Incumbents keep posts at Lucas County court

Democrats chosen for common pleas judge, clerk of courts

11/7/2012

There will be no new faces in the Lu­cas County court­house as area vot­ers re­turned two in­cum­bents to of­fice.

Nearly two years af­ter be­ing ap­pointed to the com­mon pleas court bench, Judge My­ron Du­hart re­tained the post in his first con­tested race. He beat chal­lenger Ken­neth Phil­lips and will re­turn to the court­house as one of 10 judges in the gen­eral di­vi­sion.

Judge Du­hart, 42, a Dem­o­crat, prac­ticed law lo­cally for 14 years be­fore be­ing ap­pointed in 2010 to re­place Judge Char­les Doneghy, who re­tired. A grad­u­ate of the Univer­sity of Toledo col­lege of law, Judge Du­hart was elected to a six-year term. “I am pleased and elated the vot­ers of Lu­cas County have val­i­dated my ap­point­ment,” he said. “I look for­ward to the op­por­tu­nity to serve.”

Judge Du­hart was op­posed by Mr. Phil­lips, 54, of Toledo.

The Re­pub­li­can new­comer has a law de­gree from the Univer­sity of Toledo and has prac­ticed for 25 years in var­i­ous ca­pac­i­ties, in­clud­ing as a state fraud in­ves­ti­ga­tor, an as­sis­tant pros­e­cu­tor in cen­tral Ohio’s Lick­ing County, and a crim­i­nal de­fense at­tor­ney.

Judge Du­hart wished the best to his op­po­nent, whom he noted ran “a clean cam­paign.”

Also re­turn­ing to his court­house of­fice is Dem­o­crat Clerk of Courts Ber­nie Quil­ter, first ap­pointed to the post in 1999. Mr. Quil­ter, 53, of Ore­gon beat GOP op­po­nent Con­stan­tine Sta­mos, 38, of Toledo.

“I’m very happy the vot­ers gave me an­other four years,” Mr. Quil­ter said.

He said he plans to keep mak­ing ad­vance­ments in tech­nol­ogy in the of­fice.

In the last few years, Mr. Quil­ter has in­sti­tuted on­line dock­et­ing and is work­ing with judges to cre­ate a more “pa­per­less” court­house by up­grad­ing tech­nol­ogy.

“We’re go­ing to move for­ward with more tech­nol­ogy and make changes that will save on the bud­get,” he said.

A grad­u­ate of the Univer­sity of Toledo, Mr. Quil­ter said he has also worked to im­prove col­lec­tion of un­paid court costs, in­clud­ing con­tract­ing with the Ohio At­tor­ney Gen­eral’s Of­fice.

This has brought thou­sands of dol­lars back into the courts’ sys­tem, he said.

Run­ning un­op­posed on the bal­lot were Lu­cas County Pros­e­cu­tor Julia Bates as well as Com­mon Pleas Judges Stacy Cook, Gary Cook, James Bates, and Linda Jen­nings.

Also run­ning un­op­posed were Do­mes­tic Rela­tions Judge David Le­wandowski, Ju­ve­nile Court Judge Con­nie Zem­mel­man, and Judge James Jensen for the 6th Dis­trict Court of Ap­peals.

— Erica Blake