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New judges will preside over 7th District appeals, Mahoning County courts
YOUNGSTOWN
New judges who will preside over both the 7th District Court of Appeals and the Mahoning County Court were chosen by voters Tuesday.
Judge David D’Apolito will now sit on the 7th District Court, and Molly Johnson will preside over the Mahoning County Area Court.
Judge D’Apolito won with 63.44 percent of the total; Johnson won with 11,885 votes, or 25 percent of the votes cast in a field of seven.
Judge D’Apolito, who served as the county court magistrate from 1997 until 2000 and ran as a Democrat, said his top priority as judge is “to issue intelligent, well- written, fair opinions in an efficient, timely manner.”
Judge Kathleen Bartlett, who was appointed to the court in April and ran as a Republican, praised her opponent for a clean race.
“My opponent was honorable the entire time, and we ran the cleanest campaign. I’m grateful to him for that,” she said. “As for me, I’m not sure yet what’s next.”
The 7th District Court of Appeals serves eight counties.
There were six candidates for the Mahoning County Court judgeship.
Johnson, a civil litigation attorney licensed to practice law in both the Northern and Southern District courts in Ohio as well as Pennsylvania, said she was ecstatic and that she’ll work to re-establish misdemeanor drug courts and to be tough on crime during her time as judge.
“I’d like to thank the voters, my state central committeeman and committee chairs Dave Johnson and Mark Munroe, and the Johnson family. We knocked on over 8,000 doors in this race, left blood, sweat and tears all over the county,” she said. “I’d like to thank my opponents, they all worked hard, are all great lawyers, and I expect we’ll see great things from all of them.”
Kathi McNabb Welsh came in second, receiving 21.13 percent of the total vote.
McNabb Welsh is the chief deputy clerk of courts at the Mahoning County Clerk of Courts and a former assistant prosecutor. She said her priority, had she been elected, would have been to conduct a docket review of the current dockets and use surplus court funds for treatment of certain drug offenders.
Other candidates in the race were J.P. Morgan, Matt Gambrel, Christopher Sammarone and A. Ross Douglass.