James M. Redwine

Children in Need of Services

Hello From Reno

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At their regular meeting held 03 April 2018 the Posey County Board of Commissioners listened attentively and courteously to my plans for an auxiliary courtroom. President Jim Alsop and Commissioners Jay Price and Carl Schmitz asked relevant questions and made helpful suggestions.

A small but highly useful courtroom can be in operation on the first floor of the courthouse within a short time and for relatively little expense, certainly less than $50,000 for the physical plant and about $40,000 per year salary for a full-time court reporter. The judicial officer could be a senior judge or magistrate who would serve as needed. Senior judges are paid by the State of Indiana so there would be no cost to Posey County for a per diem judge. A magistrate would probably have to be paid by the county.

The Posey Circuit Court has not been allowed a new court reporter position for twenty years although I have noted the real need in several budget requests and our caseload has grown dramatically since 1998. The new full-time court reporter could be dedicated to this new court but could help relieve the burden on the existing court reporters when not in session with the on-call judge(s). Mental health, juvenile delinquency, Children in Need of Services and other confidential or sensitive hearings that usually involve few people but can be emotionally draining or rambunctious as well as numerous logistical matters that strain the regular Judge’s docket could be conducted in this smaller courtroom.

And Posey County’s Sheriff and Judges have long sought video capability for inmates, expert witnesses, disabled persons and numerous other routine matters, warrant applications, for example, or confidential electronic meetings between clients and attorneys.

The Commissioners sought to have a joint meeting about these issues with the Posey County Council on April 17, 2018 but schedules of all the necessary participants could not be accommodated for that date. The Commissioners wanted Chief Probation Officer Rodney Fetcher and me to set forth our plans then. As fortune would have it, I had planned to attend that April 17th meeting, but the Commissioners and Council had to reschedule it to May 01, 2018. Rodney will be there prepared to respond to any inquiries, but I will be helping teach other judges at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada on that day. Perhaps I can call in or attend electronically. I know we could work out such a video/audio conference if our new courtroom were already in operation.

Medicine Time

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Last week we gave some attention to a problem we all know exists but that we wish we could make go away with pixie dust. It is not that you and I or our fellow citizens are uncaring about children and families caught in the maelstrom of child and spousal physical abuse or child sexual abuse or child neglect or alcohol and drug addiction. It is we instinctively know the cure will be painfully expensive and emotionally exhausting, to say nothing of how the resources we dedicate to these problems must be diverted from others. On the other hand, we know if we do not address our Children in Need of Services crisis now society will certainly pay a much greater price later. And that need for current and future self-preservation does not even consider our moral obligations.

When Peg notices a chore at JPeg Ranch that must be done (by me, of course), there is a fairly consistent litany of procedure. She notes something, say a decaying window sill, moles multiplying like moles, a tree about to fall in the pond, well, you get the idea. Here is how things normally progress. I pretend deafness and blindness. When that wears thin I tell her I will take care of it on the weekend. Sometimes I tell her it probably would be cheaper to wait until we have a full-blown disaster. Finally, she prevails with threats of making me turn off a ballgame or, the most unkindest of all, saying she will just call someone else to do it.

At this point I will have to go to Bud’s Hardware at least twice because I can never find where I stored the bolts or screws, etc., from the last time I jerry-rigged a project. Then it comes down to actual manual labor and occasionally a trip to the E-Room for repair of the repairer.

Well, my fellow Posey County citizens that’s where we are with our Child in Need of Services (CHINS) situation. We must take our medicine. As the Circuit Court Judge in charge of judicial solutions to these matters I have been approached by numerous fellow public servants and other concerned citizens with suggestions. Just last week after a morning spent in a two-hour hearing involving one very blended family that required eight publicly appointed attorneys I ran into Posey County Councilman Aaron Wilson who told me he believed we should consider creating a Posey Circuit Court Magistrate position that would be dedicated to children and family cases. This approach to our current crisis has many reasonable elements and great potential benefits, not the least of which is the saving of taxpayer money.

Of course, as Aaron said, our first obligation is to provide public services, but we should attempt to do so in a reasonable manner. Efficiency in government is a good thing. Let’s examine my case from last week.

Because the Posey Circuit Court is charged with handling many important matters besides CHINS cases and there is only one Circuit Judge and only one Circuit Courtroom cases must be jammed into artificial schedules. For example, the same week as the case in question I had criminal felony and misdemeanor cases, probate matters, civil lawsuits, divorce cases and innumerable logistical issues to address. So the CHINS cases had to be stuffed into the space of one day, mainly one morning.

This required numerous publicly appointed attorneys in other cases to wait for hours as we processed the one in front of me. Of course, many citizens were also forced to simply wait around as if the Court were an emergency room at a city hospital. Such a procedure is more akin to the watching sausage being made analogy than seeing justice delivered.

With this in mind, next week I will try to put some drywall compound on Councilman Wilson’s excellent suggestion of a Posey Circuit Court Magistrate, unless, of course, Peg fills my time with as yet unseen disasters at The Ranch.

A Gordian Knot

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Perhaps we need to channel Alexander the Great (356 – 323 B.C.) to help us address our Gordian Knot type problem of child welfare. You will recall Alexander eschewed the niceties of trying to unravel the problem step by laborious step and simply slashed through the morass of hemp with his sword. A tempting approach to any complicated puzzle but probably of little lasting benefit.

