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The Indiana Supreme Court accepted seven cases for transfer last week, including four with motions that called for an Elkhart County judge’s recusal.
In those four cases, the high court issued opinions last week disqualifying Elkhart Superior Judge Teresa L. Cataldo from presiding over four Elkhart County cases.
It ruled that Cataldo’s determination that recusal was mandatory in Andrew Royer’s case would lead an objective observer to reasonably question the judge’s impartiality in those four cases, where the petitioners raised the same concerns as Royer.
“The judge dismissed the argument that her recusal in Royer’s case should compel her to recuse in these cases too by saying she only recused in Royer’s case to ‘cure any lingering concerns’,” Justice Derek Molter wrote in the opinion. “But she did not explain what those lingering concerns were and why they no longer linger. Nor is it apparent to us. So an objective observer could reasonably persist in doubting the judge’s impartiality in these cases based on her own conclusion in Royer’s case that there were reasonable questions about her impartiality.”
Royer was exonerated in 2020 after serving 15 years for the murder of 92-year-old Helen Sailor.
He maintained law enforcement officials in Elkhart exploited his mental disability and coerced him into a false confession.
The first case was reviewed by the Indiana Court of Appeals over a year ago.
In Pink Allen Robinson v. State of Indiana, 24S-PC-273, the appellate court affirmed the denial of Robinson’s motion for change-of-judge, finding the Elkhart Superior Court did not err.
Robinson was convicted of three counts of Level 3 robbery while armed with a deadly weapon in 2018.
He was sentenced to an aggregate of 48 years, with three years suspended.
Next, the court granted the petition for transfer of Iris Seabolt v. State of Indiana, 24S-PC-270.
In September 2023, the appellate court affirmed Elkhart Superior Court’s denial of Seabolt’s change-of-judge motion in a memorandum decision.
The court found the recited historical facts she based her motion on did not support a rational inference of bias or prejudice against her.
A month later, the appellate court affirmed Elkhart Superior Court again in Reginald Dillard v. State of Indiana, 24S-PC-271.
Like the other post-conviction relief cases, Dillard argued Cataldo should recuse herself from the case based on allegations of prejudice from previous wrongful conviction proceedings.
The high court affirmed Dillard’s 2000 murder conviction on direct appeal in 2001.
The other case was Leon Tyson v. State of Indiana, 24S-PC-272.
Tyson was convicted of murder in 2017.
The high court remanded the cases for Cataldo to grant the motions for change-of-judge.
Also, the court granted the petition for transfer of Glenn Thomas v. Valpo Motors Inc., 24S-PL-286.
The case was affirmed in a memorandum decision by the appellate court in May.
That court sided with Porter Superior Court in its grant of Valpo Motors’ summary judgment motion that it had successfully disclaimed all implied warranties.
The court will also review Willow Haven on 106th St, LLC v. Hari Nagireddy, et al., 24S-PL-287.
An appellate court affirmed a preliminary injunction in the case against Willow Haven from completing construction of a home on a lot next to Hari and Saranya Nagireddy.
It found the Nagireddys were not required to exhaust administrative remedies before pursuing injunctive relief with the Hamilton Superior Court and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in entering a preliminary injunction in favor of the Nagireddys.
Lastly, the court granted Johnny Webster Brown v. State of Indiana, 24S-CR-288.
The appellate court reversed Johnny Brown’s child molesting conviction in May after finding he fell into a jurisdictional gap after turning 21 years old.
The gap was cured in 2023, but in Brown’s case, the court ruled statutes would violate his constitutional right to be free of ex post facto laws.
The high court denied the transfer of 27 cases and concurred on all but three of the denials.
Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Molter voted to grant the petition of transfer of Warren A. Beals v. State of Indiana, 22A-CR-1023.
The appellate court affirmed Beals’ 26-year sentence, with two years suspended to probation for Level 4 felony attempted escape causing bodily injury and Class A misdemeanor resisting law enforcement. The court concluded there was no reversible error.
Rush also voted to grant Antoinette Green v. State of Indiana, 23A-CR-684.
The appellate court affirmed Green’s attempted murder conviction in a memorandum decision in April.
Green argued whether the trial court abused its discretion when it denied her motion to continue and if it erred when it held the second day of the trial without her present.
Justice Christopher Goff voted to grant Kevin Hamilton v. State of Indiana, 23A-PC-15.
A split appellate court affirmed the Allen Superior Court’s denial of Hamilton’s motion for change-of-judge finding the court did not err.
The high court concurred in the denial of Theodore Edward Rokita v. Barbara Tully, 23A-PL-705.
The appellate court reversed Tully’s summary judgment in April regarding her public records request for access to an informal advisory opinion from the Indiana Office of the Inspector General relating to the ethical implications of Attorney General Todd Rokita’s continued outside employment with Apex Benefits.
The court found the Indiana General Assembly amended the statute relating to the Inspector General’s duties and made that amendment retroactive.
It also found the amended statute explicitly provides the Inspector General’s informal advisory opinions are confidential and excepted from disclosure under Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.
The case was remanded with instruction that the trial court grant Rokita’s cross-motion for summary judgment.
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