MOUNT VERNON — With more than 26 years on the bench, Common Pleas Judge Otho Eyster is the longest-serving judge in the history of Knox County. The event was celebrated with a small private ceremony on Thursday as Eyster surpassed this historical benchmark.
According to Mary Jo Hawkins, Clerk of Courts, Eyster supplanted Judge Jay McDevitt as the longest-sitting common pleas judge. McDevitt took the bench in 1951, and remained there until his death in office in January 1968.
Eyster, who grew up in Fredericktown, obtained his law degree in 1975 from Ohio State University. He passed the bar exam later that year and set up a private practice in Fredericktown.
“It was difficult,” said Eyster. “Back then we’d take anything that came in the door.”
In 1976, Eyster ran for his first public office, winning the election and becoming county prosecutor.
“I thought it would be a good way to get my name around the county,” said Eyster.
Regarding his victory over an incumbent prosecutor, Eyster said, “I was mildly surprised, myself.”
Eyster served as prosecutor for a full four-year term and coordinated the construction of a designated County Prosecutors Office. Until that time, the prosecutor had worked out of his own private practice offices. Eyster was eventually voted out of office in 1980.
In 1981, Eyster won a second election to become the Municipal Court judge.
“I just kind of wandered into it,” Eyster said. “At the time, I thought I could bring something to the job.”
Barely making the age requirement to be a judge, Eyster said county law was different back then.
“It was more localized when I started,” said Eyster. “Elk and Elk wasn’t on the back of every phone book in the state. It used to be that 75 percent [of the people I dealt with] were local attorneys. Now it’s the opposite. We get attorneys from Cleveland and Columbus in here fairly regularly.”
Throughout his career, Eyster has sentenced several people to life in prison but “never life without parole,” the judge said. In 1993, Eyster handed down his only death sentence to date. After a conviction by a jury, Eyster sentenced Jerry Allard to death for the murder of Allard’s son and ex-wife. Allard died in prison of natural causes after a year on death row.
“It was an appropriate case for the death penalty,” Eyster said.
The judge said society has also changed since he first took office.
“[These days] an awful lot of people come before me that I don’t scare. I don’t understand that,” he said. “Some see incarceration as a right of passage. I don’t know if they’re unaware there are consequences for their actions. I don’t know why that lesson isn’t learned. I think some are unaware what happens.”
For now, Eyster has two years remaining in his current six-year term. When asked if he intended to run for re-election, he said, “I don’t know yet.”
“I’m leaning toward it,” he said. “I still feel good and enjoy coming into the office.
“I have a great staff and I like the people I work with. I’m very fortunate. It’s far and away the best job I’ve ever had. Every now and then you get the feeling that you did something right. Every now and then, it’s enough when people tell you that you’ve done a good job.”
