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WARREN -- The high-profile criminal cases Chris Becker has prosecuted during his 26-year career as an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor barely scratch the surface of people he helped send to prison.
For every killer of a child, elderly woman or Air Force veteran husband, there were others, such as a young Detroit man who killed another man in a downtown Warren gun battle that spilled over into the parking lot of a prominent downtown church in 2012.
Becker is running for a second time to move from First Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor to Trumbull County Common Pleas Court judge, this time to replace Judge Cynthia Westcott, who is not seeking another term. Becker said he has prosecuted more than 191 jury trials, including four that resulted in the death penalty being imposed.
Becker's lengthy career, including 10 years as assistant prosecutor in Jefferson County, has left him only enough time to serve one six-year term as common pleas court judge before he would be too old to run for re-election under Ohio law. He is 63. He lost in the 2024 general election to Sarah Thomas Kovoor.
His opponent this time is Mary Ellen Ditchey, who has served 2 1/2 years as the magistrate for Wescott. The new judge will take office Jan. 1.
Ditchey acknowledged in an interview with the newspaper that Becker has "wonderful experience" as an assistant prosecutor but said, "He doesn't have any other experience" in handling civil matters, such as lawsuits and foreclosures, which have been Ditchey's main focus as Westcott's magistrate.
By tradition, Trumbull County Common Pleas Court judges have presided over civil jury trials, not the magistrates, Ditchey said.
She said that during the past 15 years, she served as an assistant county prosecutor four years in the Dayton area, handled criminal cases as a defense attorney, worked in civil litigation and handled some criminal case duties for the past 2 1/2 years.
BECKER
Becker said his 36 years as a criminal prosecutor means, "I have the most experience of anyone in (the Trumbull County Courthouse) in trying cases, and that’s what the common pleas court is - it’s a trial court. It’s not an appellate court. It's not a bankruptcy court."
He said, "I’m very well versed in the ways that cases should be tried and more importantly the ways things can go wrong in a trial and what you need to do to address that."
He said he thinks being voted the "preferred candidate" by the Trumbull County Bar Association in this race Oct. 6 "speaks volumes as to my credentials, my experience and what the people who go into that courtroom expect and who they want to sit in that position."
He said he won't name names, but there have been officials elected in Trumbull County in recent years who "can’t do the job or are not up to snuff to do it." He said "you want somebody who on Day 1 can get in there and do the job. They can handle it, handle the pressure. And I think I am the perfect fit for that job."
He noted that among the judges who served Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for many years were W. Wyatt McKay and Peter Kontos, who were both first assistant prosecutors in the county prosecutor's office before being elected judge. He said working as an assistant prosecutor is a "great training ground" for how the common pleas court operates.
Becker said one of the most important things to him is the safety of the community, saying he has three children and two grandchildren living in Trumbull County.
"I live here, and I want this community to be safe. We can’t guarantee safety 100% of the time, but we want to make sure when some person commits an evil or a crime, that person is first and foremost given their rights available to them and that we don’t have to try this case again a second or third time and have it come back" on appeal.
He said if the person is found guilty, the public needs to know that the judge "is going to impose punishment in accord with what the community expects."
When asked if the operation of the courts can have an impact on the quality of life in a community, he said one way is "not trying cases slowly." He said most criminal cases are done in six months in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. Murder cases usually take a year.
When he was asked about Ditchey's remark about him having no experience with civil cases, Becker said he prosecuted 2012 civil cases in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court involving eight massage parlors in Warren. The litigation shut the businesses down for at least a year.
As first assistant prosecutor, "I sit with the chief of the civil division, Bill Danso, and (Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins), and we make decisions all the time, almost on a weekly basis." He said he's talking about issues such as whether the prosecutor's office should issue an opinion on a civil matter on behalf of a county department the prosecutor's office represents.
As an example, he said he, Watkins and Danso made a "joint decision" on what to do when then-Trumbull County Sheriff Paul Monroe had then-Trumbull County Commissioner Niki Frenchko arrested. They decided to bring in a special prosecutor to handle the matter because Frenchko and Monroe were both clients of the prosecutor’s office, Becker said.
Civil matters are different from criminal matters in some respects, but the "rules of evidence apply both civilly and criminally," Becker said. He is "infinitely familiar with the rules of evidence," especially where they come up in the courtroom and an objection has to be made in a trial, Becker said.
