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Mahoning County judge-elect carrying on a family tradition
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: December 15, 2016
As a young man, Mahoning County Juvenile Court Magistrate and Court Administrator Anthony D’Apolito dreamed of a career as a professional baseball player. But not long after he started college at John Carroll University, D’Apolito said he decided to change directions.
“I realized that the chance of making it to a major league team was slim,” said D’Apolito. “My mother was a professor of sociology at Youngstown State University and my father was a lawyer.
“I decided to major in sociology but by my junior year, I thought my real calling was law.”
More than 20 years later, D’Apolito has a wealth of experience under his belt, serving in a variety of legal capacities.
He’s also about to see another one of his dreams become a reality as he prepares to take the bench as a judge in the Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas General Division.
This after the Democrat defeated his Republican challenger incumbent Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas Judge Shirley Christian in the Nov. 8 election, garnering over 60 percent of the vote.
Judge Christian was seeking a full six-year term on the bench. She had been serving in the role since October 2014 after being appointed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge James C. Evans.
“I’ve aspired to be a judge for about 10 years,” said D’Apolito, 47. “But it was only about three or four years ago that I felt I was qualified to run for the job.”
Serving as judge is quickly becoming a family tradition. His father Lou is a Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas judge and his cousin David A. D’Apolito serves as a county court judge in Austintown.
“I think Anthony will make a great judge,” said Judge David A. D’Apolito. “He is even-tempered, does not overreact and has the patience and compassion to take the time to go through cases until he understands all sides.”
Judge Lou A. D’Apolito said he’s pleased that his son has chosen to continue to serve “the community where he was born and raised.”
D’Apolito lives in Poland with his wife Melissa. They have two children Myranda, 21 and Nicholas, 17.
When his son takes the bench at the beginning of January, the elder D’Apolito said it will not only be a moment neither one will forget, they’ll also likely be making history.
“To my knowledge this is the first time a father and son have served together (on the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court),” said Judge Lou A. D’Apolito. “I am coming to the end of my career, but Anthony is just beginning his.
“I am confident he will do a great job. He has been preparing for the challenge for about 20 years.”
Born in Youngstown, D’Apolito grew up in Lowellville and Poland.
He began his legal career as a court-appointed defense attorney in 1994 shortly after receiving his juris doctor from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
“I was on the court-appointed lists in the municipal and county courts and would also get cases referred to me by my father and my cousin.
“I think I learned more in that first year as a defense attorney than I did in three years of law school,” said D’Apolito. “I represented indigent people who had no idea of their rights or how the system worked.”
Several years later, D’Apolito went on to serve as an assistant prosecutor in Youngstown, Struthers and in the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office.
“Because I have experience as both a defense attorney and prosecutor, I understand the problems that both sides have as well as the potential solutions,” said D’Apolito.
“When Anthony came to me and told me he wanted to pursue a job as a prosecutor, he told me his plan was to prepare himself to one day run for judge,” said Judge Lou A. D’Apolito. “Today when people ask me if I’m proud of my son because he was elected judge I say I’m as proud as I was beforehand. He has always been a good, decent man and a wonderful father.”
After serving as assistant prosecutor, he returned to private practice working with his father on personal injury cases and other civil matters. During that period, he also became a part-time magistrate in Mahoning County Juvenile Court.
“What I found was that even on days when I was making a lot of money in private practice I could not wait to come to juvenile court. As magistrate I heard a variety of cases where I was really making a difference in people’s lives,” said D’Apolito.
“When the position of court administrator opened up, I stepped into the job and left private practice.”
For more than eight years, D’Apolito has served as a full-time magistrate and court administrator in the Mahoning County Juvenile Court.
“I’ve probably heard about 25,000 cases and I’ve learned a great deal about all the specialty dockets,” said D’Apolito.
Mahoning County Juvenile Court Judge Theresa Dellick first met D’Apolito when he was an assistant county prosecutor and she was a county court judge.
“He had a very good work ethic and was committed to looking at each case fairly,” said Judge Dellick.
When she became juvenile court judge, she said she asked D’Apolito to be a magistrate and later court administrator.
“I saw in him the ability to lead this court,” said Judge Dellick. “He is fully capable of handling both the administrative duties and a difficult docket.”
She called his recent win bittersweet. “I hate to lose Anthony but I want him to achieve his goals.
“I know that he understands the importance of rehabilitation in the juvenile system and I think he’ll use his knowledge to improve the adult system,” said Judge Dellick. “I think it’s clear that the current punitive system is failing. It is not serving as a deterrent and the recidivism rate is staggering.”
Indeed D’Apolito said he intends to rely on his varied legal knowledge to make a positive impact on the adult criminal system.
“I plan to focus on protecting the community but also on rehabilitating the people who want rehabilitating,” he said.
D’Apolito will be charged with presiding over the new Mahoning County Common Pleas Veterans Court, which began in late November.
“I am very excited to be able to preside over the Mahoning County Honors Court to carry out what Judge Christian commenced and to be able to offer help to those that have given so much to our country,” he said.
D’Apolito will be sworn in on Dec. 28 at the Mahoning County Courthouse Rotunda. His term begins on Jan. 1 and D’Apolito will take the bench on Monday, Jan. 2.
“I am so excited I can’t begin to tell you,” D’Apolito said. “I have been going to the new court and watching the judges there conduct trials. If I could I would start tomorrow.”