HANCOCK COUNTY — The specially ordered judge’s robe, size extra-small, is a good fit for the new judge in Hancock County Superior Court 1. Marie Castetter is working hard to make sure she’ll get to keep wearing it beyond 2020.
Castetter is one of four Republican candidates vying in the June 2 primary to fill the six-year term in Superior Court 1. Gov. Eric Holcomb appointed her to the seat in December to finish out the term of Judge Terry Snow, who retired with a year left in his tenure. The other candidates are attorneys D.J. Davis and Jessica Lacy and Cody Coombs, the county court commissioner. Stories on their candidacies will appear this week in the Daily Reporter.
While Castetter has been learning the day-to-day operations of running a courtroom, she’s had little time to really settle into the job before launching an election campaign in earnest. She is confident that her broad background in criminal, family and civil law in the courtroom will convince voters that Holcomb made the right pick for the interim job.
“As a former chief deputy prosecutor, my job has always been to seek justice, and that doesn’t always mean getting convictions,” Castetter said. “It’s about doing the right thing, and that’s what I’m trying to continue to do as a judge.”
Already active in the community, Castetter, who is a longtime county resident, is not simply sitting behind the bench, she said.
Just as she did in her role as the county’s chief deputy prosecutor since 2015, Castetter is engaging with residents to determine what types of community programs people need to help make the county a better place to live.
“I certainly know there are big shoes to fill in this job with former Judge Terry Snow being so prominent in the community,” Castetter said. “But, one of my focuses in leading up to becoming a judge was and still is community involvement.”
From being a founding board member of Zoey’s Place to helping put together a “Get Cycling” bike rodeo for the community last year as part of her Leadership Hancock County class, Castetter values her association with community causes.
With over 15 years of trial attorney experience, along with a love for the law, Castetter feels she can help bring fairness and accountability to the bench.
Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the judge often attended local events, passed out fliers and knocked on doors. Her pitch? Not only does she want to become the county’s first elected female judge, but Castetter feels her work ethic and experience make her an ideal candidate. Her supporters also point out that all four candidates in the race have been vetted by Holcomb’s office at one time or another. Castetter is the only one to be be appointed.
“Through my whole legal career, I’ve always pushed diversity, and I’ll continue to do so,” Castetter said.
From providing internships for minorities in the Marion County courts to redesigning jury questionnaires to help community members better do their jobs in the courtroom, Castetter said she has worked hard to make sure justice is served.
“And those things will continue to be important to me,” she said.
Castetter’s platform isn’t complex. Her goal is to always do what is right by the community, and that includes a proposal to bring more behavioral and mental health programs online in the county. Her biggest passion is to look out for families who enter the justice system, specifically women and children.
“They’re our most vulnerable groups,” she said.
Castetter said her civil law experience, including working on business transactions, contracts, guardianships, estates, custody disputes, employment, real estate and taxes, will also be an asset on the bench.
Those who know her well say Castetter has been driven to be a difference-maker for most of her life.
The first time Nancy King, general counsel for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, met Castetter, the future judge was working two jobs and putting herself through college before heading to law school.
Back then, King was amazed by her friend’s work ethic. Over the past 30 years, she said, not much has changed. All those long days and nights, it turned out, foreshadowed Castetter’s life and career.
“She’s always willing to work and help others,” King said.
Castetter is the type of person who approaches everything she does, work and life, with 100 percent effort, King said. It’s why she’s supporting her in the bid to keep the judge’s seat.
“Through all my years, I’ve never met anyone quite like Marie,” King said. “She just has such a strong moral compass, a strong sense of what is right, and she’s been that way ever since I met her.
“She does work hard, but it’s all ruled by her strong sense of doing the right thing for people,” King said.
King also likes that Castetter brings diversity to the bench, something she said is needed in the judiciary throughout the state. But, when it gets down to the facts about who is the best candidate, it’s Castetter’s experience as a prosecutor in both Hancock and Marion counties that make her the top person for the job, King said.
“She did a fantastic job on some of the more serious cases in Indianapolis because of her knowledge of the law and her tenacity,” King said.
King and another person who knows Castetter well, former law partner Don Foley of the Foley & Abbott law firm in Indianapolis, insist that while she’s new to the bench, her experience has prepared her well.
“In my view, she makes a very good judge,” Foley said. “Because of her great experience, she’s a woman who can understand the situations of people when they come into the courtroom.”
Foley and Castetter tried numerous cases together through the years, and he was able to gain the highest level of respect for her, he said.
“She’s a person who likes to get to the bottom of things and find the truth and justly settle things, and that’s about as good as it can get,” Foley said.
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The Daily Reporter is presenting profiles of candidates whose names will appear on the primary ballot for county offices. This week, the candidates for Hancock County Superior Court 1 judge are featured. Stories on candidates in all the other races in the June 2 primary were published earlier and can be found online at www.greenfieldreporter.com.
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Age: 53
Party: Republican
Office sought: Judge, Hancock Superior Court 1
Political experience: No previous political experience; first campaign for office.
Family: Husband, Robert Castetter
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