Muni Court candidates address issues

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The candidates for the Republican nomination for Van Wert Municipal Court — the only countywide race to be decided on Tuesday — features two people whose backgrounds include a number of similarities, but also quite a number of differences as well.

Incumbent Judge Jill Leatherman is a lifelong Van Wert city resident who graduated from Van Wert High School in 1989. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology magna cum laude from The Ohio State University (1999) and a law degree from Ohio Northern University in 2002.

Republican challenger Todd Wolfrum also earned his law degree in 2002, but from the University of Toledo. Wolfrum is a Lincolnview High School graduate (also 1989) and earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Bluffton College in 1993.

Both were also in the same class of young lawyers who passed the bar together and neither took the traditional route as attorneys.

Although Wolfrum stresses his independence and his non-traditional law career, both overcame a number of challenges before becoming attorneys.

The rural Middle Point resident notes that he is no stranger to hard work, as he started his own law practice from scratch. “I am the candidate that has been retained to represent clients in multiple courts in multiple jurisdictions and can bring what’s good in those courts to the Van Wert Municipal Court,” Wolfrum said.

“I am also the candidate with a business background,” he added, noting that, as the court handles money and employees, “it’s important to have someone in charge who has dealt with budget, tax and related business issues.”

Leatherman also stresses she has had to earn her way to where she is today, and adds that, as a kid growing up in “Buck Town,” the portion of First Ward that is probably the poorest section of Van Wert. Although the incumbent judge is a Republican, she was appointed over a number of other candidates by former Ohio governor Ted Strickland to fill the seat vacated by former Municipal Court judge Phil W. Campbell.

Both candidates have had a lot of experience in various areas, with Wolfrum formerly Paulding County assistant prosecutor from 2007-2008 and a public defense attorney and general practice attorney for most of the past 10 years. In addition to his private law practice, Wolfrum also owns Firehouse Pizza in Middle Point and did a number of jobs, from construction worker to sports writer, while earning his way through law school.

Wolfrum said his background makes him fair and impartial, as well as able to avoid pressures that may be brought to bear on a judge from attorneys and others. In the past, Wolfrum has pointed to his conservative background and to his reputation for not being a quitter, among other things, as reasons he would make a good Municipal Court judge.

Although she also clerked for Van Wert County Common Pleas Judge Charles D. Steele while in law school and for a Fort Wayne, Ind., law firm prior to passing the bar, Leatherman began her formal law career as a general practice associate attorney in the Law Offices of Steven Diller. She later joined the public defender’s office and did criminal defense work for indigent clients before serving as Van Wert law director from 2003-2006. Prior to being appointed to the bench, Leatherman was a senior claims attorney for Central Mutual Insurance Company and was admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, and before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Calling her legal career “broad and varied,” Leatherman noted that she has worked in private practice, as well as public service, in corporate and insurance companies in addition to working extensively with municipal law as Van Wert law director.

“Both as a defense attorney and a prosecutor, I have tried cases to juries and to judges,” Leatherman notes. “From handling bankruptcy matters to domestic relations to probate matters, I have experience from serving people in those, as well as other areas.”

“My broad range of experience demonstrates my versatility and resourcefulness as an attorney serving this community,” she added.

Leatherman also said she is fair and impartial and is committed to making “positive changes that will turn the court into a public service vehicle that the citizens of Van Wert County can be proud of and respect.”

Wolfrum is a member of the Van Wert County Bar Association and is married. He and his wife, Angie, have two children, Sam and Cal Wolfrum, and Wolfrum also has two stepchildren, Caleb and Nick Sowers.

Leatherman is involved in a number of community organizations. She is a member of First United Methodist Church in Van Wert and has served six years as a member of the Board of Directors for the YWCA of Van Wert County, including three years as president. In 2004, she was selected as a YWCA “Woman of Achievement.” She also belongs to the Van Wert County Bar Association, as well as the Ohio State Bar Association. She has also been a member of the Van Wert County Law Library Association and Public Defenders’ Commission and is a member of Elks Lodge 1197 in Van Wert. She has also been a member of the local chapter of the American Association of University Women and a member of the Community Health Professionals, Private Duty Nursing and Hospice-The Caring Way boards of directors and also served on the Day of Caring and Agency Relations committees of United Way of Van Wert County during her three-year term on that organization’s Board of Trustees.

She is also married, and she and her husband, Kurt, have two children, Zachary, 19, a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati; and Lauren, 13, a seventh-grader at Van Wert Middle School.