Courts

A federal jury decided in less than three hours that a former Ball State University police officer isn’t liable in the fatal shooting of a drunken, unarmed student four years ago.An eight-person jury returned Monday evening with a verdict in about 2 ½ hours, after hearing 10 days of arguments and testimony in the case of McKinney v. Robert Duplain in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. Jurors determined that Duplain wasn’t liable for Michael McKinney’s death.More than 50 people – mostly…

A Marion County public defender faces felony charges after being arrested Sunday following an undercover child sex sting by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.Ryan Snyder, 29, was arrested about noon on the south side of Indianapolis, according to a police report. He is accused of using the Internet to set up a meeting with a 15-year-old girl for sex, the report said. A detective posed as the teenager and arrested him, as well as another man during the weekend sting. Police…

Business is going on as usual this morning for the U.S. District Court Southern District of Indiana, despite a historic moment that’s happened in the court.The U.S. Senate voted unanimously about 5 p.m. Thursday to confirm Magistrate Judge William T. Lawrence as a federal judge, meaning he’ll be the Southern District’s first-ever magistrate to be elevated to the constitutionally established Article III judge status.Senators took a break from discussion on wiretapping to talk about judicial nominations, and held a roll-call vote…

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that a state may require a criminal defendant who suffers from a mental illness to have a lawyer rather than allowing that person to act as his or her own defense counsel, even when the individual is competent to be tried.Vacating an Indiana Supreme Court ruling from more than a year ago, the nation’s highest court today issued its 7-2 ruling in Indiana v. Ahmad Edwards, No. 07-208. Justices remanded the case to Marion Superior Court…

The nation’s highest court hasn’t yet ruled on an East Chicago case involving money laundering, but that could be because justices are waiting to hear a similar case before making a decision.Indianapolis attorney Todd Vare with Barnes & Thornburg argued before the Supreme Court of the United States Oct. 3, but so far the court hasn’t issued a decision on U.S. v. Efrain Santos, No. 06-1005.Ten of the 14 cases argued that month have been ruled on, as well as other…

Though the front yard of your home may not be considered a “public place,” state law prohibits you from standing there naked because that nudity would be visible from a public street or sidewalk, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled today.In Chad A. Weideman v. State of Indiana, No. 87A01-0801-CR-51, a unanimous three-judge panel determined that Indiana’s public nudity statute, Indiana Code Section 35-45-4-1.5(c), is not unconstitutionally vague, but the state failed to present sufficient evidence to prove that a Warrick County…

A Fort Wayne and Indianapolis health-care law attorney who’d previously served as the governor’s counsel and as state appellate clerk in the 1990s died suddenly Tuesday night.John Okeson, 43, died at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne after suffering from a short flu-like illness during the past week; he was admitted to the hospital late Sunday or Monday, according to his legal colleagues. The county coroner’s office told media that Okeson had been sick and admitted to the hospital, where staff determined…