'Thought I could make a difference.' Brad Hillyer ends Tuscarawas County judicial career

UHRICHSVILLE ‒ Brad Hillyer estimates that 95% of his time during the years he served as a judge in Tuscarawas County Court/Southern District was spent on criminal cases involving drugs.

"I spend all my time dealing with people that have recurrent issues of drug addiction," he said.

"I'm not afraid to tell a drug addicted person that you're either going to jail or you're going to treatment," he added. "If you leave treatment, you're going back to jail. We have some success with that."

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Hillyer, 66, retired Monday as judge in what is commonly known as Southern District Court, serving a total of 22 years and nine days. He served six days longer than his late father, William Hudson "Hud" Hillyer, served in the same position. Brad Hillyer was elected as judge in 2000 when Hud Hillyer retired.

"There's been a Hillyer on the bench for 44 years," said Brad Hillyer, who was in the middle of his fourth term as judge.

Asked why he wanted to become a judge, he said, "I had been involved with the mock trial program and spent a lot of time in the courtroom, and I thought I could make a difference with some of our local folks."

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Tuscarawas County Court/Southern District is located at 336 E. Third St. (in a building opened in 2006 during Hillyer's tenure as judge) and serves Clay, Mill, Oxford, Perry, Rush, Salem, Union, Warwick and Washington townships, including Uhrichsville, Dennison, Gnadenhutten, Port Washington, Newcomerstown, Tuscarawas and portions of Midvale and Roswell.

According to the court's website, the criminal/traffic division handles all misdemeanor criminal cases, preliminary hearings on felony cases and traffic misdemeanors occurring in the territorial jurisdiction of the court. The court hears civil matters when the amount in dispute is $15,000 or less, as well as evictions and landlord/tenant matters. There is also a small claims division.

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In a typical year, Southern District Court handles about 6,000 cases. About 6% of those are criminal cases, and most of them involve people addicted to drugs or alcohol.

To help Hillyer deal with those cases, he took advanced training at the National Judicial Training Center in Reno, Nevada.

"They train all of the judges nationwide, a fabulous program, very intense weeklong programs. I've learned a lot about drug addiction that I didn't know," he said.

All people with drug problems who appeared in his court were given a chart listing the substances that caused drug deaths in Tuscarawas County in 2020 and 2021. Fentanyl was the leading cause.

"When somebody comes in that has fentanyl or cocaine or amphetamine in their system, I make them sign that form, and every time they come back, they must bring that," Hillyer said. "I call that their 'Stay Alive' card. It's just a constant reminder that their life is on the line, especially with fentanyl."

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He made it a practice of taking away the phones of repeat drug offenders.

"The cellphone is the ticket to addiction," he said. "We had drug problems in the '80s. The difference was, if I wanted to get cocaine or I wanted to get heroin, I had to call my drug dealer. He had to be home. We had to meet and he had to give me the drug. Now they go on the internet and they go on TikTok and they make their drug deal."

He added, "I've never believed a word a person with drug addiction has ever told me. I said, 'I want to see action. I don't want you lying, so I'd rather you not say anything. Just do what you need to do. Get help.'"

To assist in getting help for addicts, the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Tuscarawas and Carroll Counties pays for a drug and alcohol counselor, Derek Grella, to providing counseling for defendants.

Hillyer proud of community service program

Hillyer said he is proud of his court's community service program. Each year, people sentenced in his court performed around 10,000 hours of community service, doing such things as getting the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum's Polar Express ready to run each December, as well as cleaning up communities and townships in the area.

His court also worked to help people restore their Ohio driver's licenses.

"Ohio has the worst driver's license law in America. We have 2 million people with no driver's license," Hillyer said.

His court restored about 20 licenses a week.

He said he has been pushing his nephew, state Rep. Brett Hillyer, R-Uhrichsville, to pass a law that would require motorists to show they have car insurance before they get their license.

"We have so many people that want to work that can't get to work, or can't get to work legally," he said. "They get rides for awhile, and then their rides don't show up, and then they drive and they get in trouble and then they're right back in the system. If we would just require them to have insurance right out of the gate, it would be so much better long-term."

He recalls memorable cases

He recalled two memorable cases he handled during his career.

One occurred shortly after he became a judge. Some college-age men were throwing rocks off a bridge over Interstate 77 in Tuscarawas County near Newcomerstown. As part of their plea agreement, he made them stand on the bridge all day with a sign reading, "I will not throw things off bridges again."

The other was an attempted armed robbery and shooting in Oxford Township in December 2018. The suspects planned to rob a man during a drug deal on Liberty Road southeast of Newcomerstown. At least five shots were fired during the robbery attempt, and a 17-year-old, who was a passenger in a red SUV driven by a man who was the target of the robbery, was wounded when two masked assailants began shooting.

Hillyer presided over the initial hearing in the case before the suspects were bound over to the grand jury.

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Because Hillyer has two years left on his current term as judge, Gov. Mike DeWine will appoint his replacement. In the meantime, Magistrate Jason Jackson will serve as the day-to-day judge and retired Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Judge Edward O'Farrell will act as administrative judge and make any major decisions.

Hillyer is a 1974 graduate of Claymont High School. He earned a degree in economics from the Ohio State University in 1977 and his law degree from the University of Toledo in 1980. He is a member of the law firm of Connolly, Hillyer & Ong in Uhrichsville, where handles oil and gas work.

He and his wife, Kim, have three children ‒ Katie Hilliker, a registered nurse who is a wound care specialist at Trinity Hospital Twin City in Dennison; Jake, who runs the Bowerston Shale plant in Hanover, Ohio, near Newark; and Alec, who owns a pond maintenance company.

His future plans include doing volunteer work and possibly serving as a visiting judge.

Hillyer said he thought that now was a good time to retire.

"I think it's time to give other people an opportunity," he said.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Brad Hillyer retires after 22 years as Tuscarawas County Court judge