Sullivan County is in danger of losing one-third of its judicial officers in a state legislative move that reportedly took the county’s judges by surprise.
Sen. Brent Steele of Bedford has called the position of Sullivan County Magistrate an unneeded appointment that could be eliminated to free up money for a judge in another county. Steele has introduced Senate Bill 58, which sailed through the Senate and now awaits a hearing in the House committee on Courts and Criminal Code. That bill seeks to eliminate the Sullivan Magistrate as of July 1.
Sullivan County judges, however, say that the magistrate position is needed, based on the proximity of the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility at Carlisle.
On the surface, the bill has been presented as a cost-saving measure. The legislation also looks at eliminating one of two judges in Pulaski County. That northern Indiana county also shows a need for fewer judges, based on caseload statistics. However, Senate Bill 58 sends the Pulaski judge cut to a summer study commission for further investigation and possible elimination in 2019.
The politics at work in the Sullivan magistrate issue also brings out what some have said is a power move by the weaker Republican Party in Sullivan County to sow discord among the office-holding Democratic Party.
The controversy might be seen as the playing out of some local rivalries, and it highlights how small-town politics can play out in a bigger venue when the right people are willing to listen.
Most recently
At a February hearing on the proposed bill, Steele told the Senate Judiciary Committee that a review of courts statewide shows that some counties are in desperate need of more judges to handle the heavy caseloads on their dockets. Sullivan County, however, is one of a few counties in Indiana whose statistics show that there are more judges than needed.
Steele said during the committee meeting — which was recorded and is available for viewing online at iga.in.gov — that he feels the legislature could use the same procedure it does to create a court to, in reverse, eliminate an under-utilized court as a cost-saving measure for the state.
The bill’s financial impact statement explains that eliminating the Sullivan County magistrate will save the state $158,135 starting in 2016, based on the 2014 salaries and benefits for magistrates and judges.
Steele cited the state’s most recent judicial review statistics from 2013 that show the county has three full-time judicial officers but needs less than two, based on the weighted caseload system.
“People higher up in the food chain in this Statehouse have asked me to give this bill a hearing,” Steele can be heard saying on the video-recording of the hearing. “I have no idea who these judges are, and I have no idea what their politics are. I could care less.”
However, as the committee hearing progressed and he questioned the current Sullivan County judges about their caseloads, Steele did seem to go on the attack against current magistrate Robert Springer, questioning the hours that he worked and whether he even shown up at the courthouse.
At the beginning of public statements, the committee heard statements from Billy Springer — no relation of Magistrate Robert Springer. Billy Springer has served as chairman of the Republican Party in Sullivan County for the past 20 years. Billy Springer’s statements were followed by comments from current judges Bob Hunley and Hugh Hunt, who both took office on Jan. 1.
Springer called his home county a “dying county,” referring to the declining coal mining industry and the population loss since the 1960s. Springer also stated that the majority of the court action going on in the Sullivan County involved the community hospital filing small claims against “everybody in the county.” Springer cited the local newspaper when said he counted 74 small claims filings by the hospital in one week.
“It’s kind of a joke in the coffee shop,” Springer said. “We sit in there and count them.”
He claimed that the courtrooms in the courthouse are seldom busy, and that the small claims cases are handled by attorneys who try to make payment arrangements with the people being sued.
“If you take those out, we wouldn’t qualify for one judge,” Springer claimed.
He also said that he has “a gripe” with the way magistrates are chosen, claiming that it’s a “buddy system” with the county judges taking care of their friends and appointing someone to serve as magistrate.
“We just need one judge, not three,” Springer said.
A not so brief history
By law, magistrates are full-time employees who serve in one or more courts. A magistrate is an attorney, appointed by the county judges but paid by the state. A magistrate has most of the powers of a judge; however, they cannot issue judicial mandates and their power to issue final orders is limited to small claims and protective order cases, plus cases in which the magistrate is sitting as a judge pro tempore or special judge. A magistrate may also issue a final order, conduct a sentencing hearing and impose a sentence in a criminal case, if the magistrate is sitting as the judge. The presiding judge must countersign all other final appealable orders.
The magistrate position in Sullivan County was created primarily to handle court actions filed by and against inmates at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility at Carlisle. The prison was established in 1992. The legislature saw that the local court system could be overwhelmed with letters, requests and lawsuits filed by the inmates and filed by the county prosecutor for alleged criminal activity in the prison. Two prosecutors were also added by the state to the county’s justice system because of the prison.
The previous magistrate — Ann Smith Mischler — served 15 years as magistrate before leaving that appointed position at the end of 2014.
She told the Tribune-Star that the magistrate is very busy, but that may not show up in the court statistics.
“I would hate to see Sullivan County lose the magistrate position, and I think the citizens of Sullivan County are very well served by the position,” Mischler said.
She explained that the civil cases that come out of the prison are time-consuming. Many of the filings from the inmates are done pro se, that is, an inmate advocating on his own behalf. He may be requesting some relief from his sentence or some other matter that can be considered by the court.
“It may take 30 to 40 minutes to review if written by an attorney,” Mischler said, “but if written by an offender it may take me three hours to puzzle it out.”
