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High court should declare vacancy in Lake judiciary
Our opinion: Kouros' removal should be permanent, search for new judge should get under way
Post-Tribune (IN)
July 4, 2003
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.portagelibrary.info/resources/doc/nb/news/0FF62E8A84348C07?p=AWNB
Several weeks ago we called for Lake Superior Court, Criminal Division, Judge Joan Kouros to resign from the bench.
Short of that, we said the Indiana Supreme Court should remove her for failing to get her court in order after two warnings from the high court.
The Supreme Court acted last week, but it stopped short of doing exactly what it should have done.
The court removed Kouros from the bench but said that she could petition for reinstatement after 90 days.
The Supreme Court said at the time that it could do a review after three months to see if things have improved.
With Kouros not on the job, there is no way to do a further review of her operation. Besides, the court already gave her two chances and all that resulted was the status quo.
Kouros' problem was that she tried to micro-manage an extremely large caseload.
That resulted in a host of mistakes, including people being bonded out who should have stayed in jail, people being kept in jail longer than they should have, and failing to have arrest warrants executed.
With Kouros off the bench, the Supreme Court named former Porter Circuit Court Judge Raymond Kickbush the judge pro tem, at least through the 90-day period.
The high court also suggested that it could appoint Kickbush to serve the remainder of Kouros' term, which runs through 2006.
We don't know that Kickbush, who retired in Porter County to go on senior (semi-retired) status, would want to stay on through the end of Kouros' term.
While Kickbush is a fine jurist and would be a more than capable replacement for Kouros, it would be wrong for the Supreme Court to name him a permanent pro tem.
The Lake County courts need judges who reside in Lake County. County residents have a pretty good feel for the social structure that produces criminals.
What the Supreme Court should have done was make Kouros' removal final and declare that a vacancy existed in the Lake Superior Court system.
Without the court declaring a vacancy, the Lake County Judicial Nominating Commission cannot be convened to interview applicants for the judgeship.
When the 90 days expires, we would encourage the Supreme Court to declare a vacancy.
The sooner a Lake County judge is on the bench, the better for the people of Lake County -- both the residents and the defendants.
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