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Court reporter finishes transcript, avoids contempt-of-court possibility

A Warrick County court reporter won’t be held in contempt for not finishing the trial transcript in a two-month, triple-murder trial early last year.Warrick Superior 2 employee Mary Kennedy finished typing the transcript by the end of the business day Monday – the last-minute of her three extensions from the Indiana Supreme Court.The eight-week, high-profile trial of David Camm, a former state trooper, concluded in March 2006 with a guilty verdict in the 2000 murders of his wife and their two…

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Condemned man’s appeals coming to end

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals today rejected one of the last appeals attempts by a man set to die Friday for the execution-style shooting death of a Muncie police officer in 1990.A five-page unanimous decision by the three-judge panel in the federal appeals court in Chicago rejected Michael Allen Lambert’s claims for relief in Lambert v. Edwin G. Buss, Nos. 03-1015 and 05-2610. The ruling upholds the judgment by U.S. District Judge Larry McKinney in Indianapolis.In its opinion, the panel…

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7th Circuit: traffic stop constitutional

A traffic stop in which police found drugs after telling the defendant he was free to go did not violate the defendant's Fourth Amendment rights, ruled the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals today.

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Judge: safety in danger if offender doesn’t move

A Tippecanoe County judge has denied the request of a convicted sex offender wanting to stay in his Lafayette home as the court considers his lawsuit to no longer be deemed a danger to children.Superior Judge Don Johnson issued a two-page order this week denying a request by John Doe, a 56-year-old man being ordered to move so that he’s not within 1,000 feet of children-saturated areas, such as a school or church.An Indiana law that took effect July 1, 2006,…

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Columbus attorney suspended for 6 months

The Indiana Supreme Court has suspended a Columbus attorney who faces felony drug charges for accepting cocaine from a client in lieu of payment for legal services.The court issued an order of interim suspension Tuesday against James Michael Kummerer, who was arrested in April on three Class A felony charges. His criminal case is currently pending in Bartholomew Circuit Court, but the state’s Supreme Court has decided to suspend him for 180 days starting Sept. 28, unless the Indiana Supreme Court…

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Lawyer takes on role with National Bar

A Barnes & Thornburg attorney who is president of the Marion County Bar Association is taking on a new role with a national legal organization.Jimmie McMillian has been appointed to a one-year term as deputy chief of staff for the National Bar Association, which represents more than 22,000 minority attorneys, judges, legal scholars, and law students throughout the world.McMillian will assist incoming NBA president Vanita Banks with her duties and will also help develop and implement plans to achieve her goals….

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Senate prayer draws ACLU’s criticism

Lawmakers met Tuesday for what is known as Organization Day, the first day of its 2008 session.But the mostly ceremonial day wasn’t without drama because the opening moments of one legislative body have sparked threats of a potential lawsuit reminiscent of a two-year-old federal suit that continues playing out in appeals. Indiana may soon see the second round of a legal battle involving legislative prayer.The Indiana Senate opened its proceedings with a prayer to Jesus Christ, with Senate President Pro Tempore…

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Electronics banned in Allen County: Courthouse employees and attorneys who obtain court-approved photo ID cards will be exempt.

   In fall 2003, various gyms around the country and around the world made headlines when they started implementing bans on camera phones so that patrons wouldn ;t take photos of other patrons in embarrassing situations like changing in the locker room, finishing that last crunch, or breaking a sweat on the treadmill.    While courthouses can cause some people to break into a sweat, the similarities end there. However, more and more courthouses are starting to ban cell phones and electronic…

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LCBA members speak out about court system in survey

The Lake County Bar Association has released the unofficial survey results from its April 13 Bench and Bar Conference. The results, available as a PDF file, are available on the LCBA’s Web site, www.lakecountybar.com or http://www.lakecountybar.com/Survey_Results1_unofficial.pdf. The survey asked 124 respondents if city and town courts should be abolished and replaced with a lesser number of full-time Superior Courts to perform the same functions (no: 91 votes; yes: 35 votes); whether any Superior or Circuit courts should relocate to other…

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Circuit slams immigration appeals board

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago issued an immigration ruling today reiterating a message that the justice department isn’t giving asylum cases enough review.The opinion is one of an already long list of examples where Circuit Courts slam the nation’s immigration court system, a mostly administrative process flowing through the U.S. Department of Justice. The 7th Circuit has been especially critical of the system.In its three-page decision in Hanna Youssef Mekhael v. Michael B. Mukasey, No. 06-4285, opinion author Judge…

