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Chaos returns to courtroom
NWI Times
Apr 5, 2004
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mark-kiesling/chaos-returns-to-courtroom/article_e3426a1b-025a-5283-8b86-57ffa3c837f4.html
It's barely spring, but what is likely to be a summer blockbuster has opened in a courtroom near you -- "Indiana Joan and The Raiders of the Lost Files."
It's not a comedy. It's more of a tragedy what has been allowed to go on in the courtroom of Criminal Court Judge Joan Kouros, who was removed from the bench last year because of her inability to run an efficient courtroom.
It wasn't just a little absent-mindedness. If that's all it took to boot a judge off the bench, the floors would be littered with robed behinds.
It was full-blown disorder in the court. Stack upon stack of files sat in Kouros' office, filled her bailiff's room and lurked behind the bench. Defendants who were supposed to be freed or transferred were not, lawyers were going unpaid and the clerk's office was in a shambles.
Reluctantly, after complaints from former Clerk Anna Anton, the Indiana Supreme Court stepped in and ordered Kouros off the bench temporarily so the court could do a thorough investigation. They could have permanently removed her from the bench if they found enough evidence.
Any smoking gun was likely under about 500 pounds of paper. Her car was so jammed with documents, the joke was if she was in an accident, she'd die of paper cuts.
But her defense attorney, Stan Jablonski, pulled yet another last-minute rabbit out of his hat, telling the court Kouros suffers from multiple sclerosis and untreated obsessive-compulsive disorder. With proper medication and some remediation, she would be ready to resume her duties.
To the amazement of many, the court agreed, although it said it would be monitoring her performance. The monitoring thus far has appeared to be nothing more than lip service.
The piles are back. The yellow Post-It notes were back, at least for a while. All judges have color-coded folders; Kouros' are green.
"It looks like St. Patrick's Day in her office," one lawyer said.
Why isn't anything being done? Anton is gone, replaced by Thomas Philpot.
Philpot has not thus far shown the willingness to tackle the mess, maybe because it has not reached the crisis proportions it had under Anton.
Or maybe it's the East Chicago connection.
Or maybe it's because Philpot 's late father, Richard, was fire chief in East Chicago at the same time Joan's dad, Gus Kouros, was a city councilman. There's also a new senior judge, Thomas Stefaniak Jr., who apparently does not take the same dim view of the mess as did his predecessor, Clarence Murray.
East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick gave the nod to the appointment of former Hammond City Judge Stefaniak, who was at the time rumored to be considering running for county prosecutor against Pastrick ally Bernard Carter.
Pastrick also gave former Gov. Evan Bayh, whom Pastrick has watched grow from boyhood, his approval for Kouros.
But those who deal day in and day out in the courtroom are wondering if the Indiana Supreme Court is serious about monitoring the situation.
And if so, what are they waiting for?
Maybe they're hoping for a sequel, "Indiana Joan and The Temple of Green."
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