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Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Ind. Courts - Defendants now can be arraigned using video feed"
Jason Miller of the Michigan City News-Dispatch reported today in a story that begins:
Defendants now can be arraigned using video feed.Sitting behind a large, brown table inside the LaPorte County Jail on Monday morning, some 20 orange-clad defendants answered questions posed by Judge William Boklund. The defendants were not looking into Boklund's eyes, but into a camera lens.
“It cuts down on transportation problems and it sure helps with security,” LaPorte County Deputy Prosecutor Steve Fenton told the courtroom shortly before 9 a.m. Monday as he prepared for the county's first video arraignment.
Monday's introduction of arraignment by camera was a long time coming, according to Boklund, who said the county had been looking into it since 2004.
LaPorte County lagged behind Michigan, which has arraigned incarcerated defendants by video for nearly a decade, and Porter County, which began the process when its new jail was built in 2002.
Defendants not in jail still appear in the courtroom, which is the way Boklund likes it. He said Monday after his first session he felt things went well, although he'd prefer to have defendants stand in front of him.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 30, 2007 05:18 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts