Order in Judge New’s Court? You Bet!

From Time to Thyme

By Paula Dunn

I’ve been thinking about writing about Judge Edward F. New, Jr. for a long time, but I put it off because I knew there was so much material to work with that it would be harder to decide what to leave out of the column than to figure out what to put in.

If you weren’t around when Judge New was in charge of the Hamilton County Circuit Court, I’d better explain.

Judge New was, hands down, the most controversial public figure in this county during the 12 years he was on the bench. In fact, I can’t think of any single person who created more of a stir during my lifetime.

Just a little background . . . 

The judge was born in Virginia and grew up in Indianapolis where he attended Shortridge High School. After graduating from Stetson University and the Indiana University Law School, he began practicing law in Indianapolis in 1947. He moved to Clay Township in 1961.

In 1964, he ran for Hamilton County Circuit Court Judge on the Republican ticket, promising to get tough on juvenile defendants.

Boy, did he keep that promise.

Previously, it had been customary for juvenile cases to be held in a closed court, but Judge New considered that “coddling” the youngsters. From the get-go he made it clear he’d be holding an open court, and he expected the local press to print the offenders’ names and details of their arrests.

One of the first teens to run afoul of the judge was a 16 year-old high school dropout hauled in on a drinking charge and / or curfew violation (accounts differ) on Christmas Eve, 1964. (New served as acting judge for two weeks before assuming his official duties on Jan. 1.) 

Judge New had the boy fingerprinted and photographed, and issued an order that thereafter ALL juveniles over 15 would receive the same treatment.

The teen was held in jail over Christmas and didn’t appear before the judge until Jan. 2. At that time he was ordered to return to school, to report to the Probation Officer daily for work at the courthouse, to give up driving until he was 21 and to stay out of trouble.

The boy’s mother wholeheartedly approved of Judge New’s strict probation policy. A couple of months later she wrote a letter to the Noblesville Daily Ledger praising New for forcing her son to return to school and proudly noting that the boy had just made the honor roll.

Well, that was one opinion of Judge New’s harsh new approach to juvenile justice.

What I remember about Judge New (apart from his trademark bowtie) is that he was — and this is putting it mildly — not very popular with people around my age. 

I can’t say how effective his policies were overall in curbing juvenile delinquency in this county, but even he admitted in a later interview in the Hamiltontonian magazine that the open court idea didn’t work. He abandoned it after a while because, according to him, “the local press turned it into a circus.”

In addition to his treatment of juvenile offenders, Judge New also became known for some rather creative sentencing.

Just one example — in 1965, he sentenced a man to 364 days at the Indiana State Farm at Putnamville. On the 365th day, the defendant was to appear back in court. At that time, the man’s wife was supposed to decide if she wanted her husband back. If she didn’t, the man would be shipped back to the State Farm for another 364 days. This was to go on indefinitely, until — I assume — she either took him back or dumped him completely. (I found no followup story.)

Oh, but there’s SO much more. I’ll get into THAT next week. Paula Dunn’s From Time to Thyme column appears on Wednesdays in The Times. Contact her at [email protected]