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To be fair, judges must also be judged
NWI Times
Apr 11, 2004
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mark-kiesling/to-be-fair/article_8d19ddef-5fed-5102-a5e0-436550f99847.html
Zero tolerance is a popular concept these days in the courts.
Zero tolerance for drug dealers. Zero tolerance for drunken drivers. Zero tolerance for kids who bring weapons to school.
Then why do we continue to tolerate a judge who is not capable of doing her job?
Last Monday, I wrote about how Lake Criminal Court Judge Joan Kouros is again having problems running her court.
Later that week, the Indiana Supreme Court set an April 22 hearing date at which she will go on trial before a panel of three judges from around the state who will hear the charges filed by the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications.
A lot of people think this is Kouros' last stand.
Even those most sympathetic to her are predicting her removal from the bench.
Judges confronted with wrongs usually work things out with the court, take their punishment and move on.
Kouros tried this, it turns out. An agreement was submitted by both sides for the Supreme Court's approval. Less than a day after getting the agreement, the five justices gave it 10 thumbs down.
Because the settlement proposal was confidential, we know little of what it contained. But it appears that Kouros was unwilling to tell the justices whether she has complied with their order that she clean up her act and was unwilling to promise she would not do it again.
What judges do or don't do might seem remote and of little concern to you -- until it's your son who spends five days in Lake County Jail after being given probation, because Kouros forgot to process the release order before leaving on a business trip.
It was no isolated mistake. If so, it could be forgiven, if not by the individual, at least by the county at large and by the Supreme Court, which basically said as much in its March 25 order rejecting Kouros' offer.
"What makes this case unique," Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard wrote, "is that it involves a pattern of ... acts and omissions that, taken individually, may have only minor weight, but when taken together over the period of time involved here, raise serious concerns about (Kouros') overall suitability for office."
In simple language, things are so fouled up in the courtroom that there is no guarantee any defendant or prosecutor will get a fair shake if they get the luck of the draw to appear in Courtroom Three where Kouros presides.
It's not like she's been left hanging out to dry. Several judges, notably Juvenile Court Judge Mary Beth Bonaventura and Criminal Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr., have bent over backwards trying to offer her help.
I don't like to pick on Kouros. I am not unsympathetic to the fact she has physical and mental problems that have aggravated if not caused outright these problems. As a person, I feel sorry for her and believe she deserves better than the constant pressure she is now under.
But I can't be an apologist for her, not when she continues to defy the Supreme Court and deny that her decisions have caused harm to scores of people the disciplinary commission has named as victims.
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