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By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
July 24, 2024

The Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission has recommended three northern Indiana trial court judges to fill the upcoming vacancy on the Court of Appeals of Indiana.

After interviewing eight candidates on Monday for the appellate court, the commission nominated Porter County Circuit Court Judge Mary Ann DeBoer, Lake County Superior Court Judge Stephen E. Scheele and St. Joseph County Superior Court Judge Stephanie E. Steele. The recommendations will be sent to Gov. Eric Holcomb, who will then have 60 days to select one of them to fill the Court of Appeals’ seat being vacated by Judge Patricia Riley.

All three nominees told the commission they are committed to engaging with the public and building trust in the judiciary. Also, they said they value collaborating with their colleagues, and they follow the rule of law.

Scheele, Steele and DeBoer are familiar to Holcomb, since he appointed them to their current judicial positions.

Both Scheele and Steele serve in counties that seat trial court judges through judicial selection, rather than an election, so they would have gone through a nomination and appointment process similar to the one used for the Court of Appeals. Scheele was appointed in 2019 and Steele in May 2021.

DeBoer was appointed in late 2019 to replace a retiring trial judge, and then successfully ran on the Republican ticket for election in November 2020.

This will be the sixth judge Holcomb has appointed to the Court of Appeals during his time in office. He has appointed three women – Judges Elizabeth Tavitas, Leanna Weissmann and Dana Kenworthy – and two men – Judges Peter Foley and Paul Felix.

Scheele, 53, holds a law degree from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington. His practice has included general civil litigation and criminal defense work in state and federal courts as both a private practitioner and a deputy public defender. He served as a magistrate judge for Lake County Circuit Court for three years, before becoming a Superior Court judge. He presides over civil cases, such as contract disputes, mortgage foreclosures, family law issues, juvenile paternity, estate matters and mental health commitments.

DeBoer, 56, graduated with a J.D. degree from Valparaiso University Law School. She worked in private practice, handling family law, personal injury and medical malpractice cases, and served as a deputy prosecuting attorney for the prosecutor’s offices in Starke and Porter counties. Stepping into the judiciary, she served as a magistrate judge in the circuit courts of Starke and Porter counties and then became a judge on the Porter County bench, where she oversees the county’s juvenile justice system and presides over a mixed docket of criminal and civil cases.

Steele, 47, earned her law degree at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.  She has spent her legal career in St. Joseph County, serving as a deputy prosecuting attorney and then as the city of South Bend’s corporation counsel. As a judge, she has presided over a high-volume felony docket and now handles a general civil docket.

If Holcomb appoints Steele, she would be the first minority he has appointed to either the Court of Appeals or the Indiana Supreme Court. Also, Steele would be just the second minority currently serving on either the appellate bench or the Supreme Court, joining Court of Appeals Judge Rudolph Pyle.

All three nominees are active members in the state’s judiciary and their communities. They have served on boards and committees addressing such subjects as revising court rules, using new technology and ensuring the indigent have access to the court system. Also, they have innovated in their own courtrooms, including establishing a problem-solving court addressing truancy, developing a process where the judges in the county share the job of reviewing search warrant applications, and training a service dog to help lower the anxiety of drug court participants.

In their communities, they serve on the boards of local nonprofits and participate in programs and presentations to teach schoolchildren about the judicial branch of government.

Building trust, respect for the judicial system

The six judges and two attorneys who applied for the appellate bench each sat for a 30-minute public interview with the commission. Chaired by Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush, the commission peppered the applicants with a range of questions about their skills, complex legal cases they handled in their careers, their activities in their bar associations and communities, and why they wanted to join the Court of Appeals. Also, the applicants were asked about the rules of trial procedure, the difference between Indiana and federal courts on the issue of summary judgment, and the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the legal profession.

Scheele told the commission that trial experience is invaluable, especially when serving on the Court of Appeals. He said he knows the demands of being a trial lawyer because he has tried cases and he has been “wowed” by the great lawyers who have appeared in his courtroom.

