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The Marion Superior Court is preparing to close the Indianapolis traffic court as the longtime traffic court judge retires this month.
Meanwhile, Gov. Eric Holcomb is now in the process of naming traffic court Judge Marcel Pratt’s successor, as well as the successor to Judge Elizabeth Ann Christ. Christ retired last month and Pratt will retire effective Wednesday.
Three finalists have been named for each vacancy: Magistrate Judge Pauline A. Beeson, Magistrate Judge Kelly M. Scanlan and Philip C. Sheward for the Christ vacancy, and Magistrate Judges Stefanie R. Crawford, Melanie L. Kendrick and Tara Y. Melton for the Pratt vacancy.
The Marion County Judicial Selection Committee submitted those names to Holcomb in a letter dated May 23, starting the 60-day clock for the governor to name the next two Marion Superior Court judges.
The Marion Superior Court Executive Committee decided after reviewing the needs of the court to consolidate the traffic court into the family division. According to Fox 59, the consolidation is an attempt to make the courts work more efficiently. Traffic tickets will still be addressed at the Marion County Community Justice Campus.
According to the Indiana judiciary’s website, Christ had presided in the Criminal Division while Pratt presided over the traffic court, which was part of the Criminal Division. But after a review of caseload allocation and local court rules — and after sitting judges declined to transfer courts — the vacancies created by Christ and Pratt’s retirements will be transferred to the Family Division.
As Holcomb seeks to fill those vacancies, the letter from the Judicial Selection Committee provides background on each finalist.
Beeson, a finalist for the Christ vacancy, is from Cincinnati but came to Indiana to earn her undergraduate degree from Purdue University and her J.D. from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
Beeson started working with Marion Superior Court when she left private practice in 2015 to serve as the director of the Arrestee Processing Center. Since then, she served in multiple roles with the court before being appointed magistrate in February 2022.
Scanlan has been a part of the Marion County courts since 2016, when she joined as a commissioner. The IU McKinney graduate was originally a nurse at Wishard Hospital until she finished law school in 2005. She has been part of the Family Division since April 2021 and was converted from commissioner to magistrate in January 2022.
Sheward is a partner at Allen Wellman McNew Harvey in Greenfield. He hails from Maine and earned his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2004.
Sheward came to Indiana during the summer after graduating from law school to work in the Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office, and he has remained in the Hoosier State since. He is frequently asked to serve as judge pro tempore in the Hancock Superior Courts several times a year.
As for the Pratt finalists, Crawford has served in the Marion Circuit Court’s Juvenile Paternity Division since 2017, first as a commissioner and later as a magistrate. Crawford graduated from IU McKinney in 1999 and has worked in both public service and private practice.
Kendrick has been serving in the Probate Division of the Marion Superior Court since 2018, with a docket including wills, estates, trusts, mental health, adult guardianships and adoptions. She earned her J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law in 2011.
Melton has been serving in the Family Division of the Marion Superior Court since 2021, presiding over weekly child in need of services and juvenile delinquency dockets that include fact-finding trials, termination of parental rights trials and motion hearings.
The Florida native earned her J.D. from Florida State University College of Law in 1994. After accepting a staff attorney position with Lee Cossell & Feagley, Melton moved to the Hoosier State in 2007.
“Based on their interviews and the Committee’s assessment, each nominee has a personality that is well-suited for the bench as well as the legal ability and professional experience to serve with distinction,” the letter to Holcomb — signed by Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Court of Appeals of Indiana Chief Judge Robert Altice — says. “Our Committee is confident that each nominee is of high caliber and would be a lasting credit to the Marion Superior Court.”
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