As we know from experience, every complicated situation can be papered over with a simple, wrong answer. We naturally yearn for quick and cheap solutions but these never cure the “disease” and often result in fatalities. That is what the former Indiana State Department of Children’s Services Director Mary Beth Bonaventura pointed out in her letter of resignation. She told Governor Eric Holcomb our current failure to adequately fund and analyze our child welfare needs will, “[A]ll but ensure children will die.”

And while this dramatic statement grabs our attention, what former Judge Bonaventura did not say was that Indiana child welfare is not just a DCS problem; it involves numerous other state and county level agencies such as courts, prosecutor offices, police departments, healthcare providers, schools, and several others in addition to families, immediate and extended.

I have plenty to do as Posey Circuit Court Judge when it comes to children who have need of or who use up taxpayer provided services. While I know we must approach this crisis of Children in Need of Services from all angles, I also know all hard problems call for careful, incremental approaches. So I will stay within my jurisdiction and address how the Judicial branch of government could help if the Legislative and Executive branches assist us to.

First let me give you an idea of how most Indiana courts, especially in small counties, must address the needs of families. Posey County has two judges. We divide all legal matters in such a way about half of the cases go to each court. The Circuit Court hears the Child in Need of Services cases. Frequently a family in DCS cases consists of one mother, two or more children and two or more fathers.

These are critical matters. Children may be at physical or mental risk, parents may be at risk of losing their children and the DCS has the duty to protect everyone’s interests while the Court must protect everyone’s rights. Each parent needs an attorney and in every case a Guardian Ad Litem must be appointed by the Court to concentrate on the children’s interests. Of course, wealthy people rarely are inconvenienced by such legal matters so the taxpayers must provide. You can readily see where we are headed.

This scenario also calls for Family Case Managers, police officers, mental and medical professionals, court personnel and a courtroom with lights, heat, recording equipment, etc.

Okay, I know this is exhausting. However, there is no Gordian Knot solution. It comes down to hard, complicated and expensive work. On the other hand, what could be more important?

Have Gun (Class) – Will Travel

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If your life is so bereft of excitement you have actually read this column the past week or so, you may recall I have been helping teach an Internet class for the National Judicial College. Judges from across our great land tune in, sign on and discuss subjects from the currently hot areas of Children in Need of Services to Court Management. This week’s topic was Court Security and the lead faculty member was my good friend from Mississippi, Judge D. Neil Harris.

During the class judges participated via computer and telephone as we delved into many facets of how our courts should be protecting those who use and those who operate them. Gentle Reader, you may not be surprised to hear that it is not just the Judge of the Posey Circuit Court whose decisions are occasionally at odds with the thoughts of those whose lives are affected by them. It turns out that practically every person everywhere thinks she or he could have arrived at a better legal conclusion than the ones delivered by judges. Sometimes these court participants or their supporters get upset.

While there were many opinions and suggestions by the judicial faculty and the judges who were students as to how best to ensure those who must use our courts and those who are privileged to operate them can do so in a calm, reasonable and safe environment, the area of most varied positions concerned the role of firearms.

On a personal note, for the first thirty-five years of my tenure on the Bench, Posey County courts simply relied on the good will of all involved or more accurately, good luck. But in 2016 our sheriff, Greg Oeth, sought necessary additional deputies. The County Council and County Commissioners acceded to his well-documented requests as required by the rulings of the Indiana Supreme Court and provided officers who are available in court. Thank you on behalf of the public who must use the courts and the court staff who work there.

However, extra court security personnel was not the most examined topic in the Internet course. As I mentioned above, it was how or when or if judges and their court staffs should help provide their own security by carrying guns.

This column is not a column about the Second Amendment. The theory of firearm ownership, possession and use is for the legislative and executive branches. The judicial branch’s role is to decide cases that are brought to court. What we in the Internet course were trying to determine was not whether guns should be available to judges and their staffs but whether any guns that are legally available should be carried by judges and their staffs.

Gentle Reader, if you have made it this far I have good news for you. What I plan to do is relate two anecdotes then quit. I hope they illustrate what was the consensus of the judges in the course.

First, let’s delve into the meaning of an instructional video I did in 2014 for a course I taught for the Municipal Court Judges of Missouri. Court Security was part of my lectures.

To make the video I commandeered friends such as Chuck Minnette, Marty Crispino, Greg Oeth, Tom Latham, Jason Simmons and Rodney Fetcher. Jason wore his camouflage fatigues and brought his AR15 with him to the courthouse. He ran into the courthouse at about 10:00 a.m. on a workday, brandished his AR15 and yelled, “Where’s the Judge?” The only reaction from those in the courthouse that day was to point towards the courtroom. One lady walked right by Jason and instead of being alarmed or sounding an alarm simply asked, “Where’s the Clerk’s Office?” In 2014 Posey County’s court security was a little lax.

The second example comes from yesterday as Peg and I were talking to an Osage County, Oklahoma Sheriff’s Deputy who is also a certified instructor on gun safety and court security. His business card is a play on the television series Have Gun – Will Travel that starred Richard Boone as Paladin, a gunman for hire. Paladin’s card read, “Have Gun – Will Travel”. Paul Didlake, the Osage County Deputy, has the following card: “Have Gun Class – Will Travel”.

Paul told Peg and me about a recent Oklahoma case where a woman who had a gun license and carried a pistol in her purse was raped and murdered. She had left her purse in her car.

Paul told us his mantra for personal security is: “The best kind of gun to have is the one you actually carry.”