Column: Emma Horner, remembered

Dear readers,

Emma Horner, a well-known member of our community passed recently. I’m certain that hearing the news brought sadness to many. It did me. 

I met Emma over 40 years ago during the time she served as the Chief Probation Officer for Shelby County. Even though she retired over 30 years ago, she stopped by my office this past Christmas with her good friend Carolyn Moheban and brought me a fruitcake. 

Let’s turn back time for a sentimental memory or two. Look closely at the photo. It isn’t a particularly good photo. I’m sure if it was taken today, the photographer would have taken another one or pushed a button to correct the focus and remove the glare.

Of course, in those days that wasn’t an option. After taking a photograph, the film had to be dropped off at the drug store to be developed. Part of the fun of taking photos was the anticipation of waiting for the “prints” and the surprise of seeing how they turned out. 

Left to right, Emma is the first person in the front row followed by me and court reporter Pam Hupp. In the second row is prosecutor Jim Lisher, Laura Kern (secretary), Charlie Brown (probation officer), Kim Wilgus (court staff), Barb Stats (court staff), and Tom DeBaun (probation officer and our current mayor). 

One of Emma’s proudest achievements was implementing the Guardian ad Litem program, which is now known as CASA. It is a program that helps children involved in court cases.

One of my favorite Emma Horner stories happened when George Tolen was judge. In an attempt to straighten out local juvenile delinquents, Emma was trying out a new program involving psychological testing. 

The delinquent would take a multiple-choice test with hundreds of questions. Emma would mail the test to a psychologist who would issue a report as to the adolescent’s personality traits.

One day Emma asked prosecutor Jeff Linder and me to stop by her office. She needed advice on handling a horrible dilemma involving Judge Tolen. 

For you readers who didn’t know Judge Tolen, he was known for being opinionated, stubborn, bull-headed, and sometimes unreasonable. At least that was his reputation among his friends. 

Tolen once banned defense attorney Vance McQueen from practicing in his court for 90 days. An order that was later reversed by the Indiana Supreme Court.

Tolen played no favorites. He wasn’t just tough on defense lawyers. He once gave prosecutor Jerry Lux the choice of taking part in picking a special judge or going to jail. More than a few lawyers held the opinion that Judge Tolen was crazy.

Emma told us that Judge Tolen was skeptical about using the psychological testing. Tolen had taken one of the tests himself and told Emma to send it to the psychologist under a fake name. Emma didn’t think it was fair to the psychologist who was scoring the test, but she also didn’t want to disobey the judge. Besides, Emma said, “What if the report finds that Judge Tolen is crazy?” 

After discussing the problem, the decision was made to send the test to the psychologist under a fake name as requested.  

Several weeks later when the report arrived, it wasn’t flattering. The report found the fictional delinquent to be opinionated, stubborn, bull-headed, and unreasonable. After reading the report, Judge Tolen said that he was surprised at the accuracy of the test. Emma was free to continue using the tests. And as an additional benefit, those who thought Judge Tolen was crazy were proved wrong. 

As Paul Harvey always said, “Now you know the rest of the story.”

 See you all next week, same Schwinn time, same Schwinn channel.

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