Court suspends ex-judge's law license
Deborah Riga faces disbarment for public corruption conviction
NWI Times
Sep 11, 2008
nwitimes.com/news/local/court-suspends-ex-judge-s-law-license/article_94db2492-ab70-57d4-a1ee-2fcc0b511705.html
The Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission has suspended the law license of former Schererville Town Judge Deborah Riga in the wake of her federal mail fraud conviction.
Chief Justice Randall T. Shephard signed the suspension order for the 51-year-old former Schererville lawyer who is scheduled to report to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons Sept. 23 to begin a 15-month prison term.
Donald Lundberg, executive secretary of the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission, said Wednesday the high court recently received official notice of Riga's felony conviction, which will be the basis of a formal disciplinary proceeding that could disbar Riga from any future law practice in the state.
Riga pleaded guilty in 2006 to public corruption charges for using her position as town judge to shake down more than 1,175 minor offenders who appeared before her, ordering them to undergo counseling at a service she owned in the name of a family friend.
Riga pocketed more than $30,000 in fees for the counseling her business provided. Riga became Schererville's second town court judge in 2000. The position was created in 1995 to handle low-level offenses, including traffic violations and minor drug charges.
Within two years of taking office, she had replaced the outside businesses that provided driver education and youth addiction counseling services to those she convicted with businesses she controlled and from which she profited.
She pleaded guilty in 2006 to mail fraud charges, but her conviction was postponed until last July so she could cooperate with other federal public corruption investigations -- including those that recently resulted in the conviction of East Chicago political fixer Robert Cantrell.
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