The anonymous commentor seems to think that recently elected Clark Co. sheriff Jamey Noel maybe behind the scenes, pushing for the elimination of City Court through his campaign manager Matt Owen. The commentor points out several different connections between Noel and the controversy 1.) Owen 2.) Noel's sister Lisa Gill sits on the City Council. 3.) City Judge Pierce's comments about the Indiana State police of which Noel is member, bypassing his court...and then the BatBlog came across an interesting article from the 2006 sheriff's election CLICK HERE in the article it mentions that Noel has expressed an interest in adding one or two more judges and courts in Clark Co.
Are these merely coincidental factors and people in the movement to remove Judge Pierce and the Jeff city court or is there something to this theory ??? The BatBlog doesn't know for sure but the coincidences and timing right after the recent election are interesting to say the least.
Owen who also works for Noel as a marketing representative of the New Chapel fire and EMS...by the way why does a fire and EMS need a marketing rep. ??? seems rather strange but that's for another thread...
The BatBlog is not saying anything here is illegal but the circumstances are interesting. The BatBlog likes for our public officials to think on their own and be their own man, which may or may not be the case in this incident...Is Noel the master manipulator and behind the scenes manager of his agenda for the whole area ??? I guess time will tell. In the meantime...
The BatBlog's position remains this is a ridiculous move on Owen's part whether it has been manipulated or not. There is no doubt there is probably a need for another Circuit court in Clark Co., but eliminating City Court is not the way of bringing it about. The pretense of Owen's ordinance as a cost saving measure for area citizens is far sighted and misleading...some would say an out and out lie.... Going forward hopefully the council will see this ordinance for what it and do the right thing and vote down Owen's proposal...Let your councilman know how you feel about this and as always "stay vigilant my friends".....
Not sure Owen is smart enough to come up with this on his own. Someone is in the background pulling his strings whether it is Noel or not who knows.
ReplyDeleteI agree HT it is a farce to represent this as a cost savings for taxpayers. This would just be moving the costs from one government entity to another. Owen must think people are naive enough to buy into this BS.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is Owen doesn't have to convince the citizens and taxpayers he only has to convince enough members of the City council to push this through.
ReplyDeleteThat's why it's important that everyone let their councilmen/women know how they feel...
This is not in the best interest of the people of Jeffersonville or Clark Co....
Noel is not the only politician in Clark County who wants to add one or more circuit courts. At least one more is needed and there are many dems who want this also. As far as people working in the background, a good guess is that Tom Lowe is involved in this, since the same thing basically happened to his Sellersburg Town Court a couple of years ago. He would know all the right stats to quote, etc., and expect him to be on the sheriff's staff in January until there is a circuit court created that he can be appointed to.
ReplyDeleteWhether it is Lowe or Noel pulling Owens chain you can bet its somebody because Owen couldn't figure this out on his own.
ReplyDeleteIt would be foolish to create 2 new courts after abolishing 1
Agreed that many want one or more circuit courts added and at least one is probably needed. This isn't the way to go about it.
ReplyDeleteThe lowered case load can be fixed without eliminating the court. Common sense and cooperation on all parties involved would fixit.
If judge Pierce whom I like is a problem then run someone against him when he's up for re-election. The ordinance proposed by Owen is assinine...
WHAS news last week reported that an audit of Jeff City Count reflected that over 1000 case files have disappeared. Very surprised that something this significant has not been addressed in the blogs or in the local news. It was reported that most were traffic violations.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.whas11.com/story/news/local/indiana/2014/11/20/1135-cases-missing-from-jeff-court-record/70039900/
ReplyDeleteThanks anon. WHAS11 could be another hint for this story. You can find some familiar WHAS11 faces in Larry Wilder's halloween party pictures.
Yes there is a concerted effort afoot to to discredit Judge Pierce and his court. It includes the usual suspects around town the want to be power brokers
ReplyDeleteThe bad blood that Pierce alleges exists between himself and the Indiana State Police is reflected in an ongoing criminal matter.
ReplyDeleteFollowing a nighttime traffic stop along Spring Street in Jeffersonville by an ISP trooper in May 2013, Pierce was charged with a window-tint violation, a class C infraction.
The News and Tribune was provided footage of the incident taken by the patrol car’s dashboard camera. The trooper is seen in the video abruptly leaving a traffic stop of a person suspected of “crossing the center line” several times, to pull over a passing vehicle driven by Pierce.
The trooper is seen following Pierce for several blocks before conducting the traffic stop. After Pierce declined to take a portable breath test, he was cited for the window-tint violation, and the traffic stop ended.
http://www.newsandtribune.com/news/jeffersonville-city-court-in-council-s-crosshairs/article_a834b85a-78f2-11e4-9426-67ae432fa86e.html