New judge in biomass lawsuit

Jasper – The second round in the biomass lawsuit brought against the Jasper Utility Service Board and Jasper Common Council by Healthy Dubois County will be heard by a new judge.

After the appeal by Healthy Dubois County was granted by the Indiana State Court of Appeals in November (story on that decision here), Healthy Dubois County had the right to request a new judge for the case. HDC did request a new judge and a panel of three judges was selected.

The selection is conducted by each party striking or removing a judge from the panel and the remaining judge will preside over the case.

Healthy Dubois County struck a judge from Crawford County, the City of Jasper struck a judge from Spencer County. The remaining judge was Knox County Circuit Judge Sherry B. Gregg Gilmore, who accepted the assignment as the special judge in the case on Thursday.

Judge Gregg Gilmore will hear arguments that the volunteer group that met 12 to 15 times in undocumented meetings should fall under Indiana’s Open Door Laws.  In their decision, the three-judge panel assigned to the the appeal, comprised of Judges James S. Kirsch, Melissa S. May and Edward W. Najam, Jr., agreed that further discovery was warranted to determine if the volunteer group was a governing body and in such violated Indiana’s Open Door Law.

The date of the trial has not been set.

This article was sourced from interviews with Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP attorney Bill Kaiser, legal counsel for the city of Jasper in the lawsuit, conducted by WITZ News Director Jim O’neal.