Meet the candidates for Franklin County Domestic Relations and Juvenile court judgeships
Franklin County voters will choose from four candidates for two judge seats to oversee cases ranging from teens stealing cars to divorces and custody battles.
The Dispatch talked with the four candidates for two judgeships on Franklin County Domestic Relations and Juvenile court about their qualifications. And they were asked about how they would decide what to do pretrial with youth criminal defendants, particularly in cases related to car thefts — a crime on the rise among teens in the county.
Early voting in Ohio begins Wednesday, Oct. 12, and the general election is Nov. 8.
What you need to know
Four candidates are running for two judge positions on the Franklin County Common Pleas Court's Domestic Relations and Juvenile division.
Common pleas court races are supposed to be nonpartisan in Ohio and party affiliations do not appear on the general ballot, but candidates run in partisan primaries.
Common pleas court judges in Ohio are elected to six-year terms and are paid $155,485 annually in 2022.
Meet the candidates
Below is information on the candidates in contested races, including some of their experience, information they provided in an interview with The Dispatch and ratings from the Columbus Bar Association. This includes a poll conducted by the bar association of central Ohio attorneys on which judicial candidates they prefer.
The bar’s nonpartisan Judiciary Screening Committee rates judges based on their qualifications, including education, experience, training, character and temperament, according to their bylaws. This year, the screening committee issued star ratings on a scale of one to five with five stars signifying superior qualifications, three stars signifying the candidate meets qualifications and one star signifying the candidate does not possess the qualifications necessary to be a judge.
In another bar poll, attorneys rated sitting judges on a five-point scale — with five representing excellent — on factors including their objectivity, temperament, knowledge and timeliness.
Election 2022:Election: Who's running for judge on Franklin County Common Pleas Court, General Division?
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Judge Kim A. Browne vs. Don Roberts
Kim A. Browne (D)
Experience:
2002-present: Judge, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas' Domestic Relations and Juvenile division. She was appointed in 2002 and first elected in 2004.
1996-2001: Attorney in various roles at Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation
CBA Judiciary Committee: Five stars
CBA Preference Poll: 79.2%
CBA Judicial Performance Poll: 3.17
What the candidate says: Browne, a judge for two decades, said she is the best person for the job because she has the experience. Browne also was the court's administrative judge for six years before leaving the role this year to focus on her campaign.
Browne switched her party affiliation from Republican in Democrat in 2021. She said at the time that as an African American woman, she was disturbed by what the GOP had become. She was the third county judge to flip, a move critics say was to win reelection in an increasingly Democratic county.
When law enforcement officials held a news conference in February 2021 calling out Franklin County Juvenile court judges for not doing enough to help keep teens already charged with crimes — particularly in car thefts — from committing more crimes, the judges rebuffed the claims.
Browne, the administrative judge at the time, and the six other county juvenile judges released a statement calling the news conference an effort to spread “propoganda” and fear.
Talking to The Dispatch recently, Browne said she is concerned by the rise in juveniles stealing cars and how to handle them.
“I like to emphasize that everybody is innocent until they're proven guilty,” she said. “The court’s philosophy is we will hold (a juvenile accused of crime in detention) if you are a danger to yourself, a danger to the community or if we can't trust you to come back to court to answer for what you've done.”
Browne said detention can be very disruptive for youths and has to be weighed carefully. Factors to consider, Browne said, include the seriousness of the crime, age of the defendant, if they were already on community control or had prior offenses, and how involved they were in the crime. If a gun was involved, she said, the defendant is automatically held.
Don Roberts (R)
Experience:
2013-present: Solo practitioner
2009-2012: Associate Attorney, Suzanne K. Sabol & Associates, concentrated in family law
2003-2008: Supervising Attorney, The Legal Aid Society of Columbus
CBA Judiciary Committee: Two stars
CBA Preference Poll: 20.8%
What the candidate says: Roberts said he’s practiced in domestic and juvenile court over the past two decades in 48 Ohio counties, but primarily in Franklin County.
“I have a passion for representing my clients. I love my clients,” he said. “But I feel that the next step for me is actually to play this role.”
His practice’s primary focus has been family law. Roberts has represented some clients — primarily people he was already representing in family court — in criminal cases, such as domestic violence cases.
Roberts served in the U.S. Air Force, worked as a police officer and worked as a bailiff in municipal court before he became a lawyer.
Roberts is interested in bringing specialized dockets to family court to expedite divorces, including one for first responders who do shift work, making custody agreements difficult.
Discussing the rash of juvenile car thefts and other crimes with The Dispatch, Roberts said he believes sentencing someone quickly to a short sentence is more effective than giving them a long sentence.
Douglas Nobles vs. Janie Roberts
Douglas Nobles and Janie Roberts are running in a special election for an unexpired judgeship term that ends in January 2025.
Douglas Nobles (D)
Experience:
2018-present: Prosecutor, Columbus City Attorney’s Office
2016-2018: Staff Attorney/Law Clerk Supervisor, Franklin County Public Defender’s Office
2015-2016: Staff Attorney, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Division of Domestic Relations
CBA Judiciary Committee: Four stars
CBA Preference Poll: 66.3%
What the candidate says: Nobles said he has the benefit of experience on both sides — as a prosecutor and a defense attorney — as well as experience as a neutral third party when he was a staff attorney in domestic relations court.
“I understand the issues on both sides,” he said. “I’m running because I want to help people, and I want to be a public servant.”
Discussing holding juveniles pretrial, Nobles said he’d weigh each case, keeping in mind the public’s safety and the rights of the victims. Nobles said the juvenile courts need to dig into the deeper issues that are leading adolescents to commit more crimes.
“We have to figure out why they’re in front of us and how can we help stop the cycle, and connect them with resources,” he said.
Janie Roberts (R)
Experience:
2006-present: Solo practitioner with a concentration in domestic/juvenile cases
1997-2006: Magistrate, Franklin County Common Pleas Juvenile Traffic Court
1990-1994: Assistant Attorney General, Ohio Attorney General’s Office
CBA Judiciary Committee: three stars
CBA Preference Poll: 33.7%
What the candidate says: Roberts first ran for domestic relations and juvenile court judge in 2018, losing to Terri Jamison. She didn’t plan to run again, she said, but then an opportunity presented itself.
Jamison was elected to the 10th District (Franklin County) Court of Appeals, and Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Republican Dana S. Preisse in August 2021 to replace her on the county Domestic Relations and Juvenile court. Preisse ran unopposed in the Republican primary special election to keep her spot.
But after the primary, Preisse decided to drop out. The Franklin County Republican Party chose Roberts to replace Preisse on the general election ballot.
“I want to be a judge in domestic court where I practice,” Roberts said. “I have practiced exclusively since 2006 in juvenile and family court. I have done every kind of case I can do in those courts.”
Roberts said juvenile crime has escalated in the decades she’s been a lawyer, and added that car thefts have gotten out of hand in recent years. In serious crimes involving guns or felony car thefts, Roberts said she would hold the accused youth in detention at least overnight.
“It’s not just to punish the kids but to keep them safe and give them consequences. These kids are dying,” she said. “It’s not right for the kids, the communities or the families. I believe a lot of the parents want more consequences for them, too.”
jlaird@dispatch.com
@LairdWrites
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Four candidates for Franklin County Domestic and Juvenile judgeships
