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Judge is given 'continuance' to present case for job
Kouros now has until June 16 to explain why she shouldn't be replaced
Post-Tribune
June 5, 2003
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.portagelibrary.info/resources/doc/nb/news/0FF66D1FB0F9423F?p=AWNB
Lake Superior Court Criminal Division Judge Joan Kouros will get a little more time to explain why she should not be replaced by a temporary judge.
The Indiana Supreme Court Division of State Court Administration gave Kouros until noon June 16 to submit her petition.
Kouros originally had until Wednesday to enter her petition.
She also initially requested an extra 30 days to respond but that was rejected by the high court's Division of State Court Administration, according to Supreme Court officials.
Kouros has come under fire and the intense scrutiny of the Supreme Court for her failure to deal with a backlog of cases in her courtroom.
On May 14, the administration made public a petition requiring Kouros to show why a judge pro tem should not be appointed to her courtroom.
The petition cited Kouros' repeated violations of a state Supreme Court order demanding that she deal more effectively with the backlog.
The petition came after an April 12 inspection of Kouros' courtroom by officials of the Supreme Court who concluded that the judge had not been complying with a January 2001 order requiring her to return case files to the Lake County clerk's office within 48 hours. Kouros is known to have dozens of case files in her courtroom, chambers and office for weeks at a time.
Supreme Court documents also showed that Kouros failed to record motions for defendants that come before her, delaying transfers to other facilities or providing services.
Some of the more serious oversights include inmates in the Lake County Jail who had to spend more time incarcerated on misdemeanor crimes than required because Kouros failed to issue sentencing orders.
After the Supreme Court had learned of the backlog problem in January 2001, it ordered all four judges of the Criminal Division to deal with the backlog problem.
In February 2001, the judges informed the Supreme Court that Kouros had instituted a new method of transcribing and processing docket entries.
But a spot check by the Supreme Court last October showed the backlog problem had not been resolved, and may have gotten worse.
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