Published: May 02, 2009 12:52 pm      

Judicial candidates offer views at forum

Six Cambria County lawyers, vying for two open county judgeships, on Friday emphasized their legal experience and pledged to be fair in decisions.

The six spoke during a breakfast meeting of the Greater Johnstown/ Cambria County Chamber of Commerce.

About 30 people attended the event, sponsored by the chamber’s government action committee.

Timothy Burns, one of the contenders, said the election is an important one for county citizens because judges make decisions on “everyday matters,” from crime to family issues.

District Attorney Patrick Kiniry, another candidate, said, “Judges make the decisions on peoples’ freedom, peoples’ finances and family (matters).”

The other candidates are David Beyer, Linda Rovder Fleming, Gary Jubas and Margaret O’Malley.

All six are registered Democrats but have cross-filed for nomination by both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Kiniry and Jubas, an assistant district attorney, talked about their careers as prosecutors while also emphasizing their legal work in civil matters.

Fleming, who began as a general practitioner and an assistant public defender, said that she has specialized in family law for the past 10 years.

Beyer said that he has judicial experience as a domestic relations hearing officer for the past six years.

In a role similar to a judge’s, he has conducted hearings in divorce and custody cases.

Burns, who handles a variety of civil and criminal cases, said that as a law clerk for former Judge Thomas Swope, he assisted with legal research and wrote opinions for the judge, with only one being reversed by an appellate court in five years.

O’Malley, who said she wants to become Cambria County’s first woman judge, said that as a trial lawyer, she has represented “little people – innocent, injured people” in her career.

A question from the audience about whether merit selection would be a better way to select judges had Fleming as the lone advocate. She favors a merit-selection process with “strict guidelines (to) basically remove politics.”

Four other candidates supported elections by the people because, they said, merit selection results in a political selection by a small group of people.

Jubas had to leave before that question was asked because he was scheduled for a nonjury trial in county court.