My first contact with the name Sabrina Bell came in 2019 when she and other (male) downstate judges and a magistrate partied hard after driving up to Indianapolis for a judicial conference. After far too many hours of drinking and bar-hopping a group of four found themselves at a downtown White Castle Restaurant around 3:15 a.m. Three of the group were outside the restaurant behaving “in an injudicious manner” according to the Statement of Charges in cause no. 19S-JD-567. Judge Sabrina Bell, Judge Andrew Adams, and Judge Bradley Jacobs got into a heated verbal confrontation with two men arriving at the White Castle in a blue SUV. The argument escalated and became a physical confrontation during which both male judges were wounded by gunfire. In the aftermath Judge Bell admitted her provocation of the men in the SUV. She was certainly intoxicated (in a public place) and described herself as “mouthy,” “fiery,” and “feisty.”
The two wounded judges survived. Judge Adams was suspended for 60 days. Judges Jacobs and Bell were suspended for 30 days each.
The CLB took no further notice of Judge Bell until May 12, 2022 when she was suspended from her judicial position with pay in cause no. 22S-JD-00148. The duration of the suspension is indefinite, “until further order of court” and appears to be the automatic consequence of the filing of a felony Information against her by a special prosecutor. See Indiana Admission and Discipline Rule 25(V)(A).
Judge Bell had just been charged with F6 Domestic Battery in cause no 13C01-2205-F6-39.¹ What was otherwise a misdemeanor battery was elevated to F6 felony status by the presence of children when Judge Bell bitch-slapped her ex-husband who was at the judge’s residence to begin visitation with the children of the dissolved marriage.
It appears that the “interim suspension” of Judge Sabrina Bell will most likely persist while the prosecution is pending. Still, there seems to be no explicit requirement of such in the cited rule. In any event, there is no presumption of innocence for any Hoosier judge charged with a felony.
Sabrina was admitted to the practice of law in 2011 and became a Circuit Court judge a mere six years later. There is hardly any (Odyssey) record of her participation in litigation prior to the judgeship. No study has been made of her record of reversal and affirmance as a trial judge.
Judge Adams was charged and convicted of some criminal offense connected to the White Castle brawl. It appears that the Odyssey record of that prosecution is either sealed or (prematurely) expunged. When the White Castle incident took place, Judge Adams was already under interim suspension (as Judge Bell is now) for having been indicted for F6 Felony Battery. It appears that he is no longer a judge but rather a practicing attorney. Judge Jacobs has earned CLB criticism for two reversals on a single day by two different COA panels and by the outrageous sentence of one year for a Class B misdemeanor, as to which the maximum punishment happens to be a sentence of180 days.
If I represented Judge Bell, I would probably be recommending JLAP and discussing with her the relative weight to be assigned to saving the judicial position versus avoidance of a felony conviction and (perhaps) preserving child custody. The CLB wishes her the best of luck, which she will likely need.
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¹ Ironically, it seems that the case was filed in Judge Bell’s own court.
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