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Legal malpractice claims not assignable

In an Indiana Supreme Court ruling, the majority of justices held that legal malpractice claims are not assignable and courts cannot require a person to assign his or her chose in action. In State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Ruth Estep, Personal Representative of the Estate of Ewing Dan Estep, and Assignee of Rights of James D. Perkins, the high court yesterday reversed the trial court’s order during proceedings supplemental forcing James Perkins’ assignment of any potential chose in action against…

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Oxford professor speaks Sept. 12 at IU-Bloomington

University of Oxford professor Jonathan Herring will present a lecture – “Entering the Fog: On the Borderlines of Mental Capacity” – for the public Sept. 12 at noon in the Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington moot court room.Herring is on campus as Indiana Law’s George P. Smith II Distinguished Visiting Professor-Chair through Sept. 15.He has authored leading texts in family and medical law, and his research in these areas covers hot-button topics including the regulation of pregnancy and enforced…

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Indianapolis lawyer chosen for judicial commissions

Attorney John C. Trimble, a partner at Indianapolis firm Lewis Wagner, has been chosen to be one of the newest members on two key judicial commissions focused on nominating new appellate judges and ethical, qualification issues for judges statewide.Starting in January, Trimble will be one of seven voices on the Judicial Nominating and Qualifications commissions. Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard chairs the commissions, which include the same members. State law requires that three commissioners be attorneys while three others are lay…

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Supreme Court grants 5 transfers

Indiana’s top jurists granted transfer Wednesday in five cases and will consider issues involving physicians who leave foreign objects in a patient’s body, parental termination hearings conducted without the parent, timely court-filing deadlines, and the sentencing options courts have after probation violations.In Russell Prewitt v. State of Indiana, No. 10A04-0610-CR-589, the Court of Appeals in April reversed a Clark County case in which the judge revised a sentence after the defendant violated his probation. The appellate judges held that the lower…

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Commission votes on court-related recommendations to lawmakers

A handful of Hoosier counties got a nod from a legislative study commission for new courts and judicial resources this week, and those recommendations will now go to lawmakers for consideration in the next General Assembly session.The Commission on Courts met Monday to discuss and vote on several measures that include new courts or judicial officers, but Marion County and the Indiana Court of Appeals are not on the list of recommendations.The commission did not bring up or vote on a…

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Court of Appeals again denies prisoner’s suit

Yet another one of Westville prisoner Eric Smith’s lawsuits has made its way to the Court of Appeals.In an opinion released today, Eric Smith v. Indiana Department of Correction, et al., 46A03-0607-CV-327, the Court of Appeals affirms the trial court’s decision of case 46D03-0410-CT-365.Pro se, Smith filed the complaint against the Department of Correction and numerous individual employees regarding the grant of the Department of Corrections motion for judgment on the pleadings, the denial of Smith’s request for appointment of counsel, the…

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COA affirms mistrial denial

The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a trial court’s decision to deny a motion for mistrial and affirmed the defendant’s conviction and sentence. In Michael Hale v. State of Indiana, 43A05-0611-CR-647, Hale appealed his conviction for dealing in cocaine as a Class A felony and his 50-year sentence. He claimed the trial court erred in denying his motion for mistrial because he argued testimony from a witness implied Hale was previously involved in drug activity. Lance Patrick and Josh Hamilton were asked…

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Court affirms murder sentence

The Indiana Supreme Court today affirmed the life sentence of a man convicted of killing a 10-year-old girl in Jackson County.A unanimous opinion in Anthony Stockelman v. State of Indiana, 36S00-0608-CR-285, affirmed the trial court was correct in weighing aggravators more heavily than proffered mitigators and that the sentence of life without parole was appropriate.Stockelman pleaded guilty to charges of murder and child molesting arising out of Katlyn Maria Collman’s murder in Crothersville in January 2005. Following her disappearance, state police…

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Committee questions Van Bokkelen at confirmation hearing

Northern Indiana ;s U.S. Attorney Joseph Van Bokkelen faced the U.S. Senate ;s Judiciary Committee this morning in his confirmation hearing for a federal judgeship opening in Hammond this summer.President George W. Bush nominated Von Bokkelen to replace retiring Judge Rudy Lozano, who plans to take senior status in July.During the hearing, Von Bokkelen and three other nominees for judgeships: Debra Ann Livingston for 2nd Circuit judge, Roslynn Renee Mauskopf for district judgeship in the Eastern District of New York, and…

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