HANCOCK COUNTY — The 2020 primary election isn’t for nine more months, but the field to replace retiring Judge Terry Snow already is getting crowded.
Three people — including the first women to run judge since 2002 — have announced plans to seek the seat in Hancock County Superior Court 1: Marie Castetter, chief deputy in the Hancock County prosecutor’s office; Cody Coombs, the Hancock County court commissioner; and Jessica Lacy, an attorney.
All are Republicans, and they’ve notified the county election office they are forming financial committees.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryCoombs was the first to announce he was running, posting an announcement July 5 on social media. Castetter announced her candidacy on Friday. Lacy entered the race after sending out a press release Monday.
Castetter, 52, a lifelong county resident, began attending law school while she was working full time in human resources after earning a degree in organizational leadership. During her final year of law school, Castetter landed an internship with the Marion County prosecutor’s office. She realized then that the law would be her life’s work.
“I loved being a trial attorney there,” Castetter said. “I’ve been blessed to work with many great attorneys throughout the state, and of course, I was a sponge and tried to take it all in.”
During her work in Marion County, Castetter practiced in front of two experienced female judges, including Jane E. Magnus-Stinson, now a federal judge, who showed Castetter that through hard work, there was a path for her to become a judge.
“We need to have more females on the bench, and that ties into diversity in the courtroom,” Castetter said.
Castetter, whose overcame the adversity of losing both parents when she was only 10 years old, is hoping to become the first female elected to the bench in Hancock County.
Castetter has 15 years of courtroom experience and has led Prosecutor Brent Eaton’s campaign to more aggressively prosecute sex crimes, among other initiatives. Since 2013, she’s been involved in the New Palestine community, where she and her husband have lived for 13 years. She serves on the Sugar Creek Township Park Board and also is a member of the Rotary Club in Greenfield. She is an advisory board member for Zoey’s Place Child Advocacy Center and a 2019 graduate of Leadership Hancock County.
Coombs, 40, was appointed in January 2018 by Snow and the other county judges, Scott Sirk and Dan Marshall, to serve as the court commissioner. In that role, he serves as a fourth county judge in a variety of cases.
“It’s been a tremendous experience,” Coombs said.
Coombs, who was a candidate for a short time in 2018 for Hancock Circuit Court before dropping out of the race, used to think his work as an attorney had prepared him well to be a judge. But, he said, he has learned that his job as court commissioner is even better preparation.
“The way you view cases on the bench is entirely different than you do as a lawyer,” Coombs said. “The information you get is limited, but the decisions you make have a real impact.”
Coombs has known since he was a child that he wanted to be a judge, he said. He spent a day with a judge when he was 12, and that’s all it took.
“I just fell in love with the courtroom proceedings and the process,” Coombs said.
Before Coombs became the court commissioner, he worked for ten years as a law clerk and an attorney for the Pritzke and Davis law firm in Greenfield. His practice consisted of business transactions, family law disputes, general civil litigation, criminal litigation and property transactions.
Lacy, 44, went to Hanover College for her undergraduate degree, where she double majored in English and secondary education. She then went on to law school at the University of South Carolina School of Law after earning a scholarship.
Lacy has been a practicing attorney for more than 18 years in the area and opened her own general practice law firm in March of 2008. She also added a mediation center to her practice.
She is also a registered domestic mediator, trained family law arbitrator and a trained collaborative professional, giving her skills she feels will make her suited for the judge’s seat.
“An arbitrator is kind of like a private judge,” Lacy said. “You hear cases outside of the courtroom and in a confidential setting, but it is very similar to sitting in that role.”
Lacy felt a calling to run for judge in order to have a positive impact on the county where she lives with her husband, daughter and two dogs. While she never dreamed, except in a fleeting moment during law school, she might one day be a judge, it wasn’t until her daughter was born that she decided she wanted to leave a lasting impact on the community.
“I started thinking about how many people I can reach through my private practice versus, how many people I can impact via judicial policy in the county,” Lacy said.
She has practiced in the areas of commercial litigation, trademark, business transactions, contracts, landlord-tenant, employment law, family law, guardianship, adoption, estate administration, estate litigation, personal injury, and alternative dispute resolution.
Lacy, like Castetter said, it would be an honor to be the first elected female judge in the county.
Officials with the county election office will hold a conference in December to set an official deadline for people wishing to file for the judge’s position after they get the official dates from the state. People running for the judge’s seat will need to file candidacy forms with the state, which will then alert county officials as to who is running.
Hancock Superior Court 1 is a court of general jurisdiction, handling civil, probate, family law cases and criminal matters. Snow, who has been judge in the court since 2003, confirmed recently that he will not run for re-election.
The primary election will be on May 5, 2020.
