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Challengers For Athens County Court Of Common Pleas Hold Forum
By: Paola Santiago
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The fairly civil forum simmered with slight tensions as challenger Herman Carson brought up the number of overdue cases that incumbent Judge George McCarthy has in his dock.
"The number of overdue cases under Judge McCarthy's dock has doubled since the time he was appointed by Gov. John Kasich," Carson says." As of September 30th, 15.38 percent of the case load on that dock was overdue under those guidelines."
McCarthy rebutted with the fact that his number of overdue cases is fairly common and not quite the problem that Carson makes it out to be. He parallels his answers with an example from, fellow judge, L. Alan Goldsberry.
"I have a third less cases than Judge Goldsberry has on his dock that are over due," McCarthy exclaimed, "so if my opponent has a problem with the numebr of cases that he wanted to address than perhaps he should have ran for Judge Goldsberry's seat so he can attack that."
In his opening statement Carson promised that if he is picked for judge, he will lower the number of overdue cases. Also in his opening statement, Carson mentioned that he has a total of 34 years of legal experience which, he says, makes him a viable option for judge. Within those 34 years, Carson said that he was a active judge for 22 years.
In rebuttal, McCarthy explained that although Carson was an active judge, he was but one of a handful of judges that were called upon.
"As far as him being an active judge, that's more like being a substitute teacher folks," McCarthy said. "He was a fill in judge."
The judges race will be decided on November 4th.