Dale Arnett Removed

The Indiana Supreme Court permanently banned Randolph County Superior Judge Dale Arnett from judicial service on November 21, 2025, finding a long pattern of mismanagement, delay, and dereliction of his judicial duties across 11 counts of misconduct. The court found Arnett routinely failed to set timely hearing dates for arrested defendants — one man remained in jail for 227 days without ever getting an initial hearing. Ten separate criminal cases between April 2023 and August 2025 were dismissed outright because Arnett failed to bring the defendants to trial on time.

Investigators also identified 90 cases missing judgments of conviction, sentencing orders, or abstracts of judgment, with delays in producing that paperwork ranging from 31 days to 798 days.

Arnett was ordered to resign to the Governor by November 26, 2025, and permanently banned from ever serving as a judge in Indiana again, though he retained his law license.