Dear Fellow EBA Member,
It is truly a sad day when a judge is falsely attacked by his opponent in search of a favorable rating from the Bar and to try to win an election. If Mr. Blackard`s allegations were not so serious, his letter would have been humorous. Let me explain why:
Mr. Blackard has NEVER handled an estate, guardianship, trust, adoption, child in need of service, parental termination, or paternity case in my Court, but yet he makes bold allegations against me, my staff, and my Court. According to computer records, Mr. Blackard has actually only been involved in 68 misdemeanor cases in my Court, when he was being trained as a public defender. That was approximately four years ago. Now he claims he knows how to run my Court.
I hate to bore you with the facts, but I feel compelled, since Mr. Blackard cannot justify his false assertions. First, he claims, “Since taking office in 2001, Mr. Niemeier has had an opportunity to address the longtime inefficiencies of this Court, but has chosen to do nothing.†That quote is preposterous. Prior to Mr. Blackard attending law school, I spearheaded an effort in adding another courtroom to handle the ever increasing caseload of the Court. Our Court sessions literally doubled over the next 6 years to accommodate this explosion of cases. I added court sessions in every area of the law that my Court handles. My clerical staff, which hasn`t had a new employee added in my 11 years on the bench, has been crossed trained to do almost every job within the Court for better efficiency and service to the public. We are now open at lunch and I personally sit on the bench more than any other judge in the area. The Supreme Court “caseload measures†make it clear that I could be cloned and that the caseload would still be more than recommended.
Mr. Blackard also claims that if elected, delinquencies and CHINS will no longer be preferred over probate and he would eliminate “threatening mail correspondence†from the Clerk and Court. The only mail correspondence which goes out to attorneys is standard form letters informing attorneys when they miss a deadline in probate and guardianship cases. These letters are polite. The first letter simply says, “I would appreciate your attention to this matter as soon as possible.†When the Court does not receive feedback, a second letter is sent which states “Your immediate attention to this matter would be greatly appreciated.†In cases when an attorney still does not correspond, in any fashion, the Court sets the matter for hearing with a standard order to appear. The letters are courteous and straight forward; no threats are made.
Probate has always been an important part of my Court. Mr. Blackard claims that I have not worked with the Bar to improve probate, but nothing could be further from the truth. As an example, to eliminate inconsistencies, I stopped having magistrates rotate through this Court. This was a suggestion of the probate bar. I also added two additional sessions a month for probate matters. Several years ago I met with the members of the probate bar to rewrite the probate rules and the probate bar committee was put in charge of proposing all new rules and a new fee schedule. Proudly, their new rules were enacted and are still used to this day. Earlier this year I appeared before the probate committee and gave a status report and took questions concerning probate matters. Recently, after hearing that members of the probate bar wanted to allow their runners to file guardianships, I implemented a pilot program for this change. I have also met with the family law bar committee to improve the Court. Several suggestions were implemented, prior to the paternities being transferred to Division IV. The truth of the matter is that I have had an open door policy for ANY attorney to make suggestions on how to improve my Court and we have enacted almost all of these suggestions. Of course, recently the Superior Court Judges created a new family division. I take pride in assisting with this restructuring.
Lastly, Mr. Blackard also makes an extremely serious charge that he will “Restore Due Process in CHINS cases.†To claim that I do not follow Due Process law and for him to boldly assert that an attorney can`t “argue the case on the merits†is simply a lie. I challenge Mr. Blackard to come up with even one case where I did not allow an attorney to fairly argue their case. To claim that I simply follow all DCS/CASA recommendations is laughable. Quite frankly, the public defenders and DCS attorneys who handle these cases grow tired of my patience when allowing the parents or opposing counsel to be heard. I treat everybody in my court with the utmost respect and never prejudge a case.
What is truly disturbing about these allegations are that they are being made with a total disregard to the truth. Unsubstantiated and false allegations hurt the Court`s reputation and I fear that the Bar who doesn`t practice in my Court might wonder whether they contain some truth. I assure you they do not and if you would like to contact the attorneys who regularly practice in my Court please do. I have already heard from numerous attorneys who are appalled by these assertions. I close by restating how I began, it is a sad day when a young attorney makes false allegations against a judge. I take great pride in my Court, my staff, my fairness, my integrity, and my work ethic. In 2008, I was honored with the Kinsey award, the highest honor that a Juvenile Judge can receive in the State of Indiana. I think that speaks volumes to the dedication that I have to the public and my Court.
Sincerely,
Brett J. Niemeier
Superior Court Judge –Juvenile/Probate Division
The University of Southern Indiana is hosting a free lecture at 7:30 p.m., September 25, in USI’s Carter Hall. The fall lecture will feature Iranian-born author Firoozeh Dumas speaking on the Marjane Satrapi memoir Persepolis, about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
