Supreme Court of Indiana Decisions 2011
Date: December 29, 2011
Docket Number: 07S00-1008-MI-411
Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the State sought to enforce a particular provision of the Indiana Autodialer Law against an entity that used an automated dialing device to deliver prerecorded political messages. The trial court, on…
Date: December 29, 2011
Docket Number: 32S04-1102-CR-117
Justia Opinion Summary: After a 911 call was made by a motorist complaining that the driver of a blue Volkswagen, who had just pulled into a gas station, was driving erratically, a police officer arrived at the gas station and observed the blue…
Date: December 29, 2011
Docket Number: 93S02-1105-EX-285
Justia Opinion Summary: After Employee was unable to successfully complete her necessary training, Employer gave her the option to resign immediately or to be placed on a thirty-day unpaid leave of absence. Employee opted to resign immediately…
Date: December 20, 2011
Docket Number: 45S00-1106-JD-390
Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent, a judge of the city court, dismissed the traffic infraction cases of all litigants who attended traffic school and paid the applicable fee. Respondent also entered default judgment, imposed fines and court…
Date: December 15, 2011
Docket Number: 94S00-1101-CQ-50
Justia Opinion Summary: The Indiana Constitution authorizes the General Assembly to disenfranchise "any person convicted of an infamous crime." Plaintiff was convicted of misdemeanor battery. During his incarceration, Plaintiff was informed…
Date: December 13, 2011
Docket Number: 49S05-1012-CV-703
Justia Opinion Summary: Following the death of their full-term baby daughter in utero during labor, Plaintiffs brought an action against the hospital, the Plaintiffs' nurse-midwife, and the nurse-midwife's alleged employer for negligent…
Date: November 30, 2011
Docket Number: 32S04-1104-CR-200
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was charged with tattooing a minor for taking his former Stepdaughter to get a tattoo. While the charge was pending, a detective arranged for Stepdaughter to make recorded phone calls to Appellant to obtain…
Date: November 29, 2011
Docket Number: 13S01-1007-PC-399
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pled guilty to driving while intoxicated after proceeding pro se in plea negotiations with the State. Appellant filed a petition for postconviction relief, alleging that his waiver of counsel was invalid. The…
Date: November 22, 2011
Docket Number: 32S05-1104-PL-217
Justia Opinion Summary: Washington Township and the West Central Conservancy District (WCCD) owned property within the Town of Avon's boundaries that overlay an underground aquifer. After the Township and WCCD began exploring the possibility of…
Date: November 22, 2011
Docket Number: 82S01-1106-CR-328
Justia Opinion Summary: A trial court found Lisa Gray guilty of possessing marijuana as a class A misdemeanor. The court of appeals set aside the conviction on the grounds of insufficient evidence. At issue on appeal was whether the trial court…
Date: November 17, 2011
Docket Number: 49S02-1102-JV-116
Justia Opinion Summary: When he was fourteen years old, D.C. and three other boys broke into the home of an elderly woman, ransacked the home, and injured the homeowner. At a dispositional hearing, the juvenile court imposed on D.C. a…
Date: November 17, 2011
Docket Number: 93S02-1102-EX-90
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Indiana Spine Group provided medical services to employees of various businesses for injuries the employees sustained arising out of and during the course of their employment. The employers authorized the…
Date: October 19, 2011
Docket Number: 49S02-1110-CR-621
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant Otha Hamilton was convicted of one count of molesting a child for an incident in which Appellant's nine-year-old step-granddaughter performed oral sex on him. Hamilton was sentenced to the…
Date: October 18, 2011
Docket Number: 38S02-1101-CR-8
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Nathan Brock was charged with one count of violating Ind. Code 9-30-10-17, which makes it a felony for a habitual traffic violator to operate a motor vehicle after his or her driving privileges have been…
Date: October 13, 2011
Docket Number: 17S00-1008-CR-684
Justia Opinion Summary: Jeffery Cain was convicted of murder and robbery and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Cain appealed his conviction and sentence, claiming that a co-defendant's testimony was improperly admitted at the…
Date: October 11, 2011
Docket Number: 49S04-1101-JT-46
Justia Opinion Summary: Mother's parental rights to her Child were terminated by the juvenile court after Mother's incarceration. The court of appeals affirmed. Mother appealed, alleging several due process violations on the part of the…
