of Charlestown water utility to Greenwood-based Indiana-American Water Company, Inc.
Benjamin Eads of Freedom appeared in court Monday in Scott County on charges including auto theft and resisting law enforcement, which led to a death. Authorities say Eads fled a traffic stop on Dec. 12, triggering a police chase during which Charlestown Officer Benton Bertram’s vehicle struck a tree. Bertram was pronounced dead at the scene.
A special judge’s ruling that preliminarily enjoined the city of Charlestown from inconsistently imposing code violation fees while simultaneously finding the city was not subject to the state’s Unsafe Building Law has been overturned. The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the trial court erred in finding the UBL does not apply to the city, thus requiring remand for re-examination of how local and state regulations should work together.
A federal judge Monday shut down a southern Indiana attraction’s public encounters with tiger cubs. The judge also halted the declawing of tiger cubs and separating them from their mothers so they could be used in “Tiger Baby Playtime” events where people pay to mingle with declawed big cat cubs.
Property owners are suing Charlestown city officials, alleging that they used fines to pressure them to sell their properties at prices well under market value for a planned redevelopment project.
After criticizing a southern Indiana city’s practice of levying code violation fines against some, but not all, local property owners as “irrational,” a Scott County judge has issued a preliminary injunction requiring the city to issue fines in a consistent manner that complies with local ordinances.
The state of some World War II-era homes has given rise to a contentious property rights dispute between the Charlestown city administration and residents of the city’s Pleasant Ridge neighborhood.