LaPorte woman sentenced in sex trafficking of girl, 12
A northern Indiana woman will spend up to 39 years in prison in connection with the sex trafficking of a 12-year-old female relative.
LaPorte County
Articles
Tax Court affirms lakeshore property assessment
A lakeshore property owner in northern Indiana was unable to convince the Indiana Tax Court on Wednesday that an abuse of discretion took place when his vacant lot was assessed at a higher rate than he had hoped.
Michigan City mayor facing felony charges amid reelection bid
The 2019 Michigan City mayoral election is facing a controversial legal undercurrent as felony charges remain pending against Mayor Ron Meer. But as the LaPorte County court system searches for a judge who can take the case, Meer is alleging an “untenable conflict of interest” and possible political motivations should remove the proceedings from the LaPorte County Prosecutor’s Office.
Indiana mayor to name police chief after 3 resignations
The mayor of Michigan City will name a new police chief this week after the resignations of three senior officers. Mayor Ron Meer says he’ll hold a news conference Tuesday, after Police Chief Mark Swistek and assistant chiefs Royce Williams and Kevin Urbanczyk announced their resignations last week.
Michigan City police chief, deputies resign in dispute with mayor
The top brass of Michigan City’s police force resigned in the wake of a dispute with city’s mayor.
Sheriff: Apple, pumpkin heists a ‘major league operation’
A “well-organized machine” of thieves appears to be behind the theft of tons of apples and pumpkins from orchards and farms in northern Indiana and Michigan, according to authorities.
COA on rehearing lets stand ruling setting aside tax deed
The Indiana Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected multiple arguments regarding its prior decision involving the LaPorte County auditor’s failure to check records that would have revealed the address of a Michigan City property owner whose land was sold without notice for back taxes.
COA affirms sex offender’s sentence
An Indiana Court of Appeals panel has affirmed a sex offender’s seven-year sentence despite his assertions that the sentence was inappropriate, despite a finding that a trial court improperly used the offender’s risk assessment scores as an aggravating factor.
Tax sale for which landowner wasn’t given notice reversed
The LaPorte County auditor’s failure to check records that would have revealed the actual address of a Michigan City property owner whose land was sold without notice for back taxes was a denial of constitutional due process, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. The appeals court reinstated the landowner’s challenge to the tax sale results and remanded the case.
Lawyer suspended for alleged trust thefts faces new charges
A suspended lawyer already accused in three counties of stealing money from ex-clients’ special needs trusts has been charged in Indianapolis with allegedly stealing from another victim. The latest charges against Kenneth Shane Service include a count of racketeering.
COA affirms denial in LaPorte farmland trust dispute
A successor trustee who argued his late uncle’s farmland should be converted to a supervised estate was rejected when an appellate panel found a trust agreement’s language — or lack thereof — failed to make the farmland property of the trust.
Lake Michigan public use bill advances to Indiana House
A bill establishing in state law the permitted public uses of the shore of Lake Michigan passed the Indiana Senate on Monday and now moves to the House for consideration.
Suspended special needs trust lawyer faces more theft accusations
A suspended Greenwood lawyer criminally charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his former special needs trust clients around Indiana has been accused in new civil lawsuits of draining another $108,600 from several more trust funds. The additional alleged misappropriations by Kenneth Shane Service drive the alleged missing funds to more than $318,600.
Lake Michigan public access bill advances; SCOTUS to confer on appeal
A bill that defines the shore of Lake Michigan as belonging to the public and spells out public recreational uses of the shoreline has moved to the full Indiana Senate. Meanwhile, a petition seeking to privatize Indiana’s Great Lakes beaches will be before justices of the Supreme Court of the United States this week.
State court suit aims to ban Indiana death penalty
A lawsuit naming Gov. Eric Holcomb filed on behalf of a prisoner on Indiana’s death row urges a state court to issue an injunction halting capital punishment and rule that the state’s ultimate criminal penalty violates the Indiana Constitution.
US Supreme Court pushes deadline on Lake Michigan beach case
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t decide until next year whether to consider arguments from residents of Chief Justice John Roberts’ Indiana hometown of Long Beach over ownership of the Lake Michigan community’s shoreline. The case could have a ripple effect for public and private property rights across the Great Lakes states.
Florida move allows Hoosier to escape Wisconsin judgment
A former Hoosier who moved to Florida will get to keep his money after the Indiana Court of Appeals found an order from a Wisconsin state court was void because the Badger State judicial system did not have personal jurisdiction.
Private plaintiff taking public access case to SCOTUS?
After a years-long fight, the Indiana Supreme Court in February issued a ruling that affirmed what’s come naturally to generations of Hoosiers: Indiana’s beach on Lake Michigan belongs to the public.
But parties who sued to privatize the beach, whose names are the only plaintiffs listed on filings to the U.S. Supreme Court, don’t own the property. They haven’t for years.
Man could avoid prison in hit-and-run death of girl, 5
A northwestern Indiana man who pleaded guilty in the hit-and-run death of a 5-year-old girl could avoid prison, according to his sentence handed down Wednesday.
Justices reinstate manslaughter charge in Larkin case
John Larkin, whose manslaughter charge in connection to the 2012 shooting death of his wife was dismissed, will once again face the trial court after Indiana Supreme Court justices found the dismissal to be “an extreme remedy” for police and prosecutorial misconduct and an abuse of the trial court’s discretion.