Date: October 6, 2011
Docket Number: 60S01-1012-CV-665
Justia Opinion Summary: While driving on a county road, Pamela Price encountered ice across the roadway and lost control of her vehicle, sustaining personal injury and property damage. Earlier that morning, after a different driver lost control…
Date: September 29, 2011
Docket Number: 93S02-1102-EX-89
Justia Opinion Summary: Franklin Electric formed two new subsidiaries and started new unemployment experience accounts with a low introductory contribution rate for each one, which equaled about half the experience rating of Franklin Electric.…
Date: September 28, 2011
Docket Number: 49S00-0912-CR-565
Justia Opinion Summary: Desmond Turner was found guilty of murder, felony murder, criminal confinement, robbery, and burglary. Turner appealed, alleging that the trial court erred in admitting four types of evidence. The Supreme Court affirmed,…
Date: September 20, 2011
Docket Number: 49S05-1102-PL-76
Justia Opinion Summary: After decedent Mary Avery died, sons Rod and Marshall Avery filed a petition to remove daughter Trina Avery as the personal representative of decedent's estate and to probate decedent's 2008 will naming Rod as the…
Date: September 20, 2011
Docket Number: 82S05-1007-CR-343
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury found Richard Barnes guilty of battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. The Supreme Court affirmed Barnes's conviction. Subsequently, Barnes petitioned for rehearing, which the Supreme Court granted. At…
Date: September 15, 2011
Docket Number: 28S01-1102-CV-78
Justia Opinion Summary: Loan borrowers entered into a residential mortgage loan. After a dispute about whether the borrowers paid the proper amount of property taxes, the mortgage holder filed a foreclosure action, alleging that the borrowers…
Date: August 30, 2011
Docket Number: 62S04-1103-SC-139
Date: August 30, 2011
Docket Number: 62S01-1103-SC-141
Justia Opinion Summary: After conducting proceedings supplemental in a case on the small claims docket, the trial court ordered two self-represented judgment debtors to pay on the judgment despite their lack of non-exempt income. The court of…
Date: August 10, 2011
Docket Number: 34S02-1009-CV-476
Justia Opinion Summary: Jacob Gordon's mother sued Howard Community Hospital, alleging it committed medical malpractice while caring for her newborn son. In another count of the complaint, the mother sought separate damages for spoliation,…
Date: July 21, 2011
Docket Number: 49S02-1104-CR-198
Justia Opinion Summary: Glenn Carpenter was discovered passed out in the waiting room of a dental office. Police officers aroused Carpenter and handcuffed him. When searching Carpenter the officers found a handgun with an empty magazine,…
Date: July 11, 2011
Docket Number: 49S02-1010-CR-619
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Cedric Lewis was pulled over for speeding and arrested when the police officer discovered Lewis's driver's license had been suspended. After ordering Lewis out of the vehicle, the officer stuck his head inside…
Date: June 30, 2011
Docket Number: 64S03-0912-CR-550
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Arturo Garcia-Torres was convicted of rape, attempted rape, and two counts of burglary and was sentenced to thirty-six years in prison. Defendant challenged the use of DNA evidence gathered when police obtained…
Date: June 29, 2011
Docket Number: 49S02-1010-CV-602
Justia Opinion Summary: Following the death of his mother, Jeffery McCabe asserted a medical malpractice claim against his mother's medical care providers, who agreed to a settlement sufficient to allow McCabe to petition Indiana Patient's…
Date: June 29, 2011
Docket Number: 13S04-1101-CR-7
Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Donald Pierce was convicted of four counts of child molesting and adjudicated as a repeat sex offender. The trial court sentenced Pierce to four consecutive sentences for a total term of 124 years and…
Date: June 29, 2011
Docket Number: 71S00-1002-JV-156
Justia Opinion Summary: This case involved the placement of juvenile A.B., who was being detained at a juvenile center. The juvenile court concluded that A.B. be placed out of state at Canyon State Academy where A.B. could learn to be…
Date: June 29, 2011
Docket Number: 49S05-1106-CV-387
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Hematology-Oncology of Indiana, a health care provider, appealed a trial court judgment awarding attorney fees and litigation expenses brought under the Adult Wrongful Death Statute (AWDS) and the Medical…
Date: June 29, 2011
Docket Number: 76S03-1009-CV-515
Justia Opinion Summary: Countrywide Home Loans, a mortgage holder on certain real estate, foreclosed its mortgage, took title to the property at a sheriff's sale, and then sold the property to a third party. Before these events, the property…
