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Thursday, October 11, 2007

Ind. Courts - Sad notes on case of the mother who took the court records

Rebecca S. Green of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette brings us up-to-date today on the case of the mother who took the court transcript and refused to return it. Here is a list of earlier ILB entries. From today's story:

A Fort Wayne woman 26 days into a three-month jail sentence for contempt of court wants to get out early.

The attorney for Adela Favela, 58, requested a hearing to determine whether Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull should release the woman from the Allen County Jail 45 days ahead of schedule. The hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 24.

On Sept. 13, Gull sentenced Favela to 90 days in jail for contempt of court after she refused to return the official court record of her son Daniel Favela’s 2006 murder trial. * * *

In his request for early release, Adela Favela’s court-appointed attorney Philip Terrill said the woman’s continued incarceration creates an undue hardship for 17-year-old Maria Favela, her daughter.

The North Side High School senior is staying with friends while her mother is in jail.

According to court documents, Terrill asserts that the longer Adela Favela remains in jail, the more bills keep piling up and the greater the danger of the family losing their apartment.

Adela Favela is also in ill health, with a tumor growing in her stomach and other physical handicaps, according to court documents.

“It would be a tragedy if Mrs. Favela were unable to survive her incarceration in the jail,” Terrill wrote in his request to Gull.

Terrill also included letters from Rosa Gerra, executive director of United Hispanic-Americans, Inc., El Mexicano editor Fernando Zapari, and a friend of Adela Favela’s.

Adela Favela also sent a letter to the court.

“Judge Gull, please forgive me,” Adela Favela said in her letter. “I know that you gave me a lot of chances to do the right thing and for that I am sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing for my son by protecting those papers.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 11, 2007 10:29 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts