While the firestorm over the Indiana Department of Child Services has died down, the Indiana General Assembly is preparing to begin its examination of the agency and possibly make recommendations for action during the 2019 legislative session. The Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Room 431 of the Statehouse to review a host of issues related to DCS.
Applications are now being accepted to fill a vacancy on the Lake County Superior Court created when Judge Elizabeth F. Tavitas joined the Indiana Court of Appeals last month.
Attorneys interested in filling vacancies on the Monroe Circuit Court and Terre Haute City Court have just days remaining to make their interest known. Wednesday, Sept. 5 is the deadline to submit applications for Gov. Eric Holcomb’s appointments to both positions.
Two magistrate judges and a practicing attorney have been named as finalists to fill an upcoming vacancy in the Allen Superior Court Criminal Division. It’s one of two pending vacancies on the state court bench in Fort Wayne.
For the first time, three new Marion County judges have been appointed through merit-based selection. Charnette Garner, Jennifer Harrison and Mark Jones were chosen by Gov. Eric Holcomb from among 40 applicants to replace retiring Indianapolis judges Becky Pierson-Treacy, Michael Keele and Thomas Carroll, respectively.
Two practicing attorneys and one Marion County magistrate have been named as Marion Superior Court judges, the first time the county’s judges have been appointed pursuant to merit-based selection. Gov. Eric Holcomb announced his selections Friday afternoon.
Newly-minted Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Elizabeth Tavitas has done a little bit of everything throughout her legal career. She’s been a prosecutor, a public defender, a private practitioner, a referee, a trial court judge and now, a judge on the state’s second-highest court.
LaGrange County deputy prosecutor William R. Walz IV has been appointed to the LaGrange Circuit Court. Gov. Eric Holcomb selected Walz to succeed Judge J. Scott VanDerbeck, who retired June 1. VanDerbeck plans to serve as a senior judge and work as a mediator.
Even as Indiana lawmakers from both parties continue to echo Gov. Eric Holcomb’s call for hate crime legislation, the deep divisions that foiled previous attempts to pass a bias-motivated crime bill appear to still be entrenched.
Republican Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is calling on the General Assembly to pass a hate crimes bill after someone spray-painted anti-Semitic graffiti at a suburban Indianapolis synagogue. Holcomb said Monday he’ll meet with lawmakers, legal experts, corporate leaders and “citizens of all stripes who are seeking to find consensus on this issue so that, once and for all, we can move forward as a state."
Despite demands for Indiana to be withdrawn from a federal lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, Attorney General Curtis Hill said he will continue to lead Indiana’s opposition to the “unconstitutional” law. Hill said “the foundation on which the Supreme Court built its justification for Obamacare’s constitutionality ceased to exist” when Congress repealed the individual mandate tax.
Daniel Sigler, a senior prosecuting attorney from Fort Wayne, has been appointed special prosecutor as part of the investigation into sexual misconduct allegations surrounding Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill.
It’s not uncommon for the Indiana Department of Child Services to hear it doesn’t have enough evidence to support its child welfare cases. Children in need of services cases that enter the court often leave shredded by judges for lack of a sufficient reasoning as to why they came before the bench without enough evidence to back up the claims.
Five reviews of the Indiana Department of Child Services cost more than $1.3 million but yielded no state action to address the troubled agency’s increasing caseloads.
Since a memo was released detailing Curtis Hill’s alleged sexual misconduct at a party celebrating the end of the 2018 legislative session, the Indiana Attorney General has continued to fight back, even as calls for his resignation persist. This week, a nonprofit for his legal defense was announced.
Lake Superior Judge Elizabeth Tavitas was on the bench on July 18 when her phone rang with a message that would change her career. It was a call from Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, informing her that she had been selected as Indiana’s next Court of Appeals judge.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb has named Lake Superior Judge Elizabeth Tavitas as the next member of the Indiana Court of Appeals. Holcomb selected Tavitas from a pool of three finalists: Tavitas, St. Joseph Superior Judge Steven Hostetler and Fort Wayne attorney David C. Van Gilder.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s office pushed back today against Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill’s attempt to squash the appointment of a special prosecutor, saying his motion had “fatal flaws” and he was making a “dubious proposition.”
Repeatedly claiming “false and malicious” statements were included in a confidential memo containing allegations of sexual misconduct by Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, Indianapolis attorney Kevin Betz announced he is preparing a defamation lawsuit on the AG’s behalf. Betz and his law partner Sandra Blevins held a press conference Wednesday in the lobby of their Indianapolis law firm, Betz & Blevins, to announce the possible suit.
An Allen County superior court judge will retire at the end of this year, prompting the Allen Superior Court Judicial Nominating Commission to begin the process of selecting his replacement. The vacancy will occur in December when Judge John F. Surbeck, Jr. retires from his position in the Allen Superior Court Criminal Division.