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A Martin County sheriff’s deputy failed to exhaust all of his administrative remedies in his efforts to prevent a state board from revoking his basic training certificate, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in reversing a lower court’s order.
The high court reversed Martin Circuit Court Judge Lynne Ellis’s judgment in granting the deputy’s request for declaratory and injunctive relief.
Attorneys for the Indiana Attorney General’s office and the deputy did not immediately respond to Indiana Lawyer’s request for comment.
According to court records, R.L. was charged with driving while intoxicated in 2021.
The state later dropped the charges and R.L.’s arrest was expunged.
However, the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board brought proceedings to revoke R.L.’s basic-training certificate–making him unable to work as an officer with the Martin County Sheriff’s Department.
The board alleged that R.L. committed conduct that met the elements of Level 6 felony criminal confinement and Class C misdemeanor operating a vehicle with an alcohol concentration equivalent of .08 or more.
Before the board issued a final decision, R.L. went to court and obtained a declaration that the board could not discipline him and an injunction barring the board from revoking his basic training certificate.
The trial court granted R.L.’s request for declaratory and injunctive relief.
The high court agreed with the Indiana Court of Appeals in holding that was an error.
Justice Geoffrey Slaughter wrote that the only route which R.L. can challenge the board’s decisions is through the Administrative Orders and Procedures Act’s judicial-review framework.
He added that R.L. is not entitled to that review, due to not exhausting administrative remedies and suing in court before the board’s proceedings were concluded.
“Neither the expungement statute’s anti-discrimination provision nor the declaratory-judgment act permits R.L. to bypass available remedies before the board,” Slaughter wrote.
All justice concurred in the opinion. The case has been remanded with instructions to dismiss R.L.’s declaratory-judgment action.
The case is In the Matter of Petition for Expungement of R.L.; Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board v. R.L., 24S-XP-185. Appellant’s attorneys: Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, Deputy Attorneys General Benjamin Jones and Evan Comer. Appellee’s attorneys: James Voyles Jr. and Tyler Helmond with Voyles Vaiana Lukemeyer Baldwin & Webb.
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