08052008 - News Article - Lake commissioners want politics out of courts - ROBERT CANTRELL

Lake commissioners want politics out of courts
NWI Times
Aug 5, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/lake-commissioners-want-politics-out-of-courts/article_78f0c5c7-7b08-5bd3-8d3d-5d2ae50bb0a4.html
CROWN POINT | Lake County Commissioners are renewing their call to convert four county courts to the county's merit system.

Commissioners said removing Superior Court, County Division Judges Nicholas Shiralli, Sheila Moss, Julie Cantrell and Jesse Villalpando from the need to cater to partisan politics would save taxpayers the expense of employing larger court staffs than judges 12 county judges who don't have to win party support to run for re-election.

Lake County is one of two in the state where most Superior Court judges are nominated by a panel of lawyers and lay people and appointed to office by the governor. They face the voters every six years in non-partisan retention-rejection referendums.

Commissioner Gerry Scheub, D-Schererville, said Tuesday, "The judges hire (27) attorneys who have got to raise campaign money. We need to take the politics out of those courts."

Judge Villalpando has said in past testimony his re-election campaign in 2006 was marred by Robert Cantrell, recently convicted of federal fraud and public corruption charges, mounting challenges against him. Villalpando said Cantrell was trying to force the court to employ a counseling service that personally enriched Cantrell.

Judge Cantrell, Robert's daughter, said she was forced to raise and spend tens of thousands of dollars in her contested re-election bid in the spring primary. She won that race and is unopposed in the fall.

Scheub said commissioners have asked called on local legislators to support a bill converting the four court to merit selection before, but this time he expects a bill to be introduced in the Indiana General Assembly next year.