Embattled Indianapolis City-County Councilor Jeff Miller resigned from the council on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to four counts of battery. The developments cap a months-long saga in which Miller defied bipartisan calls to resign.
The Indiana Court of Appeals, which issued a stern warning to defendants about misrepresenting their case, acknowledged an amended exhibit had been given to the trial court. While reaffirming its earlier decision, the panel noted that a harshly worded footnote criticizing defense counsel in the personal injury case "is to be disregarded."
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.
Two practicing attorneys and one Marion County magistrate have been named as Marion Superior Court judges, the first time the county’s judges have been appointed pursuant to merit-based selection. Gov. Eric Holcomb announced his selections Friday afternoon.
In defending the Indiana Attorney General’s objection to an agreement about early voting, Indiana Solicitor General Thomas M. Fisher said the action is “rather routine” and the office would be submitting additional filings to the courts, including an appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. The comments came two days after the attorney general filed a motion challenging the consent decree establishing five early voting sites in Marion County.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is hitting back at Secretary of State Connie Lawson for calling his actions “reckless” but is remaining quiet on the assertion that his motion to derail Marion County’s plan to expand early voting is “premised on a fundamental factual misrepresentation.”
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.
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.
A woman facing foreclosure won’t be awarded a second chance at a settlement conference after the case was officially closed due to her lack of response, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed Wednesday.
No reasonable attorney would have considered a stepmother’s visitation petition filed in a court other than that of the mother and father’s custody case to be justified or worthy of litigation, according to the Indiana Court of Appeals. The court affirmed dismissal of the case and an award of attorney fees to the mother.
A federal lawsuit against the Indianapolis police chief will continue after a district court judge declined to abstain from hearing the case alleging a local ordinance restricting panhandling is unconstitutional.
Marion County voters will be able to vote in one of six satellite voting locations in the 2018 general election, officials announced Wednesday in response to a federal court order. A consent decree entered earlier this month required the county to establish at least five early-voting locations.
Daniel Sigler, a senior prosecuting attorney from Fort Wayne, has been appointed special prosecutor as part of the investigation into sexual misconduct allegations surrounding Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill.
An out-of-state consultant will review the work in Indiana of a part-time forensic pathologist who was fired in Chicago last year after his work was called into question.
The Indianapolis City-County Council on Monday night approved rules and the basics of a permitting structure that would regulate the dockless electric scooter-rental companies such as Bird and Lime that popped up in the city last month. The proposal, passed 19-6 by the council, requires companies to apply for and receive a permit from the city before operating their services.
Lawyers for Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill have filed court papers challenging the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate whether he drunkenly groped a lawmaker and three legislative staffers. A document filed in Marion Superior Court also challenges the authority of the state’s Inspector General to build a case against him.
The Marion County Election Board has agreed to open five additional satellite locations for early in-person voting starting with the 2018 general election, settling a lawsuit brought in 2017 by Common Cause Indiana and the NAACP. Senior judge Sarah Evans Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana signed on Tuesday a consent decree offered by the plaintiffs and defendants.
The ceremonial groundbreaking of the new Marion County Criminal Justice Center was more than the symbolic start of construction, Indianapolis City-County Council President Vop Osili said — it was the start of the city taking a groundbreaking step toward criminal justice reform.
Marion County courts announced Wednesday that the Juvenile Detention Center in Indianapolis has achieved accreditation under the Prison Rape Elimination Act. PREA auditors spent two days in March at the center examining the facility, staff and records, and the center passed all 43 required standards.
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a pot-smoking Indianapolis church that wants marijuana to be recognized as a sacrament. The 3-year-old suit filed by the First Church of Cannabis was dismissed Friday.