Wells County Criminal Docket Searches
Need an online Wells County court docket search? Indiana Odyssey Public Access, called MyCase is the main tool. It covers public case information from Wells Circuit Court and Wells Superior Court. A full cause number works best. Wells County criminal causes look like 90C01-2608-F5-000123 for Circuit or 90D01-2608-CM-000123 for Superior. The leading digits mark the court. MyCase usually tolerates missing hyphens and dropped zeroes.
Searching by name works when the number is unknown. Pick Wells County. Choose Criminal & Citation, and filter by Open or Closed status or filing dates only if it helps. Indiana caps how many results return. A very broad common-name search can bury the right cause. The official search tips cover wildcards, sounds-like matching, transfers, and older number formats.
- Choose Case, Name, or Attorney.
- Select Wells County for a county criminal cause.
- Enter the full cause, citation, cross-reference, or party name.
- Apply Criminal & Citation and useful date filters.
- Verify the court, case code, and caption.
MyCase Criminal Filters for Wells
MyCase is the public window into Odyssey, the system Wells County joined in 2018. It is not a certified record. You can search three ways. Case mode takes a case number, citation number, or cross-reference. Name mode takes a last, first, and middle name, a birth date, or a business name. Attorney mode takes counsel's name or bar number.
| Field | Best use | Wells detail |
|---|---|---|
| Case number | Known cause | Look for 90C01 or 90D01 |
| Citation | Citation-based charge | Formats vary |
| Party name | Number unknown | Start with last name |
| Status/dates | Too many results | All, Open, or Closed |
When nothing comes back, loosen a tight date range. Drop the hyphens, and check whether the cause was transferred. Then call the correct clerk counter. A blank result can also mean an expunged, sealed, juvenile, or confidential matter. For filing deadlines, the Indiana e-filing schedule on this official page lists each county's e-filing cutoffs and effective dates.
E-filing creates clerk events, but it does not make every filed item public online.
Criminal Dockets: What They Show
Indiana's official event list is the Chronological Case Summary, or CCS. The clerk enters each line as a short record. Keep two dates straight. The entry date can lag the event itself. Read the description together with any linked order. One line is only an index; it is not a transcript of what was said.
| Case number | County, court, filing month, type, and sequence. |
|---|---|
| Charge | Offense, level, and public amendments. |
| Settings | Arraignment, pretrial, plea, trial, or sentencing events. |
| Orders | Public rulings and selected linked documents. |
| Disposition | Dismissal, plea, trial result, deferral, or sentence. |
Some final judgments and sentencing orders can be downloaded. Police reports, discovery, medical material, and probation files are not all published. A missing document icon proves nothing about whether a public paper exists.
Wells Criminal Docket Codes
The prefix tells you the court. 90C01 marks Wells Circuit Court, and 90D01 marks Wells Superior Court. Modern felonies run F1 through F6. Causes converted from the old scheme may carry CF, FA, FB, FC, or FD. A few more codes matter. CM stands for misdemeanor, MC for miscellaneous criminal, PC for post-conviction, and RF for red-flag proceedings.
- CCS
- The clerk's chronological event list.
- Setting
- A scheduled event, which may not be trial.
- Disposed
- A statistical status, not a synonym for guilty.
- FTA
- Failure to appear for a required setting.
- Transfer
- Movement to another court with number history.
Do not treat a dismissal, a deferred result, a guilty plea, and a trial judgment as the same thing. The Indiana statistics definitions help with aggregate counts; for one public case, rely on the CCS and the final order.
Criminal Case Stages on the Docket
A Wells County criminal docket opens with a filing. That may be a probable cause finding or an initial hearing. Arraignment records the first formal response to the charges. Pretrial settings may cover counsel, discovery, motions, plea talks, or readiness. Charges then resolve through a plea hearing or a trial. Judgment and sentencing follow when needed. Financial, probation, appeal, or post-conviction entries can stretch the CCS for years.
