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Friday, March 28, 2008

Ind. Courts - More on Allen County courthouse-wide cell phone ban

Allen County was the first to ban cellphones in the courthouse. A story from June 15, 2007 Fort Wayne Journal Gazette began:

It’s been almost six months since Allen County banned cell phones, cameras, iPods and nearly all other electronic devices from its court facilities.

Yet, hundreds of people still try to bring them in every day.

“It’s amazing,” Allen Superior Court Chief Judge Fran Gull said. “It’s a little discouraging that we still have this much of a problem this far past (January).

“There’s signs posted everywhere. People seem to think the sign has no applicability to them. It’s very frustrating for court security who get the brunt of people’s complaints. * * *

Gull said she has continued to receive requests for exemptions from doctors, out-of-town visitors, jurors and photographers, but none have been granted.

County judges made the decision to ban most electronic devices, saying cell phones were disruptive and a safety concern when people used them to take pictures and video of jurors, witnesses, victims and attorneys.

A JG editorial from June 19, 2007 was headed "Hardly a ringing success."

Today the JG's Rebecca S. Green reports:

A local attorney and area school board member will not be getting his cell phone back from the Allen County courts.

On Wednesday, Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull denied a request from attorney John Bloom for the return of his cell phone, confiscated in late January.

Bloom’s cell phone issue is the latest of a few upsets since a ban against electronic devices took effect in the Allen County halls of justice just over a year ago. * * *

In his motion for the return of his cell phone, Bloom said the signs in the Courthouse, which say property unclaimed for 30 days may be destroyed, left a mechanism for him to seek the return of the phone.

Gull scheduled a hearing for earlier this month and Bloom, along with his two attorneys, argued he should be able to get his phone back, sparing its destruction along with other confiscated devices.

In her ruling Wednesday, Gull quoted from Bloom’s testimony during the hearing.

He said he found the court’s cell phone ban appropriate and wondered whether it was even necessary for attorneys to have their phones in the building, according to court documents.

Gull wrote that, should she give Bloom his phone back, it would be “patently unfair” to the others who had had their property confiscated and destroyed and would be unfair to attorneys who had already complied with the January 2007 court order banning phones, according to court documents.

She ordered the phone destroyed.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 28, 2008 02:09 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts