HAMMOND | Neither the White House nor U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., will comment on possible efforts to find a new federal judge for the Northern Indiana district.

The Web site for the U.S. court system indicates one of the five judgeships in the U.S. District Court of Northern Indiana has been vacant since November when Judge Allen Sharp, who sits in South Bend, assumed the title of senior judge, which is tantamount to semi-retirement. Sharp has been a federal judge since the early 1970s.

The Web site indicates no one has been nominated to fill that vacancy.

Andy Fisher, spokesman for Lugar, said this week that comment on a possible replacement would have to come from the White House.

The president officially names judicial candidates for Senate approval. Emily Lawrimore, a White House press secretary, said this week she isn't allowed to comment on judicial nominations until they are announced by the president.

A law enforcement source said the new federal judge could come from the Northern Indiana U.S. attorney's office. Acting U.S. Attorney David Capp couldn't be reached Thursday for comment.

The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana's office has been the source for three sitting federal judges in the district.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen served as U.S. attorney in Hammond from 2001 until last year when he was appointed to replace Judge Rudy Lozano, who also took senior status. Judges William C. Lee and Philip P. Simon also had served in the U.S. attorney's office before ascending to the bench.

Sharp was appointed U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Indiana in 1973 and was chief judge of the district from 1981 to 1996. He received his law degree from Indiana University in 1957 and a master's degree from Butler University in 1986. He served as a state appellate court judge from 1969 to 1973 and presided over civil and criminal jury trials in seven different locations in four different U.S. districts during three decades of service.