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player ready...A member of the East Chicago City Council being held in a federal lockup was removed from office Monday.
Council President Juda Parks confirmed the City Council voted 8-0 during a special meeting Monday morning to remove Councilman Robert “Coop” Battle, D-3rd, who was charged last year with drug trafficking and murder in the shooting death of Reimundo Camarillo Jr., 31, in the alley behind Battle’s home.
Battle was re-elected in November while being held in the Lake County Jail on murder charges.
When his case was transferred to federal court, he was moved to the federal lockup in the Porter County Jail, where he remains.
Battle was uncontested in the election. Unofficial 2015 general election results on the Lake County Board of Elections website show that Battle received 308 votes.
Lake County Democratic Chairman Sheriff John Buncich said he was under the impression that Battle would appeal the decision, but that was not confirmed. Battle’s attorney, Jack Friedlander, didn’t return calls for comment.
Joe Curosh III, one of the attorneys for the city, said Battle is entitled to appeal.
“He was removed from office (Monday), so if he takes it to court, the court will make its determination whether the decision stands, or whether it goes back to the council to fix the procedure and vote again to dismiss him, or reinstate him,” Curosh said.
East Chicago City Council Attorney Stephen Bower said the findings of fact from Monday’s special meeting should be complete by Friday. Once Parks signs them, they’ll be submitted to the Lake County clerk’s office and served to the council and Battle.
Buncich then has 30 days to call a caucus to replace him.
Even if Battle files an appeal in court — which he also has 30 days to do — Bower said the only way the caucus would be postponed is if the judge deciding the case issues a temporary restraining order putting a stop to any action until it comes before the court.
That’s a possibility neither he nor Buncich would like to see happen.
“The bottom line is, the city’s 3rd District has had no representation for seven months, and I think that’s ridiculous,” Buncich said Monday. “We tried to get legislation passed downstate, but didn’t, and we did point out to the council that they had legal recourse to expel him.”
According to government filings, Battle has trafficked drugs for years, and police caught him in September when they tracked him to an associate’s house in Michigan and then arrested him in Porter County, where they found $100,700 in cash and a small amount of marijuana on him.
Attorneys in the case said during a detention hearing for Battle last fall that he agreed after his arrest to cooperate with police in doing a controlled drug deal with Camarillo.
Camarillo didn’t show up to the arranged deal, however, and federal officials allowed Battle to remain free.
But Camarillo became suspicious that Battle was cooperating with police when he read in the news about Battle’s arrest, and he went to Battle’s house in East Chicago on the morning of Oct. 12, Friedlander said at the time.
Battle has claimed that the two got into an argument, with Camarillo coming at him with a switchblade knife, and that he shot Camarillo in self-defense.
But federal attorneys have said that Camarillo was shot in the back and that no knife was ever found on Camarillo.
Despite Battle’s being in federal custody, he remains eligible to collect his $42,365 salary until he resigns, admits his guilt on any of the charges or is found guilty in court.
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Battle’s trial is set for Aug. 8.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelancer for the Post-Tribune.