The judge and constable disagreed. Then the constable arrested two township employees.
An apparent disagreement between an Indianapolis Small Claims Court judge, who orders evictions, and the township's constable, who carries them out, culminated in an unusual incident Monday morning in which the constable arrested a court bailiff and township employee.
In a further twist, when the constable brought the two to the Criminal Justice Center, Marion County Sheriff's Office deputies there refused to take them into custody.
Those familiar with the situation say that it stems from a months-long dispute between Center Township Small Claims Court Judge Brenda Roper and Constable Denise Paul Hatch, whom Roper has charged with failing to properly carry out her duties.
Monday, Hatch arrested the court bailiff for impersonating a deputy constable and the township employee for interfering with that arrest, said Lt. Leonard Cummings of the Constable's Office. The incident took place at the Julia Carson Government Center, where the court and trustees' office are located, according to township trustee LaDonna Freeman.
Hatch declined to comment.
Freeman said the two employees were just doing their jobs and added she is confident that neither employee violated the law. The trustee declined to name the employees.
"They (the employees) were returned to work where they continue serving Center Township residents with professionalism and integrity," Freeman wrote in a statement.
The constable is an elected position in each of Indianapolis' nine township governments. Constables serve summonses, warrants and subpoenas enforcing orders of each small claims court.
The incident is an escalation of a dispute between Roper's court and Hatch's office over whether Hatch, who was elected to office in November 2022, is refusing to perform her duties as constable. Cummings denied Roper's allegations that Hatch has been negligent.
The conflict led to an Oct. 17 court order from Roper declaring that Hatch "is unable to perform the duties of Constable." The judge, who was first elected in 2014, ordered the constables of Marion County's eight other townships to serve as special constables for Center Township until further court order, according to a copy of the order obtained by IndyStar.
Roper declined to comment other than to say she supports her staff and her order speaks for itself.
Why did the constable arrest two township employees?
According to Cummings, the incident was related to an ongoing dispute arising from the Oct. 17 order.
Cummings said that while the order does not ban the constable from performing her duties, the court staff have made it "impossible" for the Constable's Office to correctly do the job, which includes serving evictions, dealing with illegal lockouts, and serving papers in lawsuits, including for civil lawsuits.
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"What's made it difficult to do the job specifically is we have been denied access to the building or told to leave the building or the area where we get the papers to serve them," Cummings said.
Cummings alleged that since Oct. 17, Roper had been ordering court bailiffs and court secretaries to serve evictions and do other duties that are typically reserved for the constable. He alleged that those individuals are not authorized to do so, since the order only allows the other townships' constables to do so.
"The judge is having people do these orders and send them out that aren't supposed to be doing them," he said.
The court bailiff whom Hatch arrested Monday morning, Cummings said, was trying to do the job of the constable.
Roper declined to comment on these allegations and referred IndyStar to the order.
What led to the court declaring the constable unable to perform duties?
The Oct. 17 order was the culmination of months-long conflict between the constable and the judge, Cummings said. Still, he added, he was not sure what had sparked the order because he thought his office was working with the judge to resolve disagreements.
The judge's order says Hatch failed to contact the court from Oct. 10 onward and on Oct. 12 and 13 said publicly that she "has chosen not to perform the duties of office."
On those dates Hatch's office announced publicly they were suspending services, including aiding in evictions, for a week because their access to radio communications services was limited.
Indianapolis' Metropolitan Emergency Services Agency had limited the office's radio access because of the arrest of one of Hatch's deputy constables, the agency said at the time, according to a statement an IMPD spokesperson provided to IndyStar. Deputy Constable Craig Regans was charged Oct. 4 for unlawful possession of a firearm due to prior convictions, including domestic battery.
But, the agency said, the office could still use the radio for personnel communications and to contact emergency services if the need arose.
Cummings called the reason given in the judge's order an "excuse."
Cummings said he thinks the order stemmed from an incident in May, when Hatch tried to stop a court-ordered eviction from happening, leading to a confrontation between Hatch and an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer.
"Ever since then, it seems like they're just not getting along," Cummings said. "What I'd like to see happen next is for the judge, and our offices to be able to work together to do our normal duties, just have everything go smoothly, so we can serve the people."
Hatch told IndyStar in June she cares a lot about tenants and has concerns about those being evicted.
Indianapolis' eviction crisis: IndyStar investigated more than 11,000 eviction filings. This is what we found.
Indianapolis has long been a high-eviction city, with the 14th highest eviction rate among large U.S. cities for which data is available prior to the pandemic, IndyStar previously reported.
However, as constable, Hatch has no authority to stop a court-ordered eviction. That power lies with Roper.
Contact IndyStar reporter Ko Lyn Cheang at kcheang@indystar.com or 317-903-7071. Follow her on Twitter: @kolyn_cheang.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis Small Claims Court judge's dispute with constable leads to arrests
