KNIGHTSTOWN - The story of Knightstown Town Court has seen twists and turns this year. But the latest development may be its last.
Citing a "bleak" financial outlook, the Knightstown Town Council voted unanimously this week to close the town court at the end of the year.
On Friday, Henry County Prosecutor Kit Crane and the court's judge, Bart Whitesitt, called the decision surprising and unexpected.
"I was shocked," said Whitesitt.
The decision to close the court, which had been in operation since the 1950s, came about five months after former Knightstown Town Court Judge Hayden Butler mysteriously resigned from his position.
At the time of his resignation, Knightstown Town Court tried misdemeanors and infractions. The court was in session on Tuesday and Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. It served as a place where people with day jobs could attend court and not miss work.
After Butler resigned, the town council was forced to make a decision about how to move forward with the court. The council looked into increasing the pool of possible replacements for Butler by removing a restriction that the judge be a Knightstown resident. The council also considered a new requirement that the judge be a lawyer.
However, the Henry County Republican Party decided in February to replace Butler with Whitesitt, a Knightstown resident who's not a lawyer.
As Crane explained, the Indiana Supreme Court began seeking improvements in town courts this year. One of those improvements was that judges in town courts be lawyers, Crane said.
The state judiciary was concerned that a town court could have a judge who was uneducated about the U.S. Constitution. So because Whitesitt was not a lawyer, Crane decided it was necessary to stop filing misdemeanors in Knightstown Town Court. Crane said the change was a way of saving the court.
"It would be better to have a court in Knightstown that could hear infractions than to have a court that couldn't hear anything," Crane said on Friday.
But without the misdemeanor cases, the court began to see less revenue this year. On Thursday night, Knightstown Clerk Judy Haines said the court's revenue had fallen by about $80,000 from 2009 to 2011.
In 2009, the court brought in about $167,000. In 2011, Haines expects the court, which now meets only on Thursday nights, to bring in only about $88,000.
"This is no guarantee that the revenues we're expecting will come in," Haines added on Thursday. "And I think the picture is bleak."
Because of those financial problems and because of a desire to give notice to possible judge candidates in this year's election, the council voted on Thursday to close the court at the end of the year. The ordinance that implemented the closure said it wasn't in the town's best interest to supplement the court's operations with property tax revenue.
A member of the audience questioned whether state law allowed the council to close the court this year. But Knightstown Town Attorney Gregg Morelock said he believes the council does have the right to close the court.
Whitesitt wasn't in attendance for Thursday's council meeting. On Friday, Whitesitt said he was blind-sided when he found out about the vote.
"The judge and the court clerk are going to do everything to get the five town board members to rescind their vote," said Whitesitt, who had even filed to run for re-election as judge later this year.
Whitesitt said the court closure is another example of local entities losing control over government.
In 2008, a state judicial committee recommended that trial courts in Indiana absorb all 75 of the state's town and city courts.
In the committee's findings, members said, "Explaining the jurisdiction of each court is difficult, complicated and confusing."
They added, "To the occasional court user and the public, it must appear quite bewildering and likely does not inspire much confidence. We must simplify the structure."
Crane said on Friday afternoon that he had not been notified about the council's vote and that he didn't know how the court system in the county would move forward. But he said that Knightstown Town Court was an efficient way to try cases and that he hates to see it go.
"It's a huge loss to the county judiciary system," Crane said.
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