Lake County shows off high

BY RUTH ANN KRAUSE Post-Tribune correspondent

Eighty-inch monitors are being installed in Lake County courtrooms to display evidence during jury trials. | Photo provided

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Lake County's new courtroom technology was on display Friday afternoon with a demonstration for Indiana Supreme Court administrators and others.

"We had a rolling chalkboard - that was the extent of our technology," said Mark Price, a former bailiff who applied for a state technology grant on behalf of Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr., who presided in criminal division Courtroom 4 before his transfer to the juvenile division.

In less than a year since the April 2013 grant proposal, Price, now the chief deputy of Lake Superior Juvenile Court, and a committee with Judge Diane Ross Boswell, senior judge of the criminal division, and representatives of the prosecutor's office and its technology director, Myron Chenault, the public defender's office, data processing department and Lake County Commissioners, researched the technology used in federal court in Hammond and South Bend to gain insight on the equipment needed. Electrical work began in December, and the Courtroom 4 project where Judge Samuel Cappas now presides was operational by the end of February.

The chalkboard has been relegated to the back hallway now that new flat-screen TVs, an Elmo document camera and wireless capability allow both defense and prosecution lawyers harness the latest technology to present evidence to juries. Most evidence can be displayed on the screen for all to see instead of the time-consuming process of passing stacks of photographs through the hands of 12 jurors and two alternates.

Deputy prosecutors Angela Mattozzi and Michael Haynes, whose office began using iPads to publish exhibits on a flat-screen TV about two year ago, demonstrated the shared technology by displaying a photograph using the Elmo, showing video from an iPad and playing a recording from a laptop.

Haynes demonstrated how he used Google Earth to check an address for a defendant seeking a bond reduction. The resulting map, or an exhibit that's marked up by a witness during a trial, can be printed at the new podium that also houses the Elmo.

If attorneys approach the bench for a private sidebar discussion that jurors shouldn't hear, Cappas can activate white noise with the press of a button while the earphones that the court reporter wears can still pick up the conversation among the attorneys.

Mark Pearman, director of data processing, said the county plans to have all the courtrooms outfitted with the new technology by 2015. New technology in the courtrooms of Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Ross Boswell and Lake Circuit Judge George Paras should be operational by the end of April, followed by the felony division courtrooms of Lake Superior Court Judge Clarence Murray and Lake Superior Court Judge Salvador Vasquez, Pearman said. Chief Judge John Pera decided that Judge William Davis in Hammond, Judge Calvin Hawkins in East Chicago, Judge John Sedia in Hammond and Judge Elizabeth Tavitas in Gary will be next in line for the upgrades, followed by Judge Diane Kavadias Schneider and Pera, both in Crown Point, Pearman said.

Pearman said the cost is $30,000 per courtroom, with $6,800 in a state grant only for the Courtroom 4 project, and the remainder from Lake County Commissioners.

Lilia Judson, executive director of the Indiana Supreme Court division of state court administration, said she thinks the technology not only improves courtroom efficiency, "but I think it is enabling judges and the jury to see things better," she said. Haynes demonstrated the magnifying function of the Elmo document camera. The new system would allow lawyers can also prepare cases without paper, which can be more efficient.

David Remondini, chief deputy executive director of the state court administration division, said no more than 10 state court systems in Indiana have the technology that Lake County does, and some only with the limited purpose of video hookups for hearings with inmates in the jail.

"To see something so integrated is very unusual. Lake County is distinguished by its flexibility and the ability to bring in different devices. And it seems that it's easy to use," Remondini said.

Price said tutorial sessions will be offered for members of the defense bar and a five-minute video produced by Lake Central High School students covers the basics.