Date: June 29, 2011
Docket Number: 64S03-1010-CV-599
Justia Opinion Summary: Steven and Lauren Siwinski, homeowners in the town of Ogden Dunes, rented their home despite receiving a cease and desist letter advising them that that rentals were prohibited by the town zoning ordinances. The town…
Date: June 29, 2011
Docket Number: 49S02-1106-CT-388
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, the executor of a decedent's estate, settled medical malpractice claims against several medical care providers for the decedent's wrongful death. Plaintiff then initiated this action against Defendant, the…
Date: June 28, 2011
Docket Number: 49S04-1101-CR-24
Justia Opinion Summary: Brenda Moore was convicted of public intoxication, a class B misdemeanor, after a public officer pulled over a car in which defendant was riding as a front seat passenger and found defendant had been drinking. A divided…
Date: June 28, 2011
Docket Number: 52S02-1011-CV-642
Justia Opinion Summary: After pleading guilty to child molesting, defendant Michael Harris was sentenced to a prison term of ten years and was required to register on the sex offender list for ten years following his release. Prior to his…
Date: June 28, 2011
Docket Number: 48S04-1106-CR-386
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Randy Horton was convicted of nine counts of child molesting and was sentenced to an executed term of 324 years in prison. Horton appealed his conviction on grounds that the trial court improperly admitted…
Date: June 23, 2011
Docket Number: 49S05-1106-CR-370
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Lamar Crawford was convicted of murder. Prior to his trial, a television production company called Lucky Shift, Inc. filmed aspects of Crawford's murder investigation and interviewed people involved. Crawford…
Date: June 23, 2011
Docket Number: 17S04-1009-CR-500
Justia Opinion Summary: Elmer Baker was charged with three counts of child molesting. At a retrial in 2008, Baker was convicted as charged. Baker appealed, arguing partly that the convictions were not sustained by evidence of jury unanimity.…
Date: June 23, 2011
Docket Number: 20S04-1012-CV-676
Justia Opinion Summary: On the day W.H. was born, seventeen-year-old J.M. signed an affidavit of paternity acknowledging W.H. was his child. More than a decade later county prosecutors sought a support order on behalf of the child's mother.…
Date: June 23, 2011
Docket Number: 19S05-1012-CR-678
Justia Opinion Summary: After being charged with two counts of child molesting, defendant Ronald Fromme asked the circuit court to require Crisis Connection, an organization that provides services to victims of sexual abuse and domestic…
Date: June 22, 2011
Docket Number: 49S02-1101-JV-11
Justia Opinion Summary: Thirteen-year old D.M. and his friend were arrested after breaking in to a residence and taking several items of personal property. According to his mother, while D.M. was being held in a police cruiser he was prevented…
Date: June 21, 2011
Docket Number: 49S04-1011-CV-635
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Michael Ashby and Randy O'Brien, inmates at the state department of correction, asserted professional malpractice complaints against attorney C. Bruce Davidson to The Bar Plan Mutual Insurance Company,…
Date: June 21, 2011
Docket Number: 82S01-1102-CV-77
Justia Opinion Summary: After sustaining serious injuries from an attack by a rottweiler, six-year-old Shawn Davis, through his mother as his next friend, filed a complaint against defendants Animal Control and the City of Evansville for…
Date: June 21, 2011
Docket Number: 20S03-1010-CV-618
Justia Opinion Summary: The parties to this lawsuit claimed rights to a punch press used in the manufacturing business of now-defunct Vitco Industries. Plaintiff, Gibraltar Financial Corporation, held a perfected security interest in Vitco's…
Date: June 14, 2011
Docket Number: 49S02-1010-CR-620
Justia Opinion Summary: Alva Curtis, a fifty-nine year-old man with a developmental disability, was arrested and charged with residential entry, battery, and criminal mischief. The trial court denied Curtis's motion to dismiss. The court of…
Date: June 14, 2011
Docket Number: 49S02-1106-CR-340
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2008, Douglas Denzell was charged with resisting law enforcement and public intoxication. The trial court found Denzell incompetent to stand trial and committed him to the Division of Mental Health and Addiction for…
Date: June 8, 2011
Docket Number: 53S01-1106-CR-335
Justia Opinion Summary: Johnson, the defendant in this criminal case, wrote the trial court judge a few months prior to trial complaining that his public defender, who had a history of neglecting clients, had been neglecting his case. The judge…
