Judge John Durkin

YOUNGSTOWN — John M. Durkin, who has served as a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge since February 1997, won’t seek reelection next year and will retire when his current term ends June 30, 2027.

“As much as I love what I do, and it’s been the single most significant thing that I have done, there comes a time where you need to start enjoying life, and fortunately Gina (my wife) and I are able to do that,” he said.

Durkin added: “It was not an easy decision to make because I’ve been absolutely blessed with the honor and privilege of serving as a common pleas court judge. I have not taken it lightly. I’m very proud of the work we have done.”

Durkin, 67, is eligible to run for another term in the 2026 election, but chose not to seek it.

Durkin’s wife, who is court reporter for Trumbull County Probate Court James A. Fredericka, will retire at the same time as her husband.

“We thought we would go off into the sunset together,” Durkin said. “I will be close to 70 at the completion of this term. It will be 30 years on the bench and 14 years of practice before that. It’s been a rewarding career.”

Durkin was first elected as a common pleas court judge in the 1996 general election.

Durkin lost the Democratic primary in May that year to incumbent Judge Michael Gerchak. The position was created by the state Legislature in 1990 as the fifth general division judge on the Mahoning bench to help keep up with the caseload.

Even though Durkin lost to Gerchak in the Democratic primary, the latter dropped out of the race in August 1996 for the general election and the political party’s executive committee selected Durkin to fill the spot on the ballot.

Durkin beat James E. “Ted” Roberts in the 1996 general election.

After Durkin’s win, he was appointed in February 1997 by George V. Voinovich, then the governor, to fill the few months left on the unexpired term. Durkin began serving his first full term, starting July 1, 1997.

Durkin has been reelected to four additional six-year terms and never faced an opponent in any primary or general election since that first run.

DRUG COURT

Durkin has garnered statewide and national attention for his creation in 1997 of a drug court in Mahoning County.

At the time, it was only the second drug court in the state with the first — in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court — created by state statute with a judge solely responsible for handling drug cases.

Durkin is currently the longest continuously serving felony drug court judge in Ohio.

Drug court gives those charged with a felony drug offense the opportunity to attend weekly sessions with Durkin and the treatment team of counselors, prosecutors and defense attorneys to work on their sobriety with the goal of having their criminal charges dismissed if they complete the program successfully.

Durkin said one of his major concerns about retiring rather than running for another term is what is going to happen to the drug court.

“There’s so much out of my control as to who would take over drug court that when I decide to walk away, it wouldn’t make a difference,” he said. “It is important to me, but it is out of my control.”

But Durkin said, “We’ve got a tremendous team in place. We have the buy-in from everyone. The success has been, quite frankly, staggering.”

There’s been more than 1,600 graduates of the drug court with a recidivism rate of less than 9% for those graduates, Durkin said.

In addition to his regular court cases, Durkin holds drug court weekly on Wednesday mornings.

“But there are so many phone calls through the course of the day and evening for a bench warrant or someone who needs a treatment bed so there’s a lot of time off the clock.”

Durkin created the second drug court in the state in 1997. Now, there are more than 165 in Ohio, he said.

Durkin is part of the Regional Judicial Opioid Initiative, an eight-state program created in 2016 that works on a strategic plan to combat the opioid epidemic.

Before being elected judge, Durkin worked as a Youngstown assistant prosecutor before going into private practice with a focus on criminal defense and plaintiff medical malpractice. He spent two years as the attorney for the county children services board before becoming a judge.

CAPITAL CASE

Durkin said his first jury trial was supposed to be the capital murder case of Willie Herring, a defendant in the April 30, 1996, robbery and triple murder at the Newport Inn on Youngstown’s South Side. As a defense attorney, Durkin had served as co-counsel on two capital murder cases with attorney John Shultz.

When he learned the Herring trial would be his first by jury, Durkin said then-Judge Charles Bannon “called me into his chambers and said, ‘I have some advice for you. Try something else before your first jury trial. You don’t want it to be a death penalty case.'”

It turned out that the Herring case got postponed and Durkin’s first jury trial was a four-week medical malpractice case.

But the Herring case ended up back in his court, and he sentenced Herring to death in 1998 after a jury found the defendant guilty.

The Ohio Supreme Court vacated Herring’s death sentence December 2014 in a 4-3 decision but left his conviction intact after determining his trial lawyers failed to thoroughly and adequately investigate Herring’s background to determine mitigating factors to present to the jury during the death penalty phase.

An agreement was reached and Durkin sentenced Herring in October 2015 to 103 years to life in prison.

Durkin said when he and his wife retire, “there’s a bucket list we have that we’re going to start checking off. I don’t believe I’ll be a visiting judge. But possibly I’ll be of counsel with a local law firm to offer some advice and assistance. We’ll stay active one way or the other. We enjoy bocce and golf, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Asked what advice he would give his successor, Durkin said, “Never ever be afraid to admit you don’t know something and never hesitate to reach out to someone who has the experience. A judge many years ago said, ‘If you’re doing something the same way today as you did it before, you’re doing it wrong.’ Always be willing to take a look and see if you’re doing the best you can because the law changes so frequently that we’re always learning. I’m seeing new cases and new issues. Never have the ego that would prevent you from saying, ‘I don’t know.'”