Retired Mansfield Municipal Court Judge Jeff Payton dies at 77
Retired Mansfield Municipal Court Judge Jeff Payton died Friday at OhioHealth Shelby Hospital after a battle with cancer.
He was 77.
His wife Carol Payton said her husband had suffered from cancer for a number of years.
"He fought a brave fight," she said Monday.
Payton served 22 years on the bench, retiring in 2009.
The 1964 graduate of Malabar High School majored in biology with a minor in math at Ashland College.
Payton considered going to medical school, but had a change of heart during the summer of 1967 when he participated in an intensive study program at Harvard University.
While at Harvard, Payton stayed in a law school dormitory.
Started rethinking career options
"I started rethinking my options," he told the News Journal in 2009 as he prepared to retire.
Payton taught for one year for Mansfield City Schools and three years in Cleveland., but he still pursued his law degree. Upon graduating from what is now Cleveland State, Payton worked for the Cleveland Legal Aid Society. The Cleveland office opened a branch in Mansfield, called the Richland County Legal Services Association.
Payton stayed there a few years before becoming magistrate for county juvenile court. At the same time, he maintained a part-time private practice. He was elected municipal court judge in 1987.
Late in his tenure, Payton endured two significant health scares. In 2004, he had a heart attack.
Two years later, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Deanna West-Torrence, director of the North End Community Improvement Collaborative, said Payton was respected for his integrity and fairness as a judge.
"He was a friend of our family for many years. It's a big loss to all of Richland County," West-Torrence said. "He was known for having a high degree of integrity, for being fair, for being very thorough and thoughtful in his deliberation over issues. He was known for being tough. And I think you will hear that over and over again. On a more personal note, he was a mentor for me when I decided to pursue public office.
"He was a sounding board for me many years ago when I started really looking at, doing youth work, youth development work and looking at the balance between harm to the community and the challenges that are often facing people who commit crime," she said. "We'd had several discussions about his need to balance the harm that was done to victims," she said.
Judge was friendly, accessible, intelligent
West-Torrence said he was "very accessible, he was very friendly, he was intelligent and he very, very much loved his family and in his latter years, even in the midst of his illness, got to enjoy his grandchildren."
West-Torrence said Jeff and Carol both have played a significant role in this community.
Mansfield Municipal Court Judge Jerry Ault said, "Jeff was a truly dignified and well respected judge. He was a good friend to many. He will be missed."
Mansfield First Assistant Law Director Mike Kemerer said, "He was my first judge in Richland County. We served together on the board of Mansfield Memorial Homes together."
Carol Payton, who celebrated 50 years of marriage with her husband in August, said the two went to the same church, Mount Calvary Baptist Church, and were in the same graduating class, he at Malabar and she at Mansfield Senior High School.
She said he never met a stranger and he never forgot anyone's name.
"We invited 200 to our wedding and 400 showed up," she said.
"Jeff was a devoted person to his family and his job and serving people in his court with integrity and fairness.
"He did his job and he did it with compassion," his wife said.
She said her late husband was a sportsman, loved golf, he loved cars and had a Porsche and a Mercedes-Benz but he also liked American cars," and loved the United Auto Workers.
'He was Mansfield's son'
"Unions were his friends and those people helped elect him," she said. Her husband had friends from many neighborhoods. "And he never forgot anyone," she added.
"He was Mansfield's son," she said, referring to the fact he returned home to Mansfield from Cleveland to work.
When asked to share something about her husband, she said: "He lived a powerful life. Mansfield's lost one of its brightest stars. He saw everybody as a person. He tried to learn everybody's story."
Jeff and Carol have a son and daughter and two grandchildren, ages 2 and 3.
The funeral service will be 11 a.m. Monday at OASIS of Love Church, 190 Chester Ave., where visitation will start at 9 a.m. and a Masonic Service will be at 9:30 a.m.
Marlan Gary Funeral Home is handling funeral arrangements.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Deanna West-Torrence said Jeff Payton was 'known for being tough.'
