Dunkirk City Court is closed

A law passed in 2015 and a shortage of lawyers in Dunkirk led to the abolishment of Dunkirk City Court.

The end of the court, which became official Aug. 1, is part of a statewide trend of consolidation and elimination of rural city courts.

Last year, Dunkirk City Court heard a total of about 100 cases. But Dunkirk City Court was left without a judge after the resignation of former judge Tommy D. “Chip” Phillips, who resigned April 28 after pleading guilty to a battery charge stemming from a 2016 incident at Dunkirk Police Department.

In the interim, Jay Circuit Court Judge Brian Hutchison and Jay Superior Court Judge Max Ludy filled in as city court judges until a replacement could be found.

A law passed in 2015 established a requirement that city court judges have to be licensed lawyers, but grandfathered in sitting judges like Phillips who didn’t meet the requirement. Dunkirk City Council sought a lawyer in the city who would hold the position, but were unable to find a suitable candidate. As a result, council voted to shutter the court at its May 23 meeting, and signed an inter-local agreement with the city of Portland to send Dunkirk cases through the Portland City Court.

Now, Dunkirk City Court cases will be handled through Portland City Court and Judge Donald Gillespie.

Gillespie said the addition of Dunkirk cases won’t result in a change in the court’s everyday functions.

“If every month you’re talking 25 to 30 tickets, the caseload has increased basically 250 to 300 cases. We have time for those. The bulk of this work will be done by the clerk,” Gillespie said. “Right now the plans are to continue to be every Wednesday at 6 p.m., unless I find that we’re getting out of there too late. I don’t have any intention of changing the hours of the court.”

Dunkirk city attorney Wes Schemenaur said the change won’t have major ramifications for the city, except that it forces defendants to travel to Portland for their cases.

“The main drawback will be the drive to Portland for people to resolve their cases,” Schemenaur said. “There will also be some loss of funds to the city because some of the fines and a small portion of the court costs were retained by the city. However, the number of cases handled by Dunkirk City Court had dwindled over the years so I wouldn't expect there to be a dramatic effect on the city's finances.”

Most of the fines levied by city courts are turned over to the state court system, though city courts are able to keep a few dollars per case. Dunkirk will still receive money from city ordinance violations.

“(City ordinance) fines will be forwarded back to the City of Dunkirk. Court costs are mostly sent to the State of Indiana. The court itself retains a few dollars out of each court cost,” Schemenaur said.

Portland City Court started hearing Dunkirk cases in June, and has thus far handled 33 cases from that jurisdiction.

This year, the court has handled 1,016 cases total, and in 2016 had 1,407 cases. The addition of Dunkirk cases will cause a bump, but not a drastic change in the number of cases heard in Portland City Court.

The elimination of the Dunkirk City Court isn’t permanent. If a lawyer becomes willing to fill the judge seat, it would only take the passage of an ordinance by city council to reestablish the court. Schemenaur said the change isn’t unique to Jay County, but that many other rural city courts have been shut down recently as a result of the new state law, and they could eventually be a thing of the past.

“While I know that the citizens of Dunkirk were disappointed to lose their city court, I believe that the trend in Indiana is to move away from city courts,” Schemenaur said. “There are only a handful of these types of courts left in the state. I think it's only a matter of time before the legislature abolishes all of the small city courts.”