Saturday, February 18, 2012
CANFIELD
Arrangements are pending at the Lane Funeral Home in Canfield for former Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert G. Lisotto, 65, who died Thursday evening in North Canton.
Judge Lisotto was a graduate of Baldwin High School in Pittsburgh, Youngstown State University and St. Mary’s Law School in San Antonio, Texas, and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1973.
He taught English at Princeton Junior High School in 1969-70 and served in the Adjutant General Corps at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind.
He was elected as a county court judge and assigned to Canfield court in 1988 and later to Boardman court. He was elected to the common pleas court bench in 1996 and re-elected to the common pleas judgeship in 2002.
“Bob was a very knowledgeable, mild-mannered gentleman,” and “a nice, easy-going guy,” said Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
“As a practicing lawyer and as a judge, I can honestly say I don’t think that I ever saw him lose his temper,” Judge Evans said, adding that he never heard Judge Lisotto say anything derogatory about anyone.
“He was a fair and just man, and it was a pleasure to work for him,” said Robert Regula, common pleas court administrator, who was an assistant case assignment officer while Judge Lisotto was on the common pleas bench. Judge Lisotto had a pleasant and professional judicial temperament, Regula recalled.
“He was a fine judge,” and a fair judge both on the county court and common pleas benches, said county Prosecutor Paul J. Gains.
“He was an excellent skier,” said Gains, who recalled going downhill skiing with Judge Lisotto.
The first video arraignments from Mahoning County jail occurred in Judge Lisotto’s court in March 1997, a year after the new jail opened.
After he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Judge Lisotto retired in July 2004 and was succeeded on the common pleas bench by Judge Maureen A. Sweeney.
In October 2004, he was inducted into the Mahoning County Democratic Hall of Fame.