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Three Indiana Judges Suspended After Drunken Violent Brawl at White Castle

Three Indiana Judges Suspended After Drunken Violent Brawl at White Castle

The Court stated the judges “were not merely embarrassing on a personal level; they discredited the entire Indiana judiciary.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqdWyd_B208

The Indiana Supreme Court suspended Judges Andrew Adams, Sabrina Bell, and Bradley Jacobs after a drunken incident at a White Castle in May.

Here is what happened:

At around 12:30 a.m. on May 1, Respondents and Clark Circuit Court Magistrate William Dawkins (“Magistrate Dawkins”) met at a local bar, where they continued to drink alcohol. At around 3:00 a.m., the group walked to a strip club and tried to enter, but found that it was closed.

The group then walked to a nearby White Castle. While Magistrate Dawkins went inside, Respondents stood outside the restaurant. At around 3:17 a.m., Alfredo Vazquez and Brandon Kaiser drove past the group and shouted something out the window. Judge Bell extended her middle finger to Vazquez and Kaiser, who pulled into the White Castle parking lot and exited the vehicle. Judge Bell, who was intoxicated, has no memory of the incident but concedes that the security camera video shows her making this gesture.

A heated verbal altercation ensued, with all participants yelling, using profanity, and making dismissive, mocking, or insolent gestures toward the other group. At no time did Respondents move to another location in the parking lot to avoid a confrontation or de-escalate the conflict.

After a verbal exchange between Judge Bell and Vazquez, a physical confrontation ensued. At one point, Judge Jacobs had Kaiser contained on the ground. With his fist raised back, Judge Jacobs said, “Okay, okay, we’re done, we’re done,” or “This is over. Tell me this is over,” or words to that effect. At another point during the confrontation, Judge Adams kicked Kaiser in the back. The confrontation ended when Kaiser pulled out a gun, shot Judge Adams once, and shot Judge Jacobs twice.

Adams received “two emergency surgeries, including a colon resectioning.” Jacobs stayed in the hospital for 14 days after his two emergency surgeries.

Adams had a blood alcohol level of 0.213. Jacobs’ blood alcohol level peaked at 0.177.

Bell did not have hers tested, but officials knew she had a few drinks because she could not remember the incident.

Authorities charged Kaiser “with 14 crimes, including eight felony charges — four of which are Level 3 felony aggravated assault.”

His nephew, Vazquez, “faces six counts of low-level felony and misdemeanor charges, including two counts of Level 6 felony battery.”

The Indiana Supreme Court concluded that the judges “engaged in judicial misconduct by appearing in public in an intoxicated state and behaving in an injudicious manner and by becoming involved in a verbal altercation.”

The Court stated the judges “were not merely embarrassing on a personal level; they discredited the entire Indiana judiciary.” They suspended the three judges:

The Court orders that Andrew Adams, who already is under an interim suspension, shall be suspended without pay from the office of Judge of the Clark Circuit Court 1 for sixty (60) days, effective immediately. The suspension shall terminate and the Judge shall automatically be reinstated to office at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, January 13, 2020.

The Court orders that Bradley B. Jacobs shall be suspended from the office of Judge of the Clark Circuit Court 2 without pay for thirty (30) days commencing at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, November 22, 2019. The suspension shall terminate and the Judge shall automatically be reinstated to office at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, December 23, 2019.

The Court orders that Sabrina R. Bell shall be suspended from the office of Judge of the Crawford Circuit Court without pay for thirty (30) days commencing at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, November 22, 2019. The suspension shall terminate and the Judge shall automatically be reinstated to office at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, December 23, 2019.

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Comments

Order in the court! Make mine a double!

These idiots took the honor out of that whole
“Your Honor” judicial thing..

    NGAREADER in reply to amwick. | November 15, 2019 at 9:07 am

    The Supreme Court of Indiana is reinstating them after a short recess, needed by two for recovery from their wounds.
    They should be unemployed and possibly disbarred. Had they continued without meeting the other two, they would have eventually driven home in their car(s).
    No public drunkenness or other charges?

