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Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Ind. Courts - Charges filed against Senior Judge Walter P. Chapala
From a just-issued release:
The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications filed formal charges of judicial misconduct against the Honorable Walter P. Chapala, a Senior Judge and former Judge of the LaPorte Superior Court #1, the Commission announced today.The ILB has posted the 6-page charging document here. [Note: It is a large, scanned file and thus may load slowly.]The Commission filed a “Notice of the Institution of Formal Proceedings and Statement of Charges” with the Clerk of the Indiana Supreme Court accusing Senior Judge Chapala of violating ethical rules for judges. The charges stem from the judge’s conduct in two separate cases. In the first allegation, the Commission charges that Senior Judge Chapala, when he was the elected judge, suspended a significant portion of a man’s prison term in the Department of Corrections in exchange for the man’s father’s $100,000.00 contribution to two court programs. In the second allegation, the Commission charges that Senior Judge Chapala, also while an elected judge, instituted contempt proceedings against the Sheriff of LaPorte County for having lawfully returned Chapala’s daughter-in-law’s nephew over to Michigan authorities, then continued to preside over the nephew’s Indiana case. * * *
Senior Judge Chapala is entitled to file an answer to the charges within 20 days, after which the Supreme Court will appoint a panel of three judges to preside over an evidentiary hearing and report its findings to the Indiana Supreme Court. If the Court finds the Commission proved its charges, it will determine the appropriate sanction, which could involve discipline against Senior Judge Chapala both as a senior judge and as an attorney.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 29, 2008 02:11 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts