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Three days suspended with no pay.
That’s what Allen Superior Court Judge Kenneth Scheibenberger will eventually receive for the obscenity-laced comments he made about another man in another judge’s courtroom last year.
Scheibenberger reached an agreement this week with a state commission overseeing the ethical actions of judges as to what punishment should be meted out. The Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications, an arm of the state Supreme Court, filed formal disciplinary proceedings against Scheibenberger this summer claiming he committed judicial misconduct.
The Indiana Supreme Court accepted the terms, though it has not been decided when Scheibenberger will serve his suspension. He will also have to pay court costs, which have yet to be determined.
A statement from the court Friday called Scheibenberger a “grieving parent” when he sat in the gallery of another courtroom wearing his robe before he turned to the family of a man he believed sold drugs to his dead son and called that man a “a piece of (expletive).”
“I’m very sorry for what I did,” Scheibenberger said. “I should not have gone into that courtroom under any set of circumstances.”
Scheibenberger’s 27-year-old son, Samuel Scheibenberger, died from a lethal amount of cocaine in his system in August 2007. The following November, the judge walked into Judge Fran Gull’s courtroom to watch a hearing for Steven Duane Warren, 26, who was set to be sentenced to prison for carrying a handgun without a license.
At the end of the hearing, Scheibenberger approached a deputy prosecutor and “created a disturbance” when he called Warren a drug dealer, according to court documents. He said, “Upstanding citizen my (expletive)” in reference to a comment made during the hearing, the documents said.
According to the documents, he also turned to Warren’s parents and said, “Are you related to that piece of (expletive)? Upstanding citizen my (expletive)! He’ll get his.”
Scheibenberger does not dispute what he said.
“Losing a child is the most painful thing that I have ever gone through,” Scheibenberger said Friday. “It’s been 15 months, and it’s still painful. It’s not an excuse for what I did, but it’s an explanation. Under the circumstances, my emotions took over my common sense.”
Warren has never been convicted of a drug crime in Allen County, but in 2002 he was formally charged with felony possession of cocaine and misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Charges were later dropped by prosecutors with no explanation.
In that case, Allen County sheriff’s officers smelled burnt marijuana during a search of Warren’s home before finding a tenth of a gram of cocaine in a dresser, 15 grams of marijuana throughout the home and scales typically used to weigh drugs, according to a police report and court documents.
They also found more than $1,000 cash in Warren’s pocket, though he said he was unemployed. He also said he lived at the home alone but denied ownership of any of the drugs and scales.
Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards said she could not explain why the charges were dropped because she was working at the office only part time in 2002. The deputy prosecutor in charge of the case no longer works at the office, she said, adding that now prosecutors are required to give reasons as to why charges are dismissed.
Phone numbers listed for Warren’s family have been disconnected.
Warren was eventually sentenced to two years in prison for carrying a handgun without a license, but his release date had been set for June 2008, according to Indiana Department of Correction records.
The judicial commission’s move to discipline Scheibenberger for such misconduct was a rare one and could have ended with him losing his job. The seven-member commission screens and investigates allegations of judicial misconduct, sorting through hundreds of complaints each year with few resulting in any kind of formal reprimand or public admonishment, according to information from the commission.
In Scheibenberger’s agreement to be suspended, the commission found he committed two of the four charges of misconduct against him. He failed to uphold the integrity of the judiciary and maintain high standards and also failed to avoid impropriety at all times or act in a manner promoting the public’s confidence in the integrity of the judiciary, the commission ruled.
He did not commit conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice or commit willful misconduct while in office, according to Meg Babcock, an Indianapolis attorney representing the commission.
A hearing set for next week before a panel of other Indiana judges where Scheibenberger and the commission were to state their cases has been canceled.
“I’m satisfied that it’s an appropriate punishment for what I did,” Scheibenberger said.
The confrontation with Warren’s family is not the first time Scheibenberger, appointed to the bench in 1991 then elected in 1992, has been on the receiving end of formal punishment.
In December 2002, the judge drew a public admonition from the judicial commission after he obtained the file for a criminal case against his son and made an entry to delay a hearing in the case, though he was not the judge overseeing the case.
The following July, Scheibenberger underwent treatment for alcohol addiction at an out-of-state treatment facility.
jeffwiehe@jg.net
