- delay and dereliction of judicial duties on cases;
- creation of a hostile environment for attorneys, court staff, clerks and others;
- failure to adequately complete necessary paperwork;
- failure to train or adequately supervise court staff and subordinate judicial officers; and
- delay in the release from incarceration of at least nine defendants.
Readers may recall that Judge Brown ran against the slated judicial candidates to win her seat on the bench in the 2008 Democratic primary. She served as judge of the Washington Township Small Claims Court for several years prior to serving as a superior court judge. The allegations against Judge Brown seem to date all the way back to 2009, her first year on the bench. In Marion County, it's pretty much impossible to be elected judge unless you are a political insider of one of the two major political parties and agree to pay a very large slating fee to the party in order to get slated as a judicial candidate. I'm not sure what Democrats are paying now, but Republican judicial candidates are paying about $22,000 to get slated. If you win the primary, the election is over since each party nominates exactly half of the number of candidates that are to be elected in the general election. It does no good in the general election to vote in the judicial elections because how you vote makes no difference in the outcome. It's very difficult for anyone to run against the slate and win. Judge Brown's name appeared first on the primary ballot in 2008 because the names of candidates in Indiana are listed alphabetically, which probably didn't hurt her chances.
I'm a Republican precinct committeeman, who in theory are supposed to collectively vote on the party's judicial candidates. By the time they come before the committeemen at the slating convention, an executive committee has already met behind closed doors and anointed the slate of candidates. Members of the executive committee have their own selfish agenda in anointing the judicial candidates, none of which relates to a candidates' qualifications. Most of the people who are committeemen are appointed by the chairman and not elected because most people are too turned off by the corrupt political process to have any part of it any more. Former Indiana State GOP Chairman Rex Early used to refer to these people as mummy dummies, which is essentially what they are since they vote exactly as they are ordered to vote. There is absolutely no opportunity for discussion of an individual's qualifications during the slating process. The executive committee has already made that decision without regard to any concerns others may have. Any source
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