In an strikingly rare move, the Indiana Supreme Court banned a retired Franklin County judge from ever sitting on the bench again.
“Due to his egregious misconduct, the Honorable J. Steven Cox is hereby publicly reprimanded and permanently banned from judicial service,” a March 19 opinion read.
The disciplinary sanction will block Cox from joining the ranks of Indiana’s senior judges— retired or former judges who hear cases on an as-needed basis.
Cox retired on Dec. 31, 2024 after presiding over Franklin Circuit Court for 30 years. Four months after he stepped down, Cox was accused of engaging in ex parte communication, an off-the-record interaction between a judge and an interested party, and of unilaterally rejecting all written plea agreements filed during his last year and a half on the bench.
Cox’s attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment.
All four Supreme Court justices who considered the case agreed that the former allegation constituted serious judicial misconduct, but only Chief Justice Loretta Rush found that the latter accusation violated the Code of Judicial Conduct.
The April 3, 2025 complaint was the fifth disciplinary action levied against Cox, and the third related to an ex parte communication — which is explicitly barred by the Indiana Code of Judicial Conduct and condemned by the American Bar Association. Only one of Cox’s prior four cases had resulted in a public admonition, according to court documents.
The case at the center of the most recent ex parte allegation was that of Gregory Guilfoyle, a former police officer who shot his pregnant wife in the head and then left her for dead in a blizzard days before Christmas in 2022. Guilfoyle was seriously injured in a subsequent shootout with police and charged with attempted murder while recuperating from his injuries.
Cox oversaw the case and ordered Guilfoyle confined to home detention following his release from the hospital. Cox also mandated that a probation officer check on Guilfoyle weekly and report back on his recovery.
But immediately after the first progress report was filed, Cox asked the probation officer to take him to Guilfoyle’s home, where he spoke directly with the defendant and his parents.
The judge “felt he had a responsibility to know the home’s condition to ensure the placement was appropriate and to protect himself and the court from liability,” according to court documents.
Though a personal visit could potentially be justified under very narrow circumstances outlined in Indiana’s rules of judicial conduct, none of them applied at the time, the opinion said. Even if the visit had been permissible, the judge did not fulfill his obligation to promptly notify the prosecution and defense of the meeting and its substance. Neither side was informed for two months, according to court documents.
The court found that the unlawful visit influenced Cox’s later rulings in the case. At the time of the visit, the judge had yet to decide on the defense’s pending motion for a psychiatric evaluation. Cox eventually denied the request and “made clear” that the ex parte communication factored into his decision, the court wrote, further violating the state’s rules of judicial conduct.
In 2025, Guilfoyle was found guilty but mentally ill of multiple felonies including attempted murder. Judge Brian Hill sentenced him to 100 years in prison. He appealed, arguing that he’d proved he was insane at the time of the crime. The conviction was upheld by an Indiana appeals court earlier this month, though his sentence was reduced to 80 years. His defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Justice Derek Molter wrote in a concurring opinion published March 19 that while he agreed with Cox’s permanent ban from the bench, he was not convinced Cox’s treatment of plea deals had provably violated the judicial code. Justices Massa and Slaughter joined his opinion.
“I’m skeptical the judge’s categorical approach was the best one. But I’m equally skeptical that it reflects a clear and convincing violation of the Code,” Molter wrote. The practice is common, he explained, and the law is less than clear.
A lifetime ban is the most serious action the Supreme Court can take against a judge, and while the sanction is typically imposed only about once per decade, Cox’s ban is the second handed down within the last year. In September 2025, Howard County Judge Matthew Elkin was ordered to resign and permanently barred from judicial service. It was the first time the court made such a decision since 2014.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Former Franklin County judge permanently banned from bench
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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