Articles

Legal bills in South Bend police wiretapping case nearly $2M

A long-running dispute over wiretapping within the South Bend Police Department has cost taxpayers in the northern Indiana city nearly $2 million to date. The case stems from a subpoena that South Bend’s city council issued to Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s office in 2012, seeking copies of recordings made from police phone lines.

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Jury finds for Marion County sheriff at ex-deputy’s ADA trial

A former Marion County sheriff’s deputy who was permanently injured while on duty has lost her lawsuit against the sheriff’s department and the city of Indianapolis after a federal jury found the defendants did not fail to accommodate her and did not harass her because of her disability.

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Justices: Evansville, Fort Wayne partly liable for police sex assaults

The Indiana Supreme Court affirmed two cities were entitled to summary judgment on the common-carrier theory, but not on the issue of liability under respondeat superior’s scope-of-employment rule in a consolidated civil lawsuit involving two women who were sexually assaulted by on-duty police in Evansville and Fort Wayne.

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COA overturns injunction against Charlestown code enforcement scheme

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.

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Attorney: Settlement reached in Indiana van crash lawsuits

A settlement has been reached in lawsuits filed after a rollover crash on a southwestern Indiana freeway killed two Haitian immigrants and injured 20 others. The suits were filed after a van carrying Christela Georges, 60-year-old Gena Moise and other workers crashed in 2015 on Interstate 69 near Evansville. 

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AG Hill signs Indiana onto retaliatory arrest case

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill has signed onto another multi-state Supreme Court amicus brief, this one challenging a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that allowed a retaliatory arrest lawsuit to proceed against Alaska police officers despite probable cause supporting the arrest.

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Indiana survivor’s suit seeks to halt duck boats

An Indiana woman whose husband and three children drowned when a duck boat sank in a Missouri lake has filed a federal lawsuit in Kansas City requesting an end to the manufacture and operation of the amphibious vehicles in the U.S. and elsewhere until they are redesigned for safety.

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Turning brownfields into green land neither cheap nor easy

A 20-year-old state environmental law, oblique court decisions and a provision inserted seven years ago into the statute of limitations are coming together in a case from Elkhart that many environmental lawyers are hoping will finally settle lingering debates over when suits recouping cleanup costs may be filed.

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Prison doctor, nurse must face inmate’s lawsuit

Two medical care providers at the Miami Correctional Facility have lost their bid to end an inmate’s Eight Amendment lawsuit after a district court judge found evidence to reasonably support the inference that the providers were deliberately indifferent to his excruciating foot pain.

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Prosecutors: Possible negligence in Missouri boat sinking

The U.S. Coast Guard has found probable cause that the sinking of a tourist boat on a Missouri lake last month that killed 17 people “resulted from the misconduct, negligence, or inattention to the duties” by the captain of the boat, according to a court motion filed Wednesday by federal prosecutors. The July 19 incident claimed the lives of nine members of one Indiana family. 

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Ex-student claiming sex assault sues Butler, fraternity

A lawsuit filed by a former Butler University student-athlete alleges the university and a now-suspended fraternity failed to take necessary action to remove an allegedly known sexual predator from campus, leading to the student-athlete’s rape at a fraternity party in late 2016.

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Long-running IBM suit against state back before COA

The latest installment in a years-long legal saga between the state and IBM, Inc. came before the Indiana Court of Appeals on Tuesday, when the parties argued over the awards of damages and what, if any, significant changes were made to the state’s welfare system after Indiana terminated its contract with IBM and developed its own claims-processing system.

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Fort Wayne settles suit challenging amplified-noise statute

Indiana’s second-largest city has settled a federal lawsuit that challenged a portion of its ordinance regulating amplified noises. Court documents filed Tuesday show the city of Fort Wayne has agreed to an injunction permanently barring it from enforcing a provision that “prohibits amplified sound, including speech, that can be heard more than 50 feet from the source.”

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Judge lets Marion County inmate suicide suit proceed

A lawsuit claiming the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and one of its deputies violated an inmate’s constitutional rights by leaving him unattended long enough for the inmate to kill himself will continue after a district court judge declined to fully grant summary judgment to the county.

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Indiana BMV directed to repay final $3.3M in fee overcharges

Indiana drivers who were overcharged by the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles could soon find it easier to claim the last $3.3 million of a much larger class-action settlement. A bureaucratic snafu had prevented people from receiving their payments from the state attorney general’s unclaimed property division, so Marion County Judge Heather Welch directed the BMV to refund the money itself through credits or refund checks.

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Secretary of State to AG Hill: Drop opposition to satellite voting

Opposition is rising to embattled Attorney General Curtis Hill’s move to block expanded early voting in Marion County, with Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson calling Hill’s action “reckless” and urging him to drop the matter. Under state law, Lawson’s office is responsible for election oversight, and she said Hill did not consult her before going to court.

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AG Hill moves to block Marion County early voting sites

Marion County’s decision to open additional voting centers is being contested by Attorney General Curtis Hill, but the Marion County Election Board disputes his assertion that the agreement to offer more early voting sites is contrary to Indiana law or that the board lacked a unanimous vote.

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