For three Indiana Court of Appeals judges, their courtroom on Friday looked different — instead of working in a courtroom, they worked in an Indiana University Northwest auditorium.
Appeals Court Judges Nancy Vaidik, Elizabeth Tavitas and Paul Felix heard an oral argument on the Gary campus as part of the Appeals on Wheels program. It was the program’s first visit to Gary since 2002.
Appeals on Wheels is an educational program that travels to high schools, colleges, law schools and courtrooms statewide. Court of Appeals judges hear oral arguments and allow visitors to understand more of the judicial process. In recent years, Appeals on Wheels has traveled to high schools in Portage, Munster, and Valparaiso.
Between 2001 and June 2013, the court has done more than 400 Appeals on Wheels cases, according to the Court of Appeals website. Court of Appeals judges each write about 140 opinions each year, Vaidik said, and look at about 500 appeals.
Appeals on Wheels cases operate the same as in a courtroom, but judges hear questions from audience members. Students from Merrillville High School, Valparaiso High School, Bishop Noll Institute and IUN asked questions Friday.
Questions included how judges stay impartial, how cases are chosen and why they chose to work in law. Attendees weren’t allowed to ask questions about the appeal heard or the judges’ opinions.
“We love to get out,” Vaidik said. “We love to see your faces, and we love to promote what we’re doing in the judiciary and trying to encourage people to become lawyers.
Vaidik is from Portage and previously served as a Porter Superior Court Judge. She told attendees that she loves to return to Northwest Indiana.
“This is a forgotten part of the state when looking at Indiana as a whole,” she told the audience.
Tavitas is from Munster and was a Lake County Superior Court Judge.
Judges heard the arguments in McGee vs. State, an appeal for Jacob McGee, an Indianapolis man found guilty of possession of a machine gun, a Level 5 felony. McGee was sentenced to four years in prison, with two years suspended.
McGee was sentenced in May 2024, according to online court records. He was found in possession of a handgun with a “Glock switch” that allows the gun to be fully automatic.
During his trial, McGee argued that his Second Amendment right to bear arms was violated, according to Court of Appeals information. His attorney, Jan Berg, argued Friday that prosecutors failed to prove that McGee knew the weapon was a machine gun.
“(Police) brought the gun over to him, they showed it to him, and it sounds like he says, ‘It’s a switch,’” Berg argued. “That’s when they asked him if he knew what it did. He said, ‘I haven’t used it, but I’ve been told.’ So, he doesn’t actually say he knows what it does.”
In addition to hearing from Berg, audience members also listened to Deputy Attorney General Justin Roebel’s argument for the state.
“Machine guns are the archetype of a dangerous weapon,” Roebel said Friday. “Machine guns are also uncommon, and they’ve been highly regulated in this country since they were banned under federal law in 1986.”
The court will deliver an opinion on McGee’s appeal at a later date.
