12182003 - News Article - EDITORIALS - One — only one — more chance for this judge - The issue: Lake Criminal Court Judge Joan Kouros

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09242017 - News Article Links - Disparity of justice: Comparison of Magistrate James Johnson's and Judge Joan Kouros' judicial investigations - Backlog of court cases

EDITORIALS - One — only one — more chance for this judge
The issue: Lake Criminal Court Judge Joan Kouros
NWI Times
Dec 18, 2003
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/one-only-one-more-chance-for-this-judge/article_e67319a4-4b53-536f-b72c-f662d5b195ac.html
Our opinion: If she does not show improvement in how she handles her courtroom and caseload, the taxpaying voters of Lake County will have the final say come e

Joan Kouros is getting one more chance to act like a judge. If she has received the mental health help for her obsessive-compulsive behavior and the management help she needs to keep her courtroom running smoothly, she deserves this benefit of the doubt.

But this must be her last chance. The risk of chaos, or worse, in the criminal justice system here is too great to be ignored.

Kouros, a Lake Criminal Court judge since 1977, was reinstated by the Indiana Supreme Court, which had suspended her six months earlier this year because of poor management skills and behavior problems. Those issues led to huge case backlogs and instances in which one defendant was wrongly released and in which 39 inmates could not be transferred from the county jail to a state prison, resulting in a potentially volatile overcrowding.

She had been warned about her tardiness in dealing with cases when the problems in her courtroom became so disruptive to the judicial system here that lawyers were openly complaining. In fact, in 2001, the Lake County Bar Association campaigned for her removal.

The high court ordered her to amend her ways, which she initially blamed on the clerk's office, prosecutors, defense lawyers and her own staff. After deciding she had not shown a willingness to correct her problems, the court suspended her in June. It was in October that she revealed she has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, which was aggravated by the onset of multiple sclerosis.

Since then, her lawyer says she has received help for that disorder and has attended case management seminars. There is no stigma to seeking help for either mental illness or management problems. But it took the drastic action of the state Supreme Court for her to get the help she needs.

In reinstating her, the court advised Kouros the justices will monitor her progress.

Good, because if she does not show improvement, the taxpaying voters of Lake County will have the final say come election time.