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Thursday, August 30, 2007

Ind. Courts - Files on 191 defendants, hidden in the 1990s, discovered in 2005, announced this week

A pretty incredible story today, reported by Bill McCleery of the Indianapolis Star. Some quotes:

The Johnson County prosecutor was forced Wednesday to dismiss misdemeanor criminal charges against 191 defendants in Greenwood City Court because their files were hidden away for years and too much time has elapsed to prosecute the cases.

The files, submitted from 1997 to 1999, were discovered in a box pushed under a former employee's desk.

"By the time the court found these cases, they were, in effect, legally dead," said Prosecutor Lance Hamner. "Prosecution was barred by Indiana (law), which requires that criminal charges be concluded within a year unless the delay was caused by the defendant, which did not happen here."

The charges include such offenses as minors in possession of alcohol, public intoxication and driving while suspended, Hamner said. The charges were dismissed Tuesday.

"None of them involve victims," Hamner said, adding that cases involving victims go to the county courts.

Neither Hamner nor Greenwood City Court Judge Lewis Gregory identified the person suspected of hiding the records, saying they were following the Greenwood city attorney's recommendation.

However, both said the employee was fired in 2005 and later convicted of theft.

When the files disappeared, Paula S. Borges, 43, Franklin, was court manager. She was fired in late 2005 and later convicted of stealing court funds.

Borges said Wednesday night that she knew nothing about any hidden or misplaced court files and declined further comment.

Greenwood City Court workers discovered the files in late 2005 in a brown cardboard box taped shut and slid far underneath the fired employee's desk, Gregory said.

More from the story:
The charge dismissals are being announced now, Gregory said, because the files were discovered at a time when officials were giving more priority to investigating Borges and the missing funds.

Further, he said, officials decided when the files were found they needed to contact each defendant and schedule one court date for all 191 defendants -- a step that allowed the cases, he said, to be more easily resolved. But since the prosecutor has dismissed the cases, defendants do not need to attend a hearing.

"It had to be first put into the court's computer system so the dismissal could be properly handled," Gregory said.

"It's been a lengthy process of cleaning up." * * *

Officials have no reason to suspect the employee knew the defendants or was hiding the files for defendants' benefit, Hamner said. More likely, he said, hiding the files was simply a way to avoid processing them and reduce the employee's workload.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 30, 2007 08:01 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts