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Judge asks Supreme Court for mercy
Removal is too harsh a punishment, Kouros' lawyers argue
NWI Times
Aug 14, 2004
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/judge-asks-supreme-court-for-mercy/article_4095d090-c485-56c0-b219-b8a81e06f19e.html
As expected, Judge Joan Kouros formally asked the Indiana Supreme Court on Friday to reject a July 14 recommendation for her removal by the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications.
She wants -- in fact, she deserves -- to stay on the Lake County Criminal Court bench, Kouros' attorneys argue in the papers filed late Friday.
Because the Judicial Commission requested Kouros' permanent removal, the Supreme Court suspended Kouros with pay until it makes the final decision. Senior Judge Thomas Webber Sr. now runs Criminal Courtroom 3 in her absence.
In Kouros' brief, attorneys Kevin McGoff and Stanley Jablonski state: "Removal of a judge from office is one of the most severe sanctions and should be done 'cautiously and only when justice demands it.' "
The highest court should not remove Kouros because she has "substantially complied" with Supreme Court's orders on how to manage her criminal court, the brief states.
Furthermore, "she has acknowledged her acts, accepted responsibility for them and apologized on the record."
And, she's trying; that should count for something, her attorneys argue in the brief.
Besides, it's not her fault, they say.
In papers filed Friday, Kouros' attorneys maintain that when Kouros returned from her six-month suspension in January, she didn't have a regular secretary. It wasn't until Feb. 22 that Kouros found her current secretary, and it took time for her to be trained by secretaries from the floating secretarial pool.
"Although Judge Kouros has two bailiffs, three court reporters, all of whom work full time, they do not assist, except in a minimal way, in making entries and moving the files that come through the court," the petition states.
"In fact, if there are not trials and the call is finished, the bailiffs leave."
A battle has been waged between Kouros and the Judicial Commission since lawyers in Kouros' court began complaining four years ago about not getting their fees in a timely manner and jail inmate transfers were stalled because she was too slow in completing routine paperwork.
Kouros was appointed judge in 1997.
There is no timetable set forth for the state's highest court to make that decision.
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