02252005 - News Article - Bar nudity draws charges - HOBART: Women arrested, bar cited after fashion show

Bar nudity draws charges
HOBART: Women arrested, bar cited after fashion show
NWI Times
Feb 25, 2005
nwitimes.com/news/local/bar-nudity-draws-charges/article_34ede857-1eeb-578d-a9d1-8386b507e8a3.html
HOBART | Undercover police arrested three women this week on charges they exposed themselves at a city tavern, Lt. Leo Finnerty said.

Acting on an anonymous tip, Hobart detectives assisted Indiana State Excise Police in following up on a report of nudity during a fashion show at the Beer Barrel, 4717 E. U.S. 30.

Undercover officers who visited the bar Tuesday evening allege three women were at least partially nude at some point during the performance, Finnerty said.

Excise police cited the bar and arrested Marcie Bernacchi, 44, of Crown Point, Lorena Navarro, 24, of Chicago Heights, Ill., and Sara Redman, 34, of Crescent City, Ill.

"They (police) might have been intoxicated and thought they saw something," said Ned Pujo, whose wife, Yolande, owns the bar. "I think it's bull. ... It's ridiculous what they are doing anymore. It is becoming a police state."

The women are each charged with misdemeanor public indecency, Finnerty said. The three face up to a year in jail and a maximum fine of $5,000 if found guilty.

"This is not the type of thing that is going to go on in the city, and we will be checking in on all complaints like that," Finnerty said.

Indiana State Excise Police, the law enforcement division of the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, cited the Beer Barrel in 2001 for public indecency in connection with nudity at the business, Excise Police Sgt. Michelle Traughber said.

"The complaint at the time was that they were having fashion shows and that models were exposing themselves," she said. Nudity is illegal under Indiana law.

Traughber said fashion shows in which women model lingerie and raffle adult videos and other items are popular in Illinois where nudity laws are less stringent than in Indiana.

"They are independent contractors that come here," said Ned Pujo, who oversees the bar for his wife. "I don't sit there and baby-sit. They have had it here for years and this is only the second problem we have had in 20 some years."

02182005 - News Article - Kouros to land with prosecutor

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09242017 - News Article Links - Disparity of justice: Comparison of Magistrate James Johnson's and Judge Joan Kouros' judicial investigations - Backlog of court cases

Kouros to land with prosecutor
NWI Times
Feb 18, 2005
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mark-kiesling/kouros-to-land-with-prosecutor/article_5ee0a693-e9f8-5c1b-a267-0fe792f717dc.html
Unlike Elvis, Lake County Judge Joan Kouros will not be leaving the building when she involuntarily steps down Feb. 25.

Well, technically she won't be in the courts building in Crown Point, but she will remain employed by Lake County government in the prosecutor's office.

Prosecutor Bernie Carter confirmed Thursday he's offered Kouros -- who was removed from the bench by the Indiana Supreme Court -- a job as a deputy prosecutor in the office's child support division in Gary.

"She is a very intelligent person who had problems on the bench with her management skills," Carter said in a kind understatement. "It's important we put her in a position where she is not in management at all. Some people are not made to be judges and in the long run, I think she knew that, too."

Her car, like her office, was filled with so much uncompleted paperwork that another judge was moved to once remark that if she were in a car wreck, she'd die of paper cuts.

When Kouros was taken off the bench and replaced temporarily by retired Porter Superior Court Judge Tom Webber, she went to Carter and asked him about getting a job, the prosecutor said.

"We tried to come up with some place we could utilize her skills and child support is where we felt she could best serve us," Carter said.

I'm not in favor of using any office in county government as an employment agency for the otherwise unemployable, but Kouros performed adequately in her previous tour of duty as a deputy prosecutor.

Still, I wonder how this is going to go down with some of the prosecutors she regularly berated mercilessly in court, particularly veteran deputy John Burke, who clashed with Kouros so often he was finally moved out of the courtroom after she issued a silly contempt citation against him that was later tossed out.

"I'll keep them apart, you know that," Carter said. "No way am I going to have her in an office with John Burke. She's going to be at 4th and Broadway in Gary, and there is no reason for her to come out to Crown Point, ever."

Carter said the judge's father, East Chicago City Councilman Gus Kouros, exerted no pressure on him to hire his daughter.

And Carter also was very candid when he said that "insurance must be a big factor for her," as the county will continue to pick up the cost of her medical treatment for multiple sclerosis.

That's the key. It would be a tough sell for her to join a law firm with her pre-existing condition and the cost to go into private practice and pay insurance would have been prohibitive.

She'll be making about $48,000 -- the top of the range, but still less than half what she made as a judge.

On the other hand, she was removed from the bench so often that she was less than half a judge anyhow.

For the sake of the taxpayers and of Kouros, I wish her better luck in her return to the prosecutor's office.