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Lawyers recommend ouster of Kouros
Attorneys who have practiced before the judge vote overwhelmingly against her retention in bar association survey
NWI Times
September 30, 2000
http://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/lawyers-recommend-ouster-of-kouros/article_92acbfa7-eaa2-5569-82ac-95d5fb149674.html
Although the county bar association has been conducting similar polls for years, the survey it released Friday is the first to make a recommendation on whether a judge should stay on the bench.
Kouros' rating in each of 17 categories listed in the poll was less than qualified, and she received 45 negative votes to only 24 positive votes.
A total of 73 lawyers voted on Kouros, and the difference is that some of the attorneys gave Kouros a zero on a scale of one to five and were therefore not counted, according to a bar association source.
Kouros, who was appointed in December 1996 by then-Gov. Evan Bayh, downplayed the results of the survey.
"There are more than 1,200 lawyers in Lake County and only a small percent of them even responded to this (poll)," she said. "I believe there are a group of attorneys who have a problem with me for issues outside my being a judge of the criminal court."
She did not elaborate on those issues, but said, "The results are skewed and all I can tell you is that I'm doing everything I can to be fair to both sides. My job is not to please lawyers but to serve the public, and I don't know what else I can do."
The poll rated the four criminal division judges, the five civil division judges and the circuit court judge, although it only made recommendations on the five who were up for retention. One of those, James Clement of the criminal division, has announced he will not run for retention.
Clement and fellow criminal division judge Richard Maroc scored well, with Maroc getting 71 "yes" votes and only three "no" tallies and Clement receiving 61 "yes" and 13 "no" votes.
Kouros rated lowest in categories pertaining to the operation of her office and higher in her judicial demeanor.
She was at rock-bottom in the category of being efficient in managing the court calendar and caseload. That was no surprise, even to her staunchest supporters.
Stacks of case folders, each representing one criminal case pending before her, litter her desk, her chambers and the small anteroom that once housed her bailiffs but now is home to a mountain of green-jacketed folders.
While the other judges have only the folders with that day's cases and those for the next day, Kouros has months of folders throughout her office.
"I've noticed that," said a lawyer who supports her and finds fault with the poll. "She probably takes on too much. She examines every file diligently. If there is a wrong Social Security number, she makes them amend the whole thing. She is a stickler for accuracy and perhaps that causes people to get annoyed with her demeanor.
"I find it hard to believe there was fairness in these responses."
But the huge stacks can cause individual defendants to get lost in the shuffle, and her critics contend scores of people who were supposed to be released from jail or transferred out are left inside for days and weeks until their mess can be sorted out.
Kouros admitted sometimes defendants do get misplaced, but said, "In a case where it is a transfer to the DOC (Department of Correction) what difference does it make whether they're here or at the DOC? And as far as people who should be released, I would say under oath that in the past two years, no one has stayed in jail a day more than they should have."
Although only 73 lawyers voted on Kouros, Lake County Bar Association President Daniel Vinovich defended the poll, saying lawyers were asked only to vote on judges in front of whom they have practiced within the past three years. Only a fraction, perhaps 10 percent, of Lake County's lawyers practice criminal law on a regular basis.
Kouros rated lowest on caseload management, delegation of work and staff and resource management, but rated higher in the area of fairness. Her top scores, rated above qualified, were in the areas of rulings made without regard to race, gender, religion or ethnicity and exercising control over her court.
"I expect a lot of lawyers," she said. "Some of the things I say sound different than they would coming from an older male judge. But I can't please every lawyer."
The two other lawyers up for retention who received recommendations were civil division judges Jeffery Dywan, who got 142 "yes" votes and 13 "no" votes and James Richards who got 125 "yes" votes and 27 "no" votes.
There had been rumblings that Richards would face opposition from lawyers who believed he should retire. Richards, 75, has been on the bench since 1962 and is Indiana's longest-serving currently sitting judge. Opposition did not materialize, however, as Richards scored above qualified in each of the 17 categories.
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