My name is David Weilbacher, and I am a candidate for Auglaize County Municipal Court Judge. This letter is to address spurious statements made about me in a letter to the editor penned by Auglaize County Prosecutor Ed Pierce and defense attorney Eric Wilson, which appeared in The Lima News.
Pierce and Wilson claim I am not qualified based on my statement that a municipal judge generally does not have jurisdiction over felony cases. In an interview conducted by the Evening Leader, I was asked what work does the municipal court do? I stated that municipal court generally handles misdemeanor criminal offenses, and civil matters below $15,000. This statement is in the context of what type of cases are resolved in the municipal court, that is, what type of cases go to trial or are decided in the municipal court.
There is a procedural matter that may be conducted before the municipal court concerning felonies called a preliminary hearing that is conducted prior to an indictment of a defendant or prior to the court’s finding that there is probable and reasonable cause for a defendant to be held in jail or required to post a bond. Felony cases are then transferred to the Court of Common Pleas; where felony cases are resolved.
The propriety of a prosecutor campaigning on behalf of a judicial candidate before whom he and his office will have to appear, and the conflict of interest that creates, has to raise a question in one’s mind. We have an elected official and the chief law enforcement officer of the county, Prosecutor Ed Pierce, intentionally misleading the public.
David Weilbacher, St. Marys
