Courts

A 17-year-old male drove by the Indiana State Fairgrounds in a sports car last year with DVD-recorded nude and sexually explicit scenes playing on a video screen visible from the rearview window.Today, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed his adjudication as a delinquent juvenile for disseminating matter harmful to minors, an offense that would be a felony if committed by an adult. The court held that minors had visible access to the videos and that was sufficient evidence.In M.S. v. State…

If your local judge wasn’t on the bench the latter part of the week, it may be that he or she took some time to go to judicial school. The 2008 Spring Judicial College was Wednesday through today, offering jurists statewide a chance to brush up on certain areas of law or particular issues of interest. An estimated 250 Hoosier jurists converged on Indianapolis, coming and going for some or all of the annual college, Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard said.”It’s…

The Indiana Supreme Court has determined what kind of “contact” a convicted child molester can have without violating probation.In the court’s 4-1 decision April 2 in Theron W. Hunter v. State of Indiana, No. 69S01-0708-CR-332, the justices reversed Ripley Circuit Judge Carl Taul’s 2006 ruling to revoke Hunter’s probation. The case is remanded with instruction to reinstate the probation.Hunter was convicted in 2000 of felony child molesting and sentenced to eight years, with four years suspended. He was released in July 2006 and placed…

The Indiana Court of Appeals has found strong and compelling evidence to apply retroactivity to a procedural state statute lawmakers changed last year following a ruling from Indiana Supreme Court.In Mark Hurst v. State of Indiana, No. 64A03-0710-CR-490, the appellate court affirmed a Porter Superior judge’s ruling that the court properly amended charging information 15 months after the original omnibus date, that sufficient evidence of seriously bodily injury existed to support a felony battery conviction, and that Hurst was properly sentenced to…

The Indiana Supreme Court has refused to hear a condemned man’s appeal and ordered his execution for May.Justices unanimously agreed this week to not rehear the case of Michael Dean Overstreet, who was convicted of the 1997 disappearance, rape, and strangulation of Franklin College freshman Kelly Eckart. He has been on death row since 2000, and the Supreme Court upheld the sentence in late November. His attorneys asked for a rehearing in January.Now, a docket entry sets the execution date for…

The Indiana Supreme Court won’t consider the annexation battle between Carmel and Home Place.Attorneys received notice March 4 about the court’s 5-0 transfer denial in City of Carmel, Indiana v. Certain Home Place Annexation Territory Landowners, No. 29A04-0510-CV-578, which an online docket entry shows the court made Feb. 28.This means the Oct. 17, 2007, decision by the Court of Appeals stands. The appellate court had ruled in favor of Carmel, holding the city adequately proved it could afford to annex the 1.6-square-mile…

The Indiana Supreme Court today suspended an Evansville attorney who pleaded guilty to methamphetamine charges and received a six-year sentence in June.In its interim suspension notice dated July 14 In the Matter of Teresa L. Perry, No. 82S00-0806-DI-00307, the court ordered that the attorney is immediately suspended. Perry had been practicing law in the state since November 2000. The order remains in effect until further notice from the court.Perry had pleaded guilty in April to two counts of dealing a controlled…