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Commission recommends judge's removal
Judicial committee also requests suspension for Joan Kouros; she plans to fight
NWI Times
Jul 16, 2004
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/commission-recommends-judge-s-removal/article_7c8c60a6-cb8b-5bda-998c-73c30d0130b4.html
*Judge Joan Kouros held court Thursday despite the latest volley fired in the battle to oust her.
The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications filed a recommendation late Wednesday that Kouros be permanently removed from the Lake County Criminal Court bench.
Until the state Supreme Court makes that decision, the commission asked the state's highest jurists to follow their own rule and suspend Kouros with pay.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the court had not ordered Kouros suspended.
Kouros' lawyer, Kevin P. McGoff, said they will definitely file a response within the allotted 30 days.
"Her (Kouros') attitude is we need to get our response to the court so the ultimate arbiter of the matter can make its decision," McGoff said.
However, nothing in the rule states the court must wait for Kouros' response before suspending her, McGoff said.
"The rule reads 'the court shall issue an order suspending a judge with pay once a recommendation for removal is made,' " he said.
The commission recommendation is in response to the Masters' Report on Kouros filed last month in which a three-judge panel declined to make a recommendation to the Supreme Court despite finding Kouros hadn't complied with agreed-upon requirements on how to run her courtroom.
In October, when Kouros asked to be returned to the bench after a six-month suspension she promised to get signed orders to the clerk within 48 hours and to have no more than 80 files checked out to her court at any given time.
During the April hearing before the three-judge panel, the Judicial Qualifications Commission showed Kouros had upwards of 137 files checked out on select dates and it took weeks for some orders to be implemented.
"Unfortunately, this case is about far more than the administrative failures," the judicial commission states in the seven-page memorandum supporting the 41-page removal recommendation.
"It is about Judge Kouros' lack of trustworthiness. ... In light of the Masters' conclusions that Judge Kouros not only continually neglected her duties but defied a Supreme Court Order and was dishonest with the Court, removal is necessary to protect the integrity of the judiciary."
Kouros was appointed judge in 1997. Lawyers practicing in her court began complaining four years ago she was slow in completing routine paperwork.
The Supreme Court first asked Kouros' fellow judges to help her improve. They said she initially refused their help.
The Judicial Qualifications Commission reviewed her court and found a backlog of hundreds of cases awaiting her signature on decisions made months earlier. Her tardiness aggravated overcrowding in the county lockup by preventing inmates from being transferred to a state prison.
The high court issued warnings and detailed instructions two years ago on how to manage her paperwork. She failed to comply, and the high court suspended her for six months last year. Raymond Kickbush, a retired judge from Porter County, said he had to work hard to return her court to normalcy.
Kouros admitted in her October request to be returned to the bench her obsessive-compulsive disorder prevents her from performing routine jobs without excessive deliberation. The high court reinstated her in January, but the evidence indicates Kouros has apparently fallen into the old pattern.
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