« Environment - EPA willing to talk, BP stands by permit | Main | Law - "Students pay; Sallie Mae pays off big" »

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Ind. Decisions - More on: Trial court ruling could void IMPD arrests

The NY Times has now picked up on the Indianapolis story (see earlier ILB entry from Aug. 8th here). Some quotes:

The state said it planned to appeal the ruling, which Attorney General Steve Carter said raised “questions about the propriety of hundreds, if not thousands, of arrests that have been made this year by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.”

Even if the ruling is upheld, the jail doors would not necessarily be opened wide, said James Voyles, one of the defense lawyers who made the motion leading to the court decision. Some arrests could still be valid, and motions for dismissal would have to be filed and argued in each case, Mr. Voyles said.

Kobi Wright, the head city-county attorney, said the ruling baffled him. Two other judges have denied similar defense motions, Mr. Wright said.

“I don’t think it’s credible to state that the city should reswear officers who were already sworn in,” Mr. Wright said.

Mr. Wright and Mr. Carter both said there was no statutory requirement that police officers take an oath, and Mr. Wright said the state code cited by the judge in his ruling did not apply to police officers covered under a bargaining contract, like those in Indianapolis.

However, a professor who is an expert in criminal procedure said that the case was not so clear and that it raised a “legitimate question.”

The professor, Henry C. Karlson of the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, said the question was not whether state law required an oath — he said it did — but whether the merged department was a new agency or a continuation of one of its predecessors.

If it is a new department, everyone should be sworn in, Mr. Karlson said. If it is a continuation, he said, then officers of the agency that was being absorbed would have to be sworn in.

A police spokesman, Capt. Phil Burton, said the department had no plans to require officers to take another oath.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 12, 2007 05:59 AM
Posted to Indiana Decisions