The 'First-Time Offender' Judge Had a 2009 OWI: State Regulators Charge Porter County's Christopher Buckley

Porter Superior Court 4 Judge Christopher A. Buckley in a photo released by police after his Aug. 15, 2026 OWI arrest in Michigan City. Photo: provided by police (via WSBT 22)

The decal ran the length of the black Lincoln Navigator: KEEP BUCKLEY JUDGE. When a Michigan City police captain walked up on the night of Aug. 15 and asked the driver, "Can I help you?", Porter Superior Court Judge Christopher A. Buckley answered with a question of his own. "Can't you read?" he said, and gestured at his campaign sign, according to formal charges filed Friday by the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications.

A blood draw later put Buckley at .221, nearly three times Indiana's .08 limit. Two days after the arrest he stood in a La Porte County courtroom and pleaded guilty, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported.

Now the state's judicial watchdog has charged him with two counts of misconduct: one for the OWI conviction itself, and one for leaning on his title, again and again, to try to talk his way out of the arrest. The commission's 12-page filing also lays out a history that sits uneasily beside the way his criminal case was handled.

"First-time offender"

The plea came fast. Buckley was first charged with two Class A misdemeanors, driving with a blood alcohol concentration of .15 or more and OWI endangering a person, plus a Class C OWI count. On Aug. 17 he pleaded guilty to the Class C count, and the two heavier charges were dismissed under the plea agreement. His sentence was 60 days in jail with 58 suspended, 180 days of probation, and an alcohol evaluation and treatment, according to the commission's filing.

La Porte County Prosecutor Sean Fagan told WSBT that his office agreed to the quickly negotiated sentence for reasons that included Buckley being a first-time offender, and that the punishment was standard for a first OWI without injury or death. "It made sense," Fagan said.

The commission's filing reads differently on the word "first." It states that on Aug. 3, 2009, while he was still in law school, Buckley was convicted of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a Class C misdemeanor, in Hobart City Court.

To be fair to the prosecutor, that conviction is 17 years old. Indiana law raises a repeat OWI to a Level 6 felony only when the earlier conviction falls within the previous seven years, so the 2009 case could not have changed the charge level. But "first-time offender" was part of the public reasoning for a deal that erased two Class A counts for a sitting judge, and Hoosiers are entitled to know whether the prosecutor's office knew about the earlier conviction when it signed off. The Hoosier Enquirer found no public statement from the office addressing that.

Already under a sobriety agreement

The August arrest was not the commission's first encounter with Buckley. According to its filing:

• In November 2021 the commission publicly admonished him for revoking defendants' bonds as Lowell Town Court judge without following statutory guidelines or giving defendants notice and a chance to respond.

• In September 2024 he self-reported a dispute with his wife, on a night he had been drinking, that led to a report to Valparaiso police. A special prosecutor declined to file criminal charges.

• On March 31, 2025, he and the commission entered a deferred resolution agreement, meant to run until March 2027, that required continued therapy and a monitoring agreement with the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program. The commission kept the right to bring formal charges if he committed new misconduct.

He was still inside that agreement when he pulled into a closed-off area at Michigan City's "Live at the Lakefront" concert. The arrest led the commission to rescind it.

The commission also says its investigators confirmed a case of Irish Pub Pack beer in Buckley's chambers, stored under the coat rack where he hung his judicial robe, and that court staff reported he arrived at work "reeking" of alcohol on May 6, 2026. Those are allegations in a disciplinary filing, and Buckley has not yet answered them.

"I'm a Judge"

The second count goes to the promise every courtroom makes: the same law for everyone. The filing says Buckley first refused field sobriety tests, saying the officer was going to ruin his career or life, while a passenger reminded Capt. Gregory Jesse that Buckley was a judge. Three times he walked away from officers. When the captain took his arm, Buckley said, "I'm a Judge." After he refused a breath test and the captain called the on-call prosecutor for a search warrant, he said, "I'm a Judge; you've just ruined my career."

During transport, according to the commission, he asked which judge had signed the warrant, said that judge was his friend, and mentioned that the Fraternal Order of Police had endorsed his campaign. At the hospital he worried aloud about his "career and pension." He also told officers he could not finish the walk-and-turn or one-leg-stand tests because he is a disabled veteran with balance issues, after telling the captain beforehand that he had no leg, knee or hip problems.

Indiana's Code of Judicial Conduct anticipates exactly this. The commentary to Rule 1.3, quoted in the filing, says it is improper for a judge "to allude to his or her judicial status to gain favorable treatment in encounters with traffic officials."

The officers deserve credit here. A captain working off-duty security at a lakefront concert called for backup, read the implied consent warning, got a warrant and got the blood, robe or no robe. That is how it is supposed to go for every driver in Indiana.

What happens now

Buckley, 46, is representing himself and has 20 days to file an answer, though he is not required to. The commission has asked the Indiana Supreme Court to appoint three masters to hold a public hearing. The justices have the final word, and their options run from dismissal or a fine to a reprimand, a suspension, or a permanent ban from judicial office. Senior Judge Michael N. Pagano is hearing Porter Superior Court 4 cases under an Oct. 14 Supreme Court order, Lakeshore Public Media reported. Judicial discipline cases are rare; The Indiana Lawyer notes the Supreme Court counted only four in its 2024-2025 annual report.

Buckley did not immediately respond to The Indiana Lawyer's request for comment Friday. In his August statement, quoted by WSBT, he said "officers of the court should be held to a higher standard of conduct than an ordinary citizen, much higher than the standard of conduct I displayed this past Saturday night," and said he has struggled with alcohol since his service in the U.S. Marine Corps more than 20 years ago.

He also said in August that he was temporarily suspending his re-election campaign. His name nonetheless remains on the Nov. 3 ballot for Porter Superior Court 4, as the Republican nominee opposite Democrat Heather A. McCarthy, Hobart's city attorney, according to the secretary of state's candidate list as compiled by The Ballot Brief.

Buckley wrote that judges belong to a higher standard. The commission is now asking the Supreme Court to hold him to one.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.