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Kouros faces March 6 deadline on backlog
Chief justice of Indiana Supreme Court sends order to Lake Superior Court judge
Post-Tribune
January 18, 2003
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.portagelibrary.info/resources/doc/nb/news/0FF67BC4212D9954?p=AWNB
Lake Superior Court Judge Joan Kouros has until March 6 to deal with the backlog of cases in her courtroom or she could find herself in even more hot water with the Indiana Supreme Court.
On Friday, Randall T. Shepard, chief justice of the Supreme Court, issued a stern order directing Kouros to immediately implement practices to prevent future delays of cases in her court.
"This Court ... now finds that an unreasonable delay in processing cases and an unreasonable number of backlogged cases existed," Shepard wrote in his order. "This court will review the matter of delay ... to determine whether further action is warranted."
Shepard's order was sent Friday to the other three Criminal Division judges -- Richard Maroc, Clarence Murray and Tom Stefaniak.
Kouros is known for sometimes having hundreds of file cases in her courtroom and chambers, a majority of which await rulings or orders for defendants, some of whom are held in the Lake County Jail.
The other criminal court judges return file cases back to the Lake Superior Court clerk's office, often within one day of a court hearing.
But cases that should be available to the public in the clerk's office are often unavailable since Kouros has them.
The Supreme Court became aware of the situation in January 2001, and directed the Criminal Court judges to determine if a backlog existed and take steps to correct it.
The judges learned that about 300 cases had been checked out by Kouros and not returned. By February 2002, the Criminal Division judges collectively reported that all of the open cases had been resolved.
But a follow-up review in October showed that about 200 case files had gone to hearing or trial but were still awaiting orders and entries in the docket and had yet to be returned to the clerk's office.
Officials found numerous yellow "Post-It" notes affixed to case files, but they were not officially recorded in the record.
And, despite the Criminal Division judges' contention that a new system had been put in place by Kouros, the review found it had not been.
Consequently, Shepard gave a strict timeline in which cases checked out by Kouros need to be returned to the clerk's office, depending on the date they were checked out.
Clarence Murray, the senior judge of the Criminal Division, would only say, "The order speaks for itself."
Kouros could not be reached for comment.
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