Docket flow: Filing → Arraignment → Pretrial → Plea or Trial → Disposition → Sentencing
A reset is not a dismissal. It only moves a setting. Transfers carry a related case to a new court while keeping the number history intact. Compare the newest entry against the prior order, then verify any time-sensitive date with the clerk.
Wells Felony and Misdemeanor Routing
Wells splits criminal work by severity and by connection between cases. For conduct on or after July 1, 2014, a Level 5 felony or higher lands in Wells Circuit Court. That is the general rule. An ordinary misdemeanor with no tied Circuit felony generally lands in Wells Superior Court. A new charge related to one pending in Circuit follows that cause. A related Superior matter transfers over.
| Situation | Usual docket |
|---|---|
| Level 5 felony or higher | Circuit, 90C01 |
| Stand-alone misdemeanor | Superior, 90D01 |
| Related Circuit charge | Circuit with transfer trail |
| Refiling after dismissal | Originating court unless venue changes |
Criminal non-support can stay with the court that set the support duty. An invasion-of-privacy charge tied to a Wells order can follow the court that issued it. The label on the charge does not always tell you the court.
Wells County Criminal Docket Courts
Both courts sit in the county courthouse: Wells Circuit Court and Wells Superior Court. County Clerk Beth Davis staffs separate service counters for each. When you contact staff, give the court code, the full cause number, the document you want, and whether you need a plain or certified copy.
Wells County Clerk Counters
102 W. Market St., Suite 201
Bluffton, IN 46714
Circuit: (260) 824-6479
Superior: (260) 824-6483
Weekdays, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
clerk@wellscounty.org
The clerk takes phone calls, email, and walk-in visits. A mailed request may work, but no single posted rule covers mail payment, ID, or turnaround, so call before mailing anything original. Fax numbers exist. Pleadings and motions cannot be filed by fax.
Note: The courthouse does not promise a public records terminal or same-day certification, so confirm both services before you travel.
Wells Criminal Settings and FTA
Under Wells local rule LR90-AR00-1, a failure-to-appear response can follow after fifteen minutes late to a noticed proceeding. A MyCase setting helps, but a later order can reset it. CourtCal runs separately from MyCase, and it posts a Wells Circuit calendar without one for Wells Superior.
Time-sensitive setting: Confirm the latest date and courtroom with the court or clerk. A stale result is not permission to miss an appearance.
Wells County local rules put real limits on devices. Unauthorized recording and photography are barred in the courtrooms, court offices, jury rooms, probation offices, and the adjacent third-floor hall. Results land in the CCS, while a transcript is a separate product prepared by the court reporter.
Access Rules for Criminal Dockets
Indiana Access Rule 4 opens court records to the public. Another rule, law, or order can say otherwise. Rule 5 then lists the restricted cases, papers, and personal data. So a Wells County criminal docket can omit or redact material. That covers sealed, expunged, juvenile, mental-health, medical, treatment, and protected witness or victim material.
Access works in layers. MyCase is free to search. When a public filing is missing, call, email, or visit the clerk and ask. Request official copies that way too. Mail works once you confirm the terms. The county's general request form cannot override a court rule or a sealing order.
For the orders issued under these access rules, the Indiana access-rule orders source collects them in one place.
That is why one filing can stay hidden while the rest of a public case remains open to view.
Public does not mean complete online access. MyCase is not the official record. Ask the clerk for a public item that lacks a link.
Wells Criminal Dockets in Federal Court
A federal criminal case with roots in Wells County never touches the county CCS. It belongs to the Northern District of Indiana. That court runs its own docket through CM/ECF and PACER. Pull the federal docket there. You can also ask the federal clerk about terminal access at the courthouse. Expect fees: PACER sets its own charges, with federal caps and quarterly fee waivers.
For the cost details, the official PACER pricing source spells out how those charges work.
This federal channel is separate from MyCase and the Wells County clerk counters.