SOUTH BEND â After months of legal hang-ups, St. Joseph County will soon have a new Superior Court judge.
Stephanie Steele, currently an attorney for the city of South Bend, was appointed by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb last week to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Jane Woodward Miller at the end of last year.
Steele earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from Arizona State University, according to a release from the governorâs office. Steele was a deputy county prosecutor from 2010 to 2015 and has worked as an attorney for South Bend since then.
SOUTH BEND â After months of legal hang-ups, St. Joseph County will soon have a new Superior Court judge.
Stephanie Steele, currently an attorney for the city of South Bend, was appointed by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb last week to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Jane Woodward Miller at the end of last year.
Steele earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from Arizona State University, according to a release from the governorâs office. Steele was a deputy county prosecutor from 2010 to 2015 and has worked as an attorney for South Bend since then.
SOUTH BEND â In 2019, St. Joseph County courts conducted just over 700 virtual hearings for defendants in the county jail.
Social distancing concerns and a special order issued by the Indiana Supreme Court near the onset of the pandemic caused virtual hearings for inmates to nearly triple in 2020, as courts held an increasing number of hearings over the phone or via video.
Last year the county jail did 2,058 video court hearings, in which the judge and attorneys are present in the courtroom but the defendant appears via video from the jail, according to St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman.
Before the pandemic, jail staff would transport up to 50 inmates a day to the courthouse for hearings, Redman said. He said decreasing that number was a goal since he took office, as it creates fewer security concerns and frees up officers to patrol the courthouse buildings.
SOUTH BEND — This week saw the first jury trial in St. Joseph County in almost a year, as the county courthouse is resuming proceedings with health protocols in place.