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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Ind. Courts - "State files to block lawsuit naming prosecutors"

Sophia Voravong reports today in the Lafayette Journal Courier:

County prosecutors should be immune from a lawsuit alleging that they violated Indiana law by mishandling proceeds from drug forfeiture cases, the Indiana Attorney General's Office is arguing.

State deputy attorney general David A. Arthur filed a motion this week in Marion Superior Court seeking to dismiss the civil complaint against 78 of Indiana's 92 prosecuting attorneys.

The list of defendants includes Tippecanoe County's prosecutor, Pat Harrington.

The lawsuit against the group of prosecutors was filed in July by Indianapolis-based law firm Roberts & Bishop and unsealed by the court in November. The complainant, Roberts & Bishop attorney Adam Lenkowsky, contends that prosecutors routinely hold on to assets seized in criminal proceedings that should be turned over to Indiana's Common School Fund.

In an 18-page memorandum in support of the motion to dismiss, Arthur argues that the prosecutors are simply doing their jobs as allowed by Indiana law. He also criticizes the merits of the lawsuit, which was brought as a false claims act.

"... (T)he complaint in this case is devoid of facts," Arthur wrote. "The defendants are left to guess what they are alleged to have done that constitutes fraud on the state.

" ... The absolute lack of logic of this case shows it should be dismissed."

Arthur further argues that the allegations in the lawsuit are against civil judgments ordered by trial court judges, not the prosecutors' actions. As such, Marion Superior Court would not have jurisdiction to review the judgments of those courts.

Here is the 18-page memorandum in support of the motion to dismiss, filed by Deputy AG Arthur on Dec. 27, 2010. Here is a Dec. 28th motion filed by the plaintiffs, who move to strike the Attorney General's appearance filed in this case and to strike the Motion to
Dismiss filed by the Attorney General on behalf of the Defendants.

Here is a long list of earlier ILB entries on forfeiture.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 30, 2010 10:07 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts