Charnette Garner
Recommended for Retention
Judge Charnette Garner was elected for retention in November 2024. She was recommended to continue to serve on the Marion Superior Court bench by:
- Marion County Judicial Selection Committee
- Indianapolis Bar Association
Biography and Photo Courtesy of Judge Charnette Garner.
Judge Garner was appointed to the Marion Superior Court in 2018 by Governor Eric J. Holcomb and assumed office on January 1, 2019. She was selected by her colleagues to serve a two-year term as Presiding Judge of the Marion Superior Court beginning January 2023. As the Presiding Judge, she is responsible for the administration of the Marion Superior Court including the court’s annual budget.
Prior to joining the bench, Judge Garner served as Chief Counsel for the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office where she served as counsel to the Elected Prosecutor and managed a staff of more than 300 employees. Judge Garner was previously employed as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, Deputy Prosecutor for the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, and as an Assistant Attorney General for the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.
Judge Garner graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1999 from Indiana State University, where she majored in political science. She graduated from the University of Missouri Columbia School of Law in 2002 and was admitted to the Missouri Bar that same year. Judge Garner was subsequently admitted to the Indiana Bar in 2004.
Judge Garner serves on the Indiana Judicial Conference Board of Directors and the Indiana Judicial Conference Education Committee. She currently serves as President of the Marion County Bar Association. She is a masters member of the McKinney-Shepard Indianapolis Inn of Court, the Indianapolis Bar Association, Indiana State Bar Association, and the National Bar Association.
Judge Garner is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She currently serves on the graduate advisor’s council for the Epsilon Xi chapter located at Indiana State University where she assists the graduate advisor and serves as a mentor to the members of the undergraduate chapter. In 2024, she was awarded the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated Gisele M. Casanova Outstanding Leadership Award.
In 2023, Judge Garner was inducted into the Fulton Public Schools Foundation Hall of Fame, received the National Bar Association’s Women Lawyers Division Outstanding Public Service Lawyer award, and was recognized as a Distinguished Fellow of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation.
