Indiana county clerk banned from courthouse in dispute with judges
An Indiana county clerk has been banned from the courthouse in a dispute with the county’s judges.
The judges have issued a temporary restraining order preventing Blackford County Clerk Derinda Shady from entering the courthouse grounds, the Muncie, Indiana, Star Press reports.
The dispute apparently began in early August, according to the order, when Shady “behaved inappropriately” at a county council meeting during a discussion about the possible elimination of two positions from the clerk’s budget.
The next day, the order says, Shady threatened to terminate supervision and oversight of the court’s business and deny the courts access to their files.
Over the course of three days, according to the order, Shady called the judges and “defied the courts’ authority” and, at the conclusion of telephone conversations “slammed the phone down” before the judges could offer further advice or instruction.
The judges then sent Shady an email saying they would retrieve the courts’ criminal files. They say she responded: “Better bring a cop.”
“The courts infer from such a communication … that clerk Shady intended to inflict physical injury or physically confront the judges and/or court staff retrieving the records,” the order says.
According to the order, Shady had been ordered to appear at a hearing with the two judges Thursday, but fled the courthouse instead.
The clerk’s husband, Jerry, said on the advice of legal counsel, his wife would not comment on the judges’ actions.
A staffer for Circuit Court Judge Dean Young, one of the two judges who signed the order, said Young would not comment on the dispute. Superior Court Judge Nick Berry, who also signed the order, did not return a call for comment, the Star Press says.
