A southern Indiana couple facing both criminal charges and the termination of their parental rights due to allegations of unreasonable discipline against their children are seeking to use Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act to end, or at least pause, the litigation against them.
The Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 410 on Wednesday, a measure designed to give “kinship caregivers” the right to intervene in termination of parental rights cases.
A proposed bill that would have removed lawyers’ exemption against obstruction of justice charges has passed out of an Indiana Senate committee, but the provision regarding lawyers was stripped in an amendment.
A magistrate has denied bail for two northwest Indiana women charged with murdering a 10-year-old boy whose body had so many injuries a prosecutor said he was the defendants’ “punching bag.”
A thrice-convicted Indiana sex offender has been sentenced to four decades in federal prison for child sexual exploitation and creating and trafficking videos of child sexual abuse, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced.
A Monroe County husband and wife have each been sentenced to federal prison following their convictions for sexual exploitation of five children in their care.
An Anderson man convicted of torturing a toddler before killing her and seriously injuring the child’s brother has failed in his direct appeal of his convictions and life without parole sentence.
For at least the fourth time, the Indiana Court of Appeals has found a law passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 2020 which limited defendants’ ability to depose alleged victims of molestation “impermissibly conflicts” with the Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has once again ruled against a statute limiting the deposition of alleged victims in child molesting cases, finding that the Indiana Trial Rules take precedence over the statute’s procedural elements.
A man convicted of “horrific” sexual and other abuse against his son failed to convince the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that a federal judge erred in imposing a de facto life sentence.
A decades-long sentence will stand for a northeastern Indiana babysitter who lied to police about knowing what caused the fatal injuries to a baby in her care who later died following a brain bleed.
The law enacted in 2020 received widespread support from lawmakers and prosecutors but had been challenged by the defense bar.
Kids’ Voice of Indiana has signed a contract with the city of Indianapolis to provide guardian ad litem and court appointed special advocate services to Marion Superior Courts through the end of 2023, with the nonprofit set to receive $5.4 million for the remainder of 2021.
Court proceedings involving a 14-year-old boy charged in the asphyxiation death of a 6-year-old northern Indiana girl will remain open to the public, a magistrate has ruled.
Kids’ Voice of Indiana will be the sole operator of the guardian ad litem and court appointed special advocate programs for Marion County juvenile courts after Child Advocates, which had provided those services for decades, rejected the subcontract agreement the two organizations had been negotiating.
An eastern Indiana woman whose three-month-old son died last year from methamphetamine intoxication has agreed to plead guilty to a neglect charge in the infant’s death.
Kids’ Voice of Indiana and Child Advocates are close to inking a deal after the city of Indianapolis announced it would be switching providers of the Guardian Ad Litem and CASA services for the Marion County juvenile court May 1.
Two Indianapolis nonprofits that serve youngsters in the child welfare system, Child Advocates and Kids’ Voice of Indiana, have been at the center of an argument that many families have had: Who can better care for the youngest members?
Calls to Indiana’s child abuse and neglect hotline fell by more than 10% last year compared to the previous two years, and an expert said that may reflect the isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With just three weeks before its contract with the city of Indianapolis ends, Child Advocates is trying to negotiate a subcontract with Kids’ Voice so it can continue providing volunteers and staff to advocate for youngsters in Indiana’s child welfare system. Meanwhile, a report questioned longtime contractor Child Advocates’ cost overruns.