![\"Judge](\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Judge-Burchfield-sworn-in2-1-29-15.jpg\")
<\/a>Judge Steele, who was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Judge Sumner E. Walters, after that judge’s election to the Third Ohio District Court of Appeals in 1998, announced his retirement in September 2014 after 15 years on the bench. Judge Walters served 16 years on the Common Pleas bench, starting in January 1983.<\/p>\n
Burchfield\u2019s wife, Susan, held the Bible while he was sworn in, while the new judge\u2019s mother, Bettye, and a large number of attorneys, court officials, county government officials and others were also on hand for the event.<\/p>\n
Following the swearing-in ceremony, Burchfield, an assistant Van Wert County prosecuting attorney and a former defense attorney, said those experiences would be positives in his new position.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had two experiences that will have a major effect: One is the last 15 years in the prosecutor\u2019s office,\u201d Judge Burchfield noted, \u201cbut I did 13 years worth of criminal defense work, including some public defense work, so I have an understanding of the challenges that those (defense) lawyers have, and also some of the challenges that the defendants have.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think I have an understanding of the process, and I think I can use that to assist in moving cases along,\u201d the new judge added.<\/p>\n
Judge Burchfield said keeping the docket moving is certainly one of his goals as Common Pleas judge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to follow the law, keep the docket moving so that people aren\u2019t waiting for justice and to make good, fair decisions for people,\u201d the new judge noted. \u201cI think the Common Pleas judge, if that person does the job correctly, can have a really nice, positive impact on the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new judge also talked about the drug court created by Judge Steele that uses the prescription drug Vivitrol to help treat opiate addicts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to find out what works and what doesn\u2019t work,\u201d Judge Burchfield said, adding that he would also be looking at similar programs in other counties to see how well they are working.<\/p>\n
The new judge also said he is looking forward to his new position, which will allow him to approach the law from a new direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to really being able to dig into the law in each case, and having the time to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about doing sentencing that tries to help people and protect the community, and I think we\u2019ve done a pretty good job of that in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
In talking about the past history of the court, Judge Burchfield had praise for the two judges who preceded him on the Common Pleas bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can do this job the way the two Common Pleas judges I practiced in front of in Van Wert did it, I\u2019ll be fortunate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Burchfield, who was chosen in December 2014 by Ohio Governor John Kasich as the next Van Wert County Common Pleas judge, has a bachelor\u2019s degree and a law degree from the University of Toledo. He formerly practiced law with his father-in-law, attorney Don Johnson, as well as in partnership with County Prosecutor Charles F. Kennedy III.<\/p>\n
Burchfield also was chairman of the Van Wert County Republican Central Committee and was a former Van Wert City councilman and Council president.<\/p>\n
As part of the transition, local attorney Dillon Staas IV recently purchased Burchfield\u2019s law practice, since judges are not allowed to practice law, and will also replace the new judge as an assistant county prosecutor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Martin Burchfield became just the third Van Wert County Common Pleas judge in three decades when he was sworn in by his predecessor, retired Judge Charles D. Steele, on Thursday. Judge Steele, who was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Judge Sumner E. Walters, after that judge’s election to the Third […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 03:02:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}