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Webber replaces ousted judge
Longtime Porter County judge appointed to replace Kouros in Lake County
Post-Tribune (IN)
July 28, 2004
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.portagelibrary.info/resources/doc/nb/news/104279A9E7F58A20?p=AWNB
Thomas W. Webber Sr., a senior Porter Superior Court judge working part-time, was appointed Tuesday as judge pro tempore for Lake Superior Court Judge Joan Kouros.
Webber, who went on senior status in 2002, is a retired Portage police captain who earned a law degree from Valparaiso University. A Porter County judge for 13 years, Webber was appointed to complete the term of the late Judge Bruce Douglas.
His pro tem appointment in Lake County is effective Monday and remains in effect until further order of the Supreme Court, according to Dave Remondini, counsel to Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard.
For the remainder of this week, Lake County Magistrate Kathleen Sullivan said she will serve as judge pro tem in Kouros' courtroom.
Kouros, 46, was removed from the bench Thursday by the Indiana Supreme Court, with pay.
The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications filed a brief July 14 recommending her removal. The panel indicated her removal "is necessary to protect the integrity of the judicial system and to ensure the fair and timely administration of justice in her court."
Kouros' attorneys have 30 days to file a response to the judicial qualification commission's recommendation that she be removed, and the state may respond.
Kouros, who was appointed by then-Gov. Evan Bayh in January 1997, is accused of violating a January 2003 state Supreme Court order intended to end the chronic backlog of cases in her courtroom, where criminal cases are heard.
During a daylong hearing in April before a panel of judicial masters, fellow judges testified that the backlog in Kouros' court prevented the timely release of inmates from the Lake County Jail. Some cases dated back to 2001.
Judge Raymond Kickbush, who filled in for Kouros during her first suspension from the bench, testified he found a letter to the court from accused serial killer Eugene Britt of Gary in a box with old magazines and papers beneath the office fax machine. Kickbush, a retired Porter Circuit Court judge, told the judicial masters panel he thought the job was too big for Kouros.
Webber could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Kouros, a former Lake County deputy prosecutor who replaced Judge Richard Conroy after his retirement, said a combination of her battle with multiple sclerosis and an obsessive-compulsive disorder compelled her to repeatedly check her findings before issuing rulings. During her earlier suspension, she sought treatment for the obsessive-compulsive disorder and advice from various judges on courtroom management.
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