Attorney Wesley Buchanan challenging Portage County Common Pleas Judge Laurie Pittman

Voters will have an opportunity during the Nov. 8 general election to choose who will oversee one of the two Portage County Court of Common Pleas courtrooms for the next six years.

Attorney Wesley C. Buchanan is challenging incumbent Judge Laurie J. Pittman. The next term begins Jan. 1.

Pittman is running for a fourth, six-year term. She previously served as as a Portage County municipal court judge and has been a private practice attorney.

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Buchanan works in private practice in Akron. He ran unsuccessfully against Portage County Municipal Court Judge Kevin Poland in November 2021.

Pittman agreed to be interviewed for this story. Buchanan submitted information and comments in writing in response to requests to be interviewed.

Buchanan want to 'make a difference'

Buchanan, a Brimfield resident, received a bachelor's degree in economics, with a minor in communications and finance from Heidelberg College. He then attended the University of Akron School of Law, where he was on the school's nationally-ranked trial team, and was admitted to the bar in 2013 and started his own law firm.

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Buchanan mainly practices criminal law, appearing in numerous courts in Ohio, and is certified by the Ohio Supreme Court as a trial co-counsel representing indigent defendants in capital cases.

Buchanan participated in the 2018 Ohio State Bar Leadership Academy, limited to 24 attorneys who have practiced for one to 10 years, and is a member of the Portage County and Akron bar associations. He has served on the Portage County Bar Association's Grievance Committee, which investigates complaints against attorneys.

Buchanan said he "wants to raise the professionalism and civility in the courthouse by creating a team environment to better serve Portage County. This will ensure that each person will have their rights respected and the law upheld."

He said he believes that every Portage County resident should be eligible for HOPE Court, which is Portage County’s felony drug court. He said that if elected, he will work with the Portage County Adult Probation Department, civil and community leaders and local government officials to determine if Portage County needs such specialty courts or dockets as a veteran’s court, human trafficking court or a mental health court.

Buchanan said that intervention in lieu of conviction, which Pittman often uses, is a program created by the Ohio General Assembly and is not a true specialty docket and not a replacement for a drug court.

"All persons in Ohio may be eligible for the IILC program," said Buchanan.

Buchanan said he is running for judge because he wants to serve his fellow Portage County resiudents and because he "believes in giving back the community and can help make a difference by ensuring HOPE Court for all eligible residents and by creating a new specialty court."

He is a supporter of the United Way of Portage County, Portage County Haven of Rest, Portage County Farm Bureau, Portage County Junior Fair, and the Portage County 4-H program. He attends Kent Presbyterian Church.

He played volleyball in high school and has been an Ohio High School Athletic Association volleyball official for 18 seasons. He is also an avid bowler.

Buchanan said he believes his experience as a trial attorney, a small business owner and a Portage County resident will help him "create efficiencies in the courthouse to better serve Portage County."

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Pittman 'engaged in the community'

Pittman, a lifelong Portage County resident, earned a bachelor of arts and science degree at the University of Akron, then juris doctorate in law from Ohio Northern University.

Pittman was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1986 and became an associate with the Enlow and Stephens law firm, where she practiced for 11 years.

In the late 1990s, she was elected as a Portage County Municipal Court judge. She served a full six-year term and then a year into her second term, was elected as a Portage County Court of Common Pleas judge. She was the first woman to serve as a judge on the court.

Pittman is a member and past president of the Portage County Bar Association and a member of the Ohio Bar Association. She is also a member of the Community Corrections Board, vice chair of the Judicial Advisory Board at Northeast Ohio Community Alternative Program And chairperson of Courthouse Security Committee.

Pittman said important attributes she believes she brings to the bench include judicial temperament, common sense, fairness and objectivity and mediation skills.

"I'm able to settle a lot of cases by listening, she said.

She said that her approach to handling her job is to try to strike a balance.

"What I try to do, obviously, is to be fair but to protect the public, but also to try to change the lives of the individuals that come before me as defendants so that they can be productive citizens," she said.

In civil cases, she added, which are "a little bit different," she strives to be fair and listen to the evidence.

Pittman touts her use of the court's intervention in lieu of conviction program, which the court started in around 2006.

"I use it a lot. I use it a great deal," she said.

The program allows eligible defendants to meet certain requirements such as completing drug or mental health counseling. If they do so successfully, they can have their guilty plea vacated and their record sealed after a year. Pittman said this makes it easier for participants to get a better job and housing or attend school. She estimates 70 percent of participants are successful.

"And so our program has really been working very well," she said.

The program is primarily limited to those pleading guilty to low-level felonies. There are occasional exceptions made for defendants pleading guilty to third-degree felonies, if they have no prior criminal record. Most of the time, violent offenders are ineligible.

"We've had a couple of cases where individuals were having psychotic episodes," said Pittman. "The police were there to try to help them and they would assault the officer. So with the officer's permission, a few of those have been changed to an attempted [assault] to allow them to go into intervention. That's only with the officer's blessing."

Pittman said one of her proudest achievements as judge is "hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money" she has brought in to the court and adult probation department. She said she had recently been informed that the court is receiving a $250,000 U.S. Department of Justice grant for the adult probation department's Probationers Offered Work, Empowerment, Re-direction or POWER program.

"What we're going to do is team up with unions and local employers to get our defendants jobs, good paying jobs, but also a career and a direction," said Pittman.

She said she was able to bring in a similar federal grant seven or eight years ago to help fund the court's Community Integration and Socialization Program.

"In that program, we were able to place people in employment opportunities, but also help them receive their GED," she said. "Many of our defendants have not finished high school. And so, to me, you know, to change your life, you have to feel good about yourself. To feel good about yourself, education is very important, but also being able to earn a fair wage and to take care of yourself. And we had great success last time, so hopefully this new [program] will be as successful."

Pittman graduated from Ravenna High School, where she lettered three years in volleyball, basketball and softball.

She has been active with the Ravenna Boys and Girls Club, which she is past president of, C.A.R.E.S. Group, Special Olympics, Ravenna Shop with a Cop, youth sports and several veterans organizations.

"I'm very engaged in the community," said Pittman. "I always have been a Portage County resident and lived here all my life. And when I sentence, when I do anything in the courtroom, I think about the community because I live here too. So does my family. And so, again, I want to do what's best for our community but also to help these individuals straighten their lives out."

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Wesley Buchanan challenging Portage County Judge Laurie Pittman