Office: Marion County – Marion County Common Pleas Court
Age: 62
Residence: Marion, OH
Email: slaglej@frontier.com
Website: www.JudgeSlagle.com
Occupation: Judge, Marion County Common Pleas Court
Education: J.D., The Ohio State University College of Law, 1980. B.S.
Political Science, The Ohio State University, 1977.
Work Experience: Common Pleas Judge since 2013. Attorney since
1980. Marion County Prosecuting Attorney, 1985 – 2008. Criminal
Justice Chief for Ohio Attorney General, 2009 – 2011.
Family: Married for 35 years. Three adult daughters. Two sons-in-law.
One grandson.
Affiliations: Epworth United Methodist Church. President of Ohio
Justice Alliance for Community Corrections. Member of Criminal Law
and Community Corrections Committees for Ohio Judicial Conference.
Marion Opiate Task Force.
Endorsements: N/A
Bar Association Ratings: N/A
(1) List your judicial experience (courts and years):
Jim Slagle has served as Judge of the Marion County Common Pleas
Court, since being elected in 2012. He presides over criminal felony
cases and major civil litigation. He established Marion County’s first
felony drug court, chairs the local community corrections planning
board, and also presides over a reentry docket.
(2) What about your non-judicial legal experience qualifies you to be a
judge?
Judge Slagle served for 24 years as Marion County Prosecuting
Attorney. He is a former president of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorney’s
Association, and in 2008 was selected Ohio’s Prosecuting Attorney of
the Year. As Prosecutor, Slagle joined with the Sheriff and Police Chief
to establish the MARMET drug task force, which has resulted in
hundreds of drug dealers being sent to prison. Slagle prosecuted all
types of felony criminal cases in the Marion County Common Pleas
Court. This included 20 murder cases he successfully prosecuted and
five death penalty cases. Slagle also obtained grant funds to establish a
victim advocacy program within the Prosecutor’s Office to ensure that
the rights of crime victims were protected.
As Prosecuting Attorney, Slagle also served as the attorney for over 50
different county and township offices and boards. In 2009, Slagle was
named Chief of the Criminal Justice Section for the Ohio Attorney
General, where he led a team of 35 lawyers who handled criminal and
civil litigation in the state and federal courts. He also represented the
Attorney General on multiple statewide bodies and advised the
Attorney General on criminal justice issues. Slagle has appeared in the
courts of 23 Ohio counties, the federal courts, and the courts of
appeals, and argued 12 cases in the Ohio Supreme Court. He has
handled a wide variety of civil and criminal cases, both as a private
attorney and in his public positions.
(3) Why are you running for this particular court seat?
Judge Slagle is running for re-election so that he can administer justice
fairly, efficiently, and effectively in order to protect the public and to
hold offenders accountable. Towards that end, Judge Slagle has
sentenced numerous dangerous and violent offenders to prison.
However, Judge Slagle understands that in order to truly hold
offenders accountable, he must continue to be involved even after
imposing sentence.
Judge Slagle established Marion’s first felony drug court, so that drug
addicts face immediate consequences if they fail to comply with
treatment requirements. Numerous studies have shown that drug
courts reduce crime, improve public safety, and save tax dollars. Judge
Slagle also established a reentry docket, so that offenders who return
to the community after being released from a correctional facility
appear before him regularly to ensure that they comply with the law,
get a job, and become productive citizens. If they don’t, immediate
consequences can be imposed. Judge Slagle works with local treatment
providers to ensure that drug treatment starts before drug addicts are
released from jail. He helped establish a drug testing program that
requires probationers to call in for drug testing seven days per week,
including weekends and holidays, so that noncompliance can be
immediately addressed.
As a result of this work, in 2015, Judge Slagle was selected for the C. J.
McLin Award which recognizes one public official in Ohio who has
worked to improve community corrections. In 2016, the Marion
County Common Pleas Court Probation Department was selected for
the Cliff Skeen Award, which recognizes the felony probation
department which best uses evidence-based practices to supervise
felony offenders. Judge Slagle believes that justice delayed is justice
denied. Since taking office, Judge Slagle completely eliminated the
court’s backlog and greatly reduced the time it takes for cases to be
brought to trial. Judge Slagle believes it is important that crime victims
have a right to attend all court proceedings. To accomplish this, he
ended the Court’s prior practice of holding pretrial hearings in private
which excluded victims, parties, and their family members. Judge Slagle
originally ran for Common Pleas Judge because he wanted to improve
how the court served the public. He is running for re-election so that he
can continue to build on these positive changes.