Articles

Suit: Indiana’s absentee voter verification system unconstitutional

Common Cause Indiana and a group of registered voters in St. Joseph County are challenging the process Indiana uses to validate absentee ballots, calling it constitutionally flawed and asking a federal court to prohibit the state from rejecting absentee ballots based solely on perceived signature mismatches.

Read More

Boy, 11, charged after shooting state-trooper dad

Authorities say an 11-year-old Indiana boy who shot and wounded his state-trooper father has been charged as a juvenile with attempted murder. St. Joseph County prosecutors have filed a petition alleging delinquency for attempted murder, the juvenile equivalent of a criminal charge.

Read More

Dialysis facility’s breach of contract claims pre-empted

A medical facility that provided regular, life-sustaining dialysis treatments lost its appeal seeking to recover more than $1.5 million from its patients’ benefit plans when the Indiana Court of Appeals found the facility’s claims were pre-empted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Read More

Mishawaka teen accused in pregnant classmate’s murder appears in court

An Indiana judge has entered a preliminary not guilty plea for a high school football player accused of killing 17-year-old schoolmate Breana Rouhselang, who was pregnant with his child. The St. Joseph County judge also denied bail Tuesday for 16-year-old Aaron Trejo, who’s charged as an adult with murder and feticide.

Read More

Mishawaka teen charged with killing pregnant schoolmate

An Indiana high school football player told investigators that he killed a 17-year-old schoolmate because he was angry that she waited so long to tell him she was pregnant with his child that it was too late to get an abortion, authorities said Monday. Aaron Trejo, 16, was charged as an adult with murder in the Sunday killing of Breana Rouhselang and the fetus.

Read More

Revised vote tally flips St. Joseph race, ousting probate judge

The St. Joseph Probate Court judge was unseated in Tuesday’s election, reversing earlier results showing Republican Judge James Fox had retained his office. Official final vote totals now show Democratic challenger Jason Cichowicz narrowly defeated Fox in the state’s closest judicial race.

Read More

Voters oust trial court judge; Carmichael beats party-switching ex-jurist

Southern Indiana voters rejected one trial court judge and narrowly re-elected another who was challenged by a former colleague who changed parties to run against her. Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Darrell Maurice Auxier, a Democrat, was the lone sitting Indiana trial court judge to lose his bid for re-election, while Clark Circuit Judge Vicki Carmichael retained her bench seat in one of Indiana’s closest countywide trial court races Tuesday. 

Read More

Three magistrate finalists named for Lake County judgeship

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb will select one of three magistrate judges to fill the vacancy on the Lake Superior Court created when Judge Elizabeth Tavitas was appointed to the Indiana Court of Appeals this summer. The Lake County Judicial Nominating Commission late Tuesday named magistrate judges Lisa A. Berdine, Thomas P. Hallett and Nanette K. Raduenz as finalists to succeed Tavitas in Lake Superior Court 3, family division.

Read More

Death penalty dropped for man’s third triple-murder trial

A northern Indiana man who’s facing his third trial in a triple-murder case won’t face the death penalty if he’s convicted again in the killings. Wayne Kubsch is expected to stand trial again next year for the 1998 Mishawaka slaying of his wife, her ex-husband and their son.

Read More