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Sunday, February 20, 2011

Ind. Courts - "Elkhart County's judges are looking for a new child-support commissioner after their first one resigned under fire earlier this month"

Justin Leighty of the Elkhart Truth has the story today. Some quotes:

Mona Biddlecome resigned Feb. 11, just days after the deputy prosecutor in charge of child support filed complaints against her in four cases, according to the county's personnel office and to court records.

Those complaints were filed under the so-called "Lazy Judge" rules, which require judges to rule on issues within a certain time. * * *

Biddlecome, whose husband is a judge, was appointed to the job when the IV-D court was established in 2004 and started hearing cases in 2005.

This month's prosecutor complaints weren't the first time Biddlecome was criticized publicly in the legal community. Last summer the Indiana Court of Appeals criticized her "dismissive and condescending rhetoric during the September 15, 2009, hearing. To be sure, we find such behavior among Indiana's judiciary to be undesirable and discourage such behavior in future cases. Indeed, if further proceedings were necessary in the instant case, we would order that the trial judge, rather than the commissioner, be assigned to those proceedings."

Here is the June 9, 2010 Court of Appeals opinion referenced in today's story.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 20, 2011 10:47 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts