The elected clerk of courts for Blackford County, Derinda Shady, became testy during a recent county council meeting over proposed budget cuts in her office and threatened to terminate her office's supervision of the county's superior and circuit courts. Shady grew even shadier when she threatened to deny the courts access to their records and told one judge he "better bring a cop" with him if he wanted his court's records. In subsequent meetings, Shady called one council member a "bitch" and approached the circuit court judge in a manner that he feared she intended to become physically confrontational. Those are among the findings of an emergency order Blackford Circuit Court Judge Dean Young and Blackford Superior Court Judge Nick Barry included in their signed order of August 20, 2015 barring Shady from entering her offices, the Blackford County Courthouse or even stepping foot on the courthouse grounds. Her immediate arrest and incarceration is requested if she violates the terms of their order.
Read the full order here. Hat tip to the Indiana Law Blog.
The judicial branch is not the master branch of government. The Indiana Constitution provides means for removing elected officials from office, none of which is to have a county judge assume full executive control over all things in the county.
ReplyDeleteBranches have disputes with each other. it's necessary for the operation of government. There's a system for how it's supposed to play out. The judicial branch isn't supposed to be in possession of a "Game Over" card it gets to play whenever it wants.
America needs to do something about its out of control judges. Try to get mandamus or Lazy Judge against a judicial officer, and you'll get nowhere and maybe disbarred. Criticize a judicial officer for slipshod legal craft, and you're disbarred.
When a judge wants to push around another branch, no problem. Cut off or reduce judicial funding, and they'll issue an order saying they have to be funded. When did the judicial branch get to be the King of America?
If I had been these judges, I think I would have consulted the Supreme Court and sought the emergency appointment of a special judge outside the county to consider the merits of issuing an emergency order rather than issuing an order to protect myself from a county official. You can't just allow an elected official to shut down the courts because two positions were eliminated from her budget. That would work an undue hardship to criminal and civil parties who need access to the courts right away. They can't just sit back and wait for the removal process to play out.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think they have the authority to bar an elected official from her offices. Its a power grab, and Derinda Shady might win. Things work a little different in Hartford City. Derinda Shady has a hot temper. And Dean Young and Nick Barry might just be asking for a whooping. If they want to do things legal then they should request relief from a higher court, not overreach their authority and issue a worthless order. These guys may be big shots in their robes, but they go home at night. Hope they sleep well in the knowledge that half the county thinks they’re douchebags cruising for a bruising. Sometimes judges live to regret their decisions. Its just a little Peyton Place and they’re all Blackford County hypocrites. They ordered the police to arrest Shady if she tries to enter her offices, but the cops may escort her into her offices instead. It was an invalid order, not worth the paper it was printed on. And these cops don’t work for Young and Barry.
ReplyDelete"You can't just allow an elected official to shut down the courts because two positions were eliminated from her budget."
ReplyDeleteSure, you can. She's elected. She's the choice of the voters. The voters elected someone who would do that. It's their government. Do we have a Republic, or not?
"That would work an undue hardship to criminal and civil parties who need access to the courts right away."
Not really. There's nothing stopping the judge from opening court in the local firehouse or Moose lodge. Better courts operated with much less.
Even if it is an "undue hardship," so what? It's a judicial branch problem to open their own court. Inconvenience or frustration is no argument to toss republican government onto the heap.
We have fallen into a government in which everyone tacitly admits that the judicial branch is the ultimate branch of government and that all others are ministerial. That's not how this country was envisioned.
Be careful with expediency arguments, Gary. It's generally considered a dirty word that shows one will sacrifice principle for desire.
We have a county clerk named Shady? How utterly appropriate is that?
ReplyDeleteDoes this Clerk know the rapper Eminem?
ReplyDeleteI prefer their action over the lawless state of affairs in the City of Indianapolis where our corrupt mayor is allowed to commit multiple felonies in plain sight that are costing the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars while other government officers sit by and do nothing and our worthless media cheers the mayor from the sidelines as a great leader we should put up on a pedestal. You literally have to reach for the barf bag any time you read a Matt Tully column. The guy is the worst excuse for a journalist I've ever seen. I hope he's getting a lot of money shoved in his pocket to write such bullshit because he obviously doesn't care how little the newspaper's readers think of him.
ReplyDeleteDon't Indiana Judges already have the national reputation for being incompetent and corrupt. They have to harshly penalize lawyers who speak ill of them to keep the whole house of cards from crashing down. Its like China or Russia where you can't criticize your communist party leaders without repercussion. So our Judges can be drunks, mentally incompetent, involved in shady business deals and sexual escapades without being called out by the lawyers who know; a sweet deal if you can get it. I'm a pretty successful businessman in Indy, and I don't know anybody who respects the legal profession, especially Judges, who always rule for the insurance company, no matter what, and always give the win to the party represented by the biggest law firm. They shouldn't be surprised when we call them corrupt, and if they didn't threaten their lawyers, even more of the truth would come out. I celebrate this clerk's fight, and I hope she wins back the keys to her office. Bastard Judges.
ReplyDelete"Judge" Young is a straight up A-hole bully. Judge Barry seems like a decent chap, I suspect he got bullied by Young on this. by the way, ask J. Young how 'the system' treated his son for killing someone while driving drunk . . . on second thought, don't. it will only make you sad. I mean mad. real, real mad.
ReplyDeleteIf Tully is worthless then Jim Shella is worse.
ReplyDeleteThe interaction between Clerk and the Courts is complicated. It's not a pure separation of powers issue because the Clerk is, to some extent, an adjunct of the Court -- particularly when it comes to handling the records. I can't remember the details, but researched the matter awhile ago when I was looking into a public records request for court records -- trying to figure out which official was the decision maker with respect to those records.
ReplyDeleteChief Judge Loretta Rush needs to provide the Indiana judiciary with some adult supervision and firm guidelines for the use ... and not abuse ... of the people's power. The Hoosier Banana Republic should end on her watch.
ReplyDelete