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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Ind. Courts - "Starke County Prosecutor Replaces Chief Deputy Prosecutor Todd Wallsmith" [Updated]

From Kankakee Valley K99.3 WKVI FM, published Jan. 19, 2011:

WKVI has learned that new Starke County Prosecutor Nicholas Bourff has replaced his Chief Deputy Todd Wallsmith only two weeks into his term.

Both men had been employed by Wallsmith’s father, David, and had developed a friendship. But because Todd Wallsmith was a nephew of Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall, it would have been impossible for him to present cases before the Judge in court. That would have been a conflict.

Finally realizing the predicament his office was in, Bourff replaced Wallsmith with Mary Ryan who had been the Chief Deputy of the former Prosecutor, Julianne Havens.

ILB: Would it have been a conflict?

[Updated 1/20/11] A reader point to this laanguage from Rule 2.11 (A)(2) of the Indiana Code of Judicial Conduct:

(A) A judge shall disqualify himself or herself in any proceeding in which the judge's impartiality* might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to the following circumstances:

(2) The judge knows* that the judge, the judge's spouse or domestic partner,* or a person within the third degree of relationship* to either of them, or the spouse or domestic partner of such a person is:

(b) acting as a lawyer in the proceeding;

ILB: Note that the words followed by an asterisk (*) are defined here. “Third degree of relationship” includes the following persons: great-grandparent, grandparent, parent, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, child, grandchild, great-grandchild, nephew, and niece.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 19, 2011 05:04 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts