A day in court: SK hynix, Rainbow Trout Solar and Teising v. Wabash Township

Back-to-back-to-back on Monday.

• Support for this edition also comes from the Unitarian Universalist Church’s annual Holiday Art Fair, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 5-6. For more than 50 years, the UU Holiday Art Fair has been the place to find unique gifts including jewelry, handmade soap, ceramics, glassware, fiber arts, watercolors, ornaments, cards and more. Gourmet food, desserts, and live music make it an event you won’t want to miss. Learn about the artists and more at www.facebook.com/UUArtFair.

• Support for this edition comes from Purdue Musical Organizations, presenting the 92nd annual Purdue Christmas Show. The Christmas Show will shine Boilermaker bright with an all-student cast, festive music and dazzling performances. Tickets are now on sale for the Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 6-7, shows, where audiences of all ages will come together to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season at this timeless Purdue tradition. Get your tickets here.

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A DAY IN COURT: SK HYNIX, RAINBOW TROUT SOLAR AND TEISING V. WABASH TOWNSHIP

Three high-profile cases – a former township trustee’s defamation claims; a pair of lawsuits looking to negate zoning for the $3.87 billion SK hynix semiconductor site; and Rainbow Trout Solar’s attempt to overturn a vote that stopped its 1,700-acre plan in western Tippecanoe County – wound up back-to-back-to-back in Tippecanoe Circuit Court Monday.

Each hearing dealt with incremental, though potentially consequential, movement in cases still not at trial stage.

Here’s how Monday played out.

WABASH TOWNSHIP’S ATTEMPT TO DISMISS EX-TRUSTEE’S DEFAMATION COMES DOWN TO QUESTIONS OF TIMING

Jennifer Rae Teising, the former Wabash Township trustee ousted in 2022 on office-related criminal charges later overturned, is likely due the $39,992 in backpay for the months she would have been in office in the final year of her term, a judge said Monday during a hearing in her defamation case against the township and assorted township officials.

Jennifer Rae Teising (Photo: Dave Bangert)

The township is ready to pay that, with the Wabash Township Board authorizing sending that amount to the court to hold two weeks ago – a move that Ryan Sterling, attorney for the township, said Monday was not an admission to Teising’s allegations beyond a state law that says the former trustee is due that salary due to a conviction that was later reversed.

Other aspects of Teising’s complaint and demands for up to $820,000 in damages – including claims that she was illegally surveilled and tracked and then defamed by a narrative spread that she’d abandoned her elected office by moving away, leading to criminal charges of theft – still weren’t as clear, Tippecanoe Circuit Court Judge Sean Persin said.