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Now serving: Waffles, side of indecision
NWI Times
Jun 16, 2004
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mark-kiesling/now-serving-waffles-side-of-indecision/article_d2cd4fa4-f37c-592c-a381-9352df8340a9.html
Three judicial jellyfish couldn't come to any conclusion about whether Lake Criminal Court Judge Joan Kouros should be removed from the bench, instead putting the question into the laps of the five Indiana Supreme Court justices.
The jellyfish, formally known as a panel of masters, heard testimony regarding Kouros' fitness on the bench and after months of pondering, issued a 48-page report made public Monday that makes no recommendation whatsoever.
The report recounts in agonizing detail Kouros' repeated failures on the bench, in which she cost prisoners time, cost attorneys money and failed to perform tasks demanded by the Indiana Supreme Court, then told the court she was in compliance with their orders.
Then, the report concludes by saying Kouros is a good judge who should be all right if she gets enough staff and uses her time properly.
This report was so waffly it should have been delivered by Mrs. Butterworth.
If Kouros had been a normal defendant facing probation revocation, her actions are so clearly in violation she would now be in the Department of Corrections.
But she's not. She's a judge. Who judges a judge? Other judges.
The masters showed so little backbone their robes must be acting as sort of an exoskeleton to keep them upright. Maybe they are profiles in judicial courage when dealing with Joe or Jane Doe, but when there's another judge in the dock, they took the coward's way out.
What they did is leave the decision entirely up to the Indiana Supreme Court, which will now have to decide whether to remove or retain Kouros based upon a report that says neither yea nor nay.
Kouros' defense lawyer, the magician Stan Jablonski, has pulled enough rabbits out of his hat on this case to start his own petting zoo. He sees the decision as a victory for his client in that it does not call for her ouster as many expected.
The most maddening thing is the lack of intestinal fortitude found in the report. If you think Kouros can't function, recommend removal. If she's doing a good job but just needs a little fine tuning, recommend retention.
But make a decision. No wonder Indiana legislators don't want to give judges raises if this is how they perform under pressure. It's a slap to all judges who daily make the tough, unpopular decisions the law sometimes requires.
People from downstate are often critical of the way things are done in Lake County, the nod-and-wink politics where pragmatism trumps propriety.
These masters had a chance to send a message that shenanigans, including basically lying to the Indiana Supreme Court, will not be tolerated whether you're wearing a bathrobe or a black robe.
Instead, they sent the message that if this is the way the folks of Lake County want their judges to behave, that's OK with them.
By doing so, the judicial jellyfish stung each citizen of Lake County.
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