Despite low ratings from the local Bar Association, Amy Salerno has been a strong vote-getter as a Municipal Court judge. Now under a stayed suspension from the Ohio Supreme Court, she faces opposition from defense attorney Jessica D'Varga.

After nearly 15 years on the bench, Franklin County Municipal Court Judge Amy Salerno has grown accustomed to getting poor marks from the Columbus Bar Association.

The latest knock came in the spring, when she was the lowest-rated of the 15 judges on the Municipal Court bench among lawyers who responded to a Bar Association poll.

She is dismissive of such ratings, including a recent poll showing that her opponent in her bid for re-election, Jessica D'Varga, is favored by 76.4% of the 550 lawyers who weighed in.

Salerno, a Republican, cites politics for her showing in such polls, saying she doesn't "toe the party line," and that she angered Democrats through her legislative and electoral success while a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 1995 to 2002.

The only polls that count, Salerno, 62, said, are the ones in which Franklin County voters have elected her to the bench by wide margins three times.

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"All that matters is what the voters in this community, the people who know me, the people that have been in my court, the people that have been in organizations I'm involved with, in the volunteer activities that I've been involved with, the people that truly know Amy Salerno," she said. "People in the community respect me."

D'Varga, a 39-year-old defense lawyer who practices primarily in Municipal Court, said, "it's just time for a change."

Her campaign hasn't directly made an issue of the ethical problems that have dogged Salerno, including two findings of judicial misconduct by the Ohio Supreme Court's disciplinary counsel, which prompted the justices to impose a stayed, one-year suspension of Salerno's law license in February, allowing her to remain on the bench. But D'Varga talks a lot about public trust.

"I feel strongly that this seat should be occupied by someone with a high respect for the job itself, someone who holds themselves up to a high standard as a face of the justice system because, Lord knows, there’s a lack of trust and a lack of faith in that system," she said.

Salerno, a Victorian Village resident, was sanctioned by the Supreme Court for conducting improper, secretive communication with a defense lawyer before reducing his client's bond, and for changing her verdict in a 2017 traffic case from guilty to not guilty after becoming frustrated with the assistant prosecutor. In 2015, she received a public reprimand for telling jurors who acquitted a man in an assault case that they reached the wrong verdict.

In each case, Salerno said she did the right thing — or something judges commonly do — without generating a complaint to the disciplinary counsel.

"I'm known for speaking plainly, for speaking the truth," she said.

The Bar Association's 20-member screening committee interviewed both candidates and rated D'Varga as "highly recommended." The committee declined to issue an opinion on Salerno because she is under the stayed suspension, the association's director said.

D'Varga, a Democrat who lives on the Northwest Side, said her work as a defense attorney wouldn't interfere with her ability to be fair to both sides in criminal cases.

"I think a judge’s job is to make sure the system is working properly, that all the checks and balances are in place, that the Constitution is being upheld," she said. "And I think that’s what I’ve been doing as a defense attorney."

Municipal Court judges handle traffic cases, misdemeanor offenses and civil disputes involving $15,000 or less. The winner of the Nov. 5 election gets a six-year term with an annual salary of $138,800.

jfutty@dispatch.com

@johnfutty