Valley’s newest judge credits his family

By Ed Runyan

The judge stressed his hope that people will see him as honest and fair.

YOUNGSTOWN — After taking the oath of office as a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge, longtime defense and personal injury lawyer Lou D’Apolito thanked the many other D’Apolito family members in the community whose good reputations helped him get elected this year.

Judge D’Apolito, speaking Monday to the crowd in the Mahoning County Courthouse rotunda, thanked “my cousins, my uncles, aunts — for living the kinds of lives they have, for setting the example for us — we cousins and we nephews — because without them doing that over these years, I wouldn’t be standing here today.”

Helping him get elected, the 64-year-old Boardman attorney said, was the name recognition of his blue-collar uncles from the South Side and the younger generation of D’Apolitos, including his cousin, Atty. David D’Apolito, judge of the county court in Austintown, his son, Anthony D’Apolito, magistrate in Mahoning County Juvenile Court, and others.

His stepson, Robert Rohrbaugh, is also a local attorney.

“I’m proud to say my friends and family make me proud to say they are my friends and family,” he said.

The 1962 South High School graduate who played football in high school and college and then taught at St. Stephen School in Niles before going to law school, said he believes his 35 years of experience in criminal and civil law has prepared him to serve as common pleas court judge.

“I’ve tried just about every kind of case there is to try ... every particular kind of problem one might encounter as a judge,” he said.

During the first half of his legal career, he was a criminal defense lawyer. In the second half, he represented clients in personal injury cases, he said.

Judge D’Apolito praised the four other common pleas court judges as honest, hard-working people and said he looks forward to being “a great judge someday.”

“My goal is to make sure that people who come before me say I was a good judge and say I was honest with them,” he said.

He said he hopes people will feel like they had “a fair day in my court, regardless of the way it turned out, and that I never looked at the size of the person, the size of their wallet, the color of their skin,” he added.

He defeated the incumbent judge, Timothy E. Franken, and two others, in the primary election and had no opponent in last month’s general election.

Gov. Ted Strickland appointed Franken to the position after Maureen A. Cronin retired in 2007. Judge D’Apolito’s term runs through the end of 2012.

runyan@vindy.com