She said she was surprised to find out about Senate Bill 58 and thinks that any consideration of cutting the position is worth more study.
The magistrate position is now held by Robert Springer, the most recent prior Sullivan Superior Court judge.
Changes on the bench in Sullivan County were set into motion more than a year ago. Then-Circuit Court Judge P.J. Pierson announced that he would be retiring at the end of his term in 2014. Springer let it be known that he would prefer not to seek another six-year term on the bench, as he was approaching retirement age.
Mischler chose to file her candidacy for the superior court bench. Then-prosecutor Robert Hunley filed his candidacy for the circuit court bench. Both are Democrats. Judge Springer was to be appointed to the magistrate position for two years, and then he was to retire.
However, Hugh R. Hunt also filed to run for the superior court seat on the Democratic ballot, and Hunt defeated Mischler. With no opposition in the general election, both Hunley and Hunt were elected, and they appointed Springer to serve as magistrate starting Jan. 1. Mischler told the Tribune-Star that she received a letter from Hunt and Hunley last fall notifying her that she would be removed as magistrate at the end of the year, and she acknowledged that the decision is up to the sitting judges on who to appoint.
Addressing the committee
Following Billy Springer’s statements to the senate committee, judges Hunley and Hunt stepped up to address legislation that they said was a recent surprise to them.
Hunley noted that Magistrate Robert Springer had been left behind in Sullivan County to handle all of the court cases scheduled for that day.
Hunley explained to the committee that he had served as prosecutor for the previous six years, and had served a total of 19 years in the county prosecutor’s office. He said that the addition of the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility to the county, with its 2,000-plus inmates, has added to the court caseload.
The county courts have handled three death penalty cases, all arising from prisoner-on-prisoner crimes, he said, and there have also been recent stabbings at the prison that will be charged through the prosecutor’s office.
Hurley said he has concerns that WVCF is the sixth largest correctional facility in the state, but a plan is now under consideration to expand the prison by 800 beds. That will mean more court filings and cases to prosecute.
“My position is that we do need it,” Hunley said of the magistrate position. He asked the committee to take time to study the caseload report and look at trends during the time the county has had a magistrate.
Judge Hunt also told the committee he has found that some cases that have been disposed were not properly recorded in the annual judicial report. That makes him feel that the caseload numbers may not have been reported correctly.
Sen. Steele questioned Hunt about the hours that Magistrate Springer works. Hunt responded that Springer works full time, Monday through Friday, in the courtroom on the second floor of the courthouse.
Steel said he has been “hearing from people” that Springer is not coming to work, and that “this guy takes long periods of time off, and he’s doing this just to pad his retirement.”
Hunt defended Springer, saying that the magistrate handles divorces and small claims cases for both courts.
“In the six weeks since I’ve taken office, I consult with him on a daily basis,” Hunt said of Springer.
Steele returned to the 1.71 caseload number for three judges, and said that two judges ought to be able to handle the caseload.
“You guys, if you’ll just buckle up to your caseload, you’ll be able to do what you need to do,” Steele said.
The senator said that other counties have need for more judicial officers, and the caseload statistics back up that need.
“What are we supposed to say to them?” Steele queried.
Hunley said that one area he plans to look into is an agreement with the Vigo County court system to check on a long-standing agreement that sends some Vigo County cases to Sullivan County to eliminate some of the backlog in Vigo County.
Administrative districts
Indiana is divided into judicial districts, which are adjusted from time to time. Vigo and Sullivan counties are currently in the 19th administrative district, which shares judicial resources in civil tort cases. An agreement exists for Sullivan County to accept 100 civil tort cases per year from Vigo County to alleviate congestion in the Vigo civil dockets, and that is the agreement to which Hunley referred.
But just because that plan is in place does not mean that 100 civil tort cases will be sent to Sullivan each year.
The selection of those cases rests in the Vigo County clerk’s office, which uses a computer system and a case allocation plan to randomly assign all cases to courts, including those that will go to Sullivan County.
So far in 2015, of the 39 torts filed this year in Vigo County, seven of them have been sent to Sullivan County. Of the 234 civil torts filed in Vigo in 2014, 19 went to Sullivan. However, just because a Vigo case is sent to Sullivan County by the Vigo clerk does not mean that it will stay in Sullivan County. An attorney in the case may request that the case be returned to Vigo, and it will be.
From the Sullivan County Clerk’s point of view, small claims cases are the majority of civil cases filed in Sullivan County, as they are in most Indiana counties.
Clerk Peggy Goodman said that in the first six weeks of 2015, her office had received 131 small claims filings, and of those, only 28 cases were not collections cases filed by the county hospital. However, she noted that some of the cases could have been filed by collections agencies who handle medical accounts.
In 2014, the county had 1,010 small claims cases filed. She said about 80 percent are attempts to collect on hospital bills.
A look at statewide court statistics show that small claims filings usually account for most of the litigation filed in any county’s court systems. In larger counties such as Vigo, the small claims may not only arise mostly from medical bills, but also from landlord/tenant disputes and credit card bills.