Two of them were shot after their companion flipped off men who yelled from a passing car.
(CNN) — Three Indiana judges have been suspended without pay for their involvement in a drunken fight outside a White Castle, according to court documents.
An opinion from the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that the three judges — Andrew Adams of Clark Circuit Court 1, Bradley B. Jacobs of Clark Circuit Court 2 and Sabrina R. Bell of the Crawford Circuit Court — engaged in judicial misconduct by participating in the brawl in the downtown Indianapolis parking lot.
Adams, Bell and Jacobs arrived in Indianapolis for a statewide judicial educational event on April 30 and began to drink and socialize, the document said.
At around 3 a.m. the next morning, the judges walked together to the Red Garter strip club, the document said. But the club was closed and they walked to a nearby White Castle restaurant.
While they were standing in the White Castle parking lot, two men drove by and shouted something at the three judges. Bell raised her middle finger to the men, the document said, and they pulled into the lot and the five began to argue.
The document said Bell was intoxicated at the time and has no memory of the incident or what was said to incite it.
The verbal argument then turned physical, with Jacobs bringing one of the men to the ground and Adams kicking him in the back. The fight ended when the man pulled out a gun and shot Adams once and Jacobs twice, the document said. The men underwent emergency surgeries.
At the hospital, Adams’ blood alcohol level was 0.157 percent and Jacobs’ was about 0.13. Bell’s blood alcohol level was not tested,
The Indiana Supreme Court ruled that by engaging in the conflict, the judges fell short of their directive to “aspire at all times to conduct that ensures the greatest possible public confidence in their independence, impartiality, integrity, and competence.”
Adams was suspended without pay for 60 days and Jacobs and Bell for 30 days.
Adams, the only one of the three charged with a crime, pleaded guilty in September to misdemeanor battery. He received a sentence of 365 days in jail. He served two days, and the remaining 363 were suspended, meaning he will serve no further time.
The man who allegedly shot the judges is scheduled to go on trial in January.
The-CNN-Wire
& © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
