A judge has dismissed a citizen’s lawsuit alleging South Bend Common Council member Sharon McBride should be removed from office because she hasn’t lived in her council district.
In an order filed Tuesday, Special Judge Graham Polando avoided ruling on the heart of resident Brian Collier’s lawsuit, that McBride should lose her council seat because she hasn’t lived in her home in the third council district. McBride has said she has stayed at her mother’s house outside the district because of mold problems in her own home.
Polando cited a recent Indiana Court of Appeals ruling, in a similar case out of Floyd County, finding that a resident lacks standing to bring such a complaint if they aren’t either a candidate for the office or a prosecuting attorney.
That’s a civil matter. There’s still the possibility that McBride could face criminal charges stemming from when she was executive director of the DuComb Center, St. Joseph County's community corrections facility.
The Republican-led county commissioners last year fired McBride, a Democrat, and they asked the Indiana State Police to review of how she had employed her mother at DuComb Center, paying her enough overtime to make her one of the county’s highest-paid employees.
Monroe County Special Prosecutor Chris Gaal, the county’s former Democratic elected prosecutor, is still reviewing the case.