DITCHEY
As a Trumbull County Common Pleas Court magistrate, Ditchey has presided over civil stalking protection orders, conducted status conferences and pretrials on civil cases assigned to Wescott's court, presided over civil trials that don't involve a jury and conducted arraignments in criminal cases and pretrials in felony cases as needed, according to Ditchey's resume. She also assists in running Westcott's Women's Therapeutic Court docket.
She worked four years for the Urban Co. law firm in Warren until May of 2024, handling workers’ compensation cases, felony and misdemeanor criminal defense and personal injury lawsuits. She served as defense counsel in various courts in the Warren and the Dayton areas from September 2017 to May of 2024, serving as defense attorney in criminal cases and representing clients in domestic relations court and personal injury cases, according to her resume. She tried cases to juries during that time.
She was assistant prosecutor in the Dayton area from April 2012 to August 2016, prosecuting child abuse cases and other types of criminal offenses, such as violent or financial crimes and drug cases.
Ditchey said as a magistrate, there are three things she is not permitted to handle that an elected common pleas court judge can -- preside over criminal pleas, criminal sentencings and felony criminal trials.
“I can do civil jury trials. We don't have a lot of those, and most (parties) request the judge to hear those," Ditchey said. She has not presided over a civil jury trial yet.
"I am running because all of the experience I have had in my 15 years of practicing," Ditchey said. "I have done every (type of) case that comes before the court where I am sitting now. I have done the workers’ compensation cases, the personal injury cases. When I was in Dayton I was in a personal injury law firm for about a year. I’ve done breach of contract cases."
Ditchey said she handles the "entire civil (civil) docket" in her job as a magistrate. She said she could "start tomorrow if Judge Westcott decided to leave. I could take over the entire (civil) docket because I know the cases. I know the litigants. I know the attorneys. I know the plaintiffs."
On the criminal side, she will handle the criminal arraignments and pretrials next week because Westcott will not be there. She said she is less familiar with criminal cases on Westcott's docket than civil cases, but said there will be "no training needed" for her to take over the criminal docket if elected. Neither she nor Becker have ever presided over a criminal trial, she said.
She agreed that there is a "learning curve" for an attorney presiding over a criminal trial for the first time, but "I defended cases. I prosecuted cases. I’ve been on the side of plaintiffs in civil trials. I’ve been in the courtroom for civil and criminal trials. I have not presided over them, but I have litigated both civil and criminal trials.”
She was a prosecutor and defense attorney in such cases.
Ditchey said she is grateful for Westcott's mentorship while working for her the past 2 1/12 years. "Having sat on the appeals court bench for 20-some years and now having this common pleas experience as a judge, she’s been invaluable for me in navigating my way through being a magistrate," Ditchey said. "I’ve learned a lot from her."
Ditchey said if she is elected to replace Westcott, she will continue with the Women's Therapeutic Court as one of her top priorities. Westcott created it in July of 2023.
"The goal of the (Women's Therapeutic) docket is to "guide these women through their recovery with the support of the probation department as well as health and human services to tailor their recovery journey. This specialized docket has been extremely successful, and it is important to me that the program continues to do so."
She said helping run the Women's Therapeutic Docket has been rewarding. "To see these women the first time they come before you. You think 'Oh my gosh. I hope we can help this person.' Sometimes they are in dire straits." They frequently need to get sober, get housing and a job, Ditchey said.
"To see them a year or two later at graduation, the transformation, the personal growth that they go through, has been very rewarding," Ditchey said.
The issue gets more complicated if Becker wins the election.
VETERANS COURT
Becker said during a candidate interview he will not take over Westcott's Women's Therapeutic Docket if he is elected. Instead, he has discussed the matter with Judge Sarah Thomas Kovoor, who agreed to take over the Women's Therapeutic Docket if Becker is elected. Kovoor confirmed this week that is accurate and that she also will continue to oversee the common pleas court’s drug court.
Becker said he also has had preliminary discussions with the Trumbull County Veterans Service Commission regarding expanding the Trumbull County Veterans Court, which is now overseen by Trumbull County Probate Court Judge James Fredericka, and creating a specialty court for military veterans with felony criminal charges. He would oversee that court if he is elected common pleas court judge, Becker said.
Trumbull County Central District Court Judge Thomas Campbell is taking over as Trumbull County Probate Court Judge at the start of 2027 after winning the 2026 Republican primary and having no opponent in November.
Campbell said he has spoken with Becker about Becker expanding the veterans court and feels that veterans courts have "proved to be worthwhile." He said he would not be concerned about which judge oversees veterans court. "The important thing is the help is there," he said.