Articles

Honoring the honorable: Marshall added, Dred Scott author removed from Southern District mural

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, arguably best known for authoring the notorious 1857 majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sanford, used to be featured in an Indiana Southern District Court mural. But his name was recently replaced with “Marshall,” representing longest-serving Chief Justice John Marshall and Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, the court’s first African-American justice.

 

Read More

Late Judge McKinney honored in anniversary celebration

In honor of the 10th anniversary of its federal courthouse in Terre Haute, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana has hung the portrait of the man who was key to getting the judicial outpost built and who devoted great effort to helping former federal inmates re-enter society: the late Judge Larry J. McKinney.

Read More

Fraudster Durham wins hearing on whether lawyer’s $1M fee created conflict

Fair Finance fraud felon Tim Durham will get a chance to grill his former trial attorney over whether his $1 million wire fraud defense representation fee created a conflict of interest between money the lawyer could pocket versus paying for witnesses Durham claims could have testified in his favor. A federal judge recently granted a new hearing on that and other grounds as Durham seeks to chisel away at his 50-year prison sentence.

Read More

Prosecutions fizzle in ‘pill mill’ case but suits proceed

Physicians and staff who were arrested and charged after Indiana and federal law enforcement officials claimed their medical practice was a pill mill are headed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals as they push forward with a civil lawsuit claiming their prosecution was built on allegations the government knew were false.

Read More

Justice Dept. appeals order on Mueller grand jury testimony

The Justice Department on Monday appealed a judge’s order directing the department to provide the House with secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The department also asked Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell to put her own order on hold until a federal appeals court has an opportunity to weigh in.

Read More

Suspended attorney indicted on tax charges

Schererville attorney Raymond Gupta, whose law license was suspended in June, has been indicted for tax evasion and failing to file federal tax returns, with the federal government claiming he owes nearly $2 million to the Internal Revenue Service.

Read More

Southern District posts rule amendments effective Dec. 1

Numerous minor rule changes effective Dec. 1 have been made available by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. The rule changes deal with appearances and substitution of counsel, continuances in criminal cases, grand jury processes and other matters.

Read More

Companies reach tentative deal to settle opioids lawsuit

The nation’s three dominant drug distributors and a big drugmaker have reached a tentative deal to settle a lawsuit related to the opioid crisis just as the first federal trial over the crisis was due to begin Monday in Cleveland, according to a lead lawyer for the local governments suing the drug industry.

Read More