      NGAREADER in reply to NGAREADER. | November 15, 2019 at 9:17 am

      After going back and reading the Supreme Court document, it appears they were charged, with felonies in some cases.
      How you remain on the bench under those conditions, I don’t understand as a non-lawyer.
      Click the link at the top of the article.

        Tom Servo in reply to NGAREADER. | November 15, 2019 at 11:12 am

        You obviously have never heard of the “Good Ol’ Boy” (and also “Good Ol’ Girl”) Clause. You know, being part of the Club has a lot of benefits.

I wonder how they were going to get home that morning? Driving? Sounds like they will not be doing that again. Sabrina sounds like a load of fun.

May 1st was a Wed. so did they have court on Thurs.?

Wonder why they were out? Stripe Club? Circuit Court? Wow, I wonder how they hand their cases. Sabrina won her 2016 election by under 200 votes. She ran as a Rep.

https://ballotpedia.org/Sabrina_Bell

She won her primary by 13 votes.

http://www.clarionnews.net/Articles-News-i-2016-05-11-229906.114125-GOP-judges-race-decided-by-13-votes.html

Adams ran unopposed and is a Dem.

https://ballotpedia.org/Andrew_Adams_(Indiana)

Can’t tell much about Jacob other than his father was a judge too and he has been in office since 1996. Sounds like he is a well connected guy.

Anacleto Mitraglia | November 15, 2019 at 7:57 am

Say what you want, Judge Bell is one that I would date. Sort of a Sandra Bullock. First round of drinks on me.

Belly bombers after partying! Brings back some fond memories. 🙂

Love me some White Castle burgers.

Almost nothing good happens at 3AM except sleeping.

Sexist shot the two male judges but not the female?

Seems the two male judges would have been out for that long anyway, so other than pay it’s not really much of a penalty for them.
Are these elected or appointed judges? It would be tough to be an effective judge after this, I’m surprised at the relatively light suspension they got for this.

This is one of those throuple things gone bad, isn’t it?

Gotta say that it sounds as if the female judge responded to provocation and kept going at it, while the two males (who ended up shot) tried to protect her once a confrontation began. Yeah, all three should have gone home. Just being involved in an altercation puts them in the wrong. Brings back memories of when I was younger and injudicious myself … but no one ever ended up shot.

    So, she stood her ground, and the guys did not kneel. That’s something.

      MajorWood in reply to n.n. | November 15, 2019 at 7:00 pm

      And that something is,…, drunken stupidity. Do you know how a person gets 6 DUIs? Well, it starts with other people giving them a pass the first 5 times. History tells me that we will be hearing these names again, and likely under similar circumstances. If there was a teachable moment, it seems to have been lost. Maybe the next person will have better aim.

Note the lack of the ‘impeachment’ word anywhere in there. Odd how we can impeach a president for something they didn’t say during a phone conversation, but an exchange of drunken gunfire between Indiana judges is worth only a gentle slap across the wrist.

Regardless of party affiliation, the Indiana Senate leader (whatever his/her title) should have sent the three of them a polite letter that could be paraphrased as “Resign or be immediately impeached for conduct.”

Andy looks like he normally has a threesome with Ben & Jerry…

Why are they all “automatically reinstated”? Why aren’t they barred for life?

Who appointed them? Dems or GOP?

On the bright side, they got Kaiser off the street for 20 years. And Judge Bell has a fan club.

Sabrina Bell is definitely GOP, based on research into Clark County, IN election results which took 60 seconds.

Although the other judges appear to run in elections without party affiliations, Trump won Clark Co. by 20+ points, making it likely the other judges are also GOP.

To be fair, a conservative outlet like Legal Ins. should have at least noted Bell’s GOP affiliation, as it (correctly) rarely hesitates to label a Dem with legal, ethical, or misconduct problems.

I guess being sober as a judge is kinda old fashioned.

Just another night on the town. Go home and lick your wounds. Good times, good times.

Is Sabrina trans?