Several of the applicants talked about the decreasing respect the public holds for the judiciary and the importance of maintaining the integrity of the court system.

DeBoer said “judges are under attack,” but the public’s confidence in the judicial branch can be bolstered by the judges being humble and being willing to learn, and working together for the good of the entire court. She talked about her experience presiding over family law matters where the litigants could get “super emotionally charged.” Being respectful to all the individuals in her court, she said, allowed her to maintain control.

Steele also told the commission the importance of being respectful to the litigants. In particular, she noted in major felony cases like murder and rape, the people in the courtroom have strong feelings and want to tell the judge about who was injured or who has been accused. As she does in all cases, she said, she tells the individuals, “I see you. I hear your story.”

Judges do not have to be in the courtroom to improve the public’s perception of the judiciary, Steele said. Meeting and engaging with people in the community, she said, can help. Also, she said, writing orders and rulings in plain English and making sure the decisions are based on what the law says, is important to maintaining public confidence.

Scheele said trust in the judiciary can be easily lost and never recovered, but, from his perspective in Lake County, litigants and jury members are leaving the courtroom impressed with the judicial system.

In his application, Scheele noted he has experienced the criminal justice system as someone arrested twice nearly 25 years ago. Both times, according to his application, the charges were summarily dismissed.

The first arrest came when his brother crashed into a neighborhood tree after leaving a post-funeral family gathering in 1999. Scheele said he was not in the vehicle at the time of the accident, but he walked up the street to the accident scene and when he could not provide any information about what had happened to law enforcement, he was arrested and charged with one count of public intoxication as a Class B misdemeanor.

The second arrest happened when Scheele and his sister were at a bar in downtown Winamac following a wedding in 2000. A brawl erupted, he said in his application, but he and his sister stood away from the fight and did not participate. However, when police arrived, they were arrested and he was charged with battery as a Class B misdemeanor.

In her application, DeBoer told the commission she has been given what she called an “informal caution” by the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications in 2021. She said during hearings with a difficult litigant, she had the court reporter stop while she worked with the parties on a parenting time schedule. The complaint was dismissed, she said, but the qualifications commission advised her not to go off the record when in the courtroom.

The law and life experience

When discussing how they preside over cases and decide the outcomes, all three nominees said they applied the law and Indiana precedent as written.

Scheele told the commission, “The law of the land controls.” He illustrated his point by talking about a case he presided over involving a charter school and the state statute that allows charter schools to purchase any unused public school building for $1. Scheele said he is a “fan of public schools,” but he ruled the statute was constitutional and the Court of Appeals affirmed.

Also, DeBoer recalled a case involving a single mother trying to get her ex-husband to pay child support to cover their daughter’s college expenses. DeBoer said she suspected that the woman, a breast cancer survivor, had been lulled by the ex-husband into thinking he would pay, but by the time she filed the petition in court, the deadline for pursuing child support had passed. Despite her personal feelings, DeBoer said she followed the law and explained to the mother why the court could not offer her any remedy.

Rush asked Steele how her life experiences influenced her as a judge.

Steele responded that someone like her who grew up poor on a dirt road in a trailer and remembers her family having their belongings thrown onto the street when they lost their home does not expect to be sitting before the commission and interviewing for a seat on the Court of Appeals. As a result, she said, she is compassionate and empathetic.

Also, she said she carries with her a family  history that includes slavery and the Underground Railroad. When she decides a case, she said, she reads the text of the law, but her experience underscores the importance of getting the ruling right.

Similarly, DeBoer called attention to the three juvenile problem-solving courts she presides over in response to a question about what she considered the greatest accomplishment of her career. She said judges do what they do to protect and serve. Protecting people is most important to her, she said, because she needed protection when she was growing up.

“That is why I fight so hard for children,” DeBoer said.

Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He has been a content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and a planner for other papers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.

The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.