Date: June 1, 2011
Docket Number: 18S04-1009-CR-502
Justia Opinion Summary: In district court, appellant was convicted of one count of Class A felony child molestation based on penetration and one count of Class C felony child molestation based on fondling. The Court of Appeals reversed…
Date: May 27, 2011
Docket Number: 29S00-1105-JD-279
Date: May 26, 2011
Docket Number: 57S04-1010-CR-603
Justia Opinion Summary: In August 2000, Defendant Jeffrey Brunner entered a guilty plea to "operating while intoxicated" (OWI). At the time of his plea, Defendant had an OWI within the previous five years that made the August, 2000 offense a…
Date: May 26, 2011
Docket Number: 49S05-1105-PC-305
Justia Opinion Summary: In September 1997, the State charged Defendant Charles Boyle with felony and misdemeanor motor vehicle violations. Defendant pled guilty to the felony "operation of a motor vehicle while a habitual traffic offender"…
Date: May 18, 2011
Docket Number: 20S03-1008-CR-458
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Tyrus Coleman shot Anthony Dye and Jermaine Jackson during a confrontation on Defendant’s property. The State charged Defendant with murder and attempted murder. At trial, Defendant testified and admitted to…
Date: May 18, 2011
Docket Number: 27S02-1006-CV-331
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was injured by a golf ball at a golf outing. Plaintiff filed an action against four Defendants, her grandfather, the golfer who hit the ball that struck her, a tavern that promoted the event, and the operator…
Date: May 12, 2011
Docket Number: 36S01-1009-CV-469
Justia Opinion Summary: The Indiana Attorney General (AG) sought to recover a tax refund issued to Aisin USA Manufacturing, Inc. (Aisin) at the Superior Court. The AG appealed the court’s decision in favor of Aisin, arguing that because it was…
Date: May 12, 2011
Docket Number: 82S05-1007-CR-343
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury convicted Appellant Richard Barnes of misdemeanor charges involving battery, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. Appellant contested his conviction by raising technical errors at trial, specifically that the…
Date: May 10, 2011
Docket Number: 02S05-1010-CR-601
Justia Opinion Summary: Facing felony drugs and firearms charges, Appellant Cornelius Lacey, Sr. sought to suppress evidence obtained when police executed a search warrant of a home he was in. The trial court denied his motion, and Appellant…
Date: May 10, 2011
Docket Number: 49S02-1007-CV-402
Justia Opinion Summary: The City of Indianapolis abandoned the “Barrett Law” method of financing sewer improvements in favor of a new system that imposes less of a financial burden on property owners. To ease the transition, the City discharged…
Date: May 10, 2011
Docket Number: 02S03-1010-CR-604
Justia Opinion Summary: Facing felony drugs and firearms charges, Appellant Damion Wilkins sought to suppress evidence obtained when police executed a search warrant of a home. The trial court denied his motion, and Appellant appealed. The…
Date: May 5, 2011
Docket Number: 25S03-1012-CR-669
Justia Opinion Summary: In June, 2008, Appellant Joshua Konopasek attended a house party in Rochester. At some point, he got into an altercation with another party-goer. The evening ended with Appellant shoving the other party-goer to the…
Date: April 27, 2011
Docket Number: 02S03-1104-CV-241
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Martin Serrano lost his truck in a forfeiture action based on the presence of cocaine residue found in the carpet of the vehicle, and on a box of quarters. Appellant challenged the sufficiency of the evidence,…
Date: April 21, 2011
Docket Number: 45S00-1104-MI-228
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant George Janiec, a Republican Party candidate for Mayor of the City of Hammond and an incumbent member of the Hammond School Board, was removed from the May 3, 2011 primary election ballot by Appellee Lake County…
Date: April 21, 2011
Docket Number: 94S00-1010-CQ-544
Justia Opinion Summary: The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) randomly allocated championship tickets to applicants who had offered to purchase tickets by submitting the face value of the tickets along with a non-refundable…
Date: April 21, 2011
Docket Number: 30S01-1004-CV-162
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant-Plaintiff Bradley Love was a volunteer and part-time firefighter for the Sugar Creek Township Fire Department (Department) during the spring of 2006. During the Republican primary election that spring, Bob…
Date: February 10, 2011
Docket Number: 48S00-1003-PL-158
Date: February 9, 2011
Docket Number: 49S10-1010-TA-519
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