Meet the candidate: Robert Essex wants to bring change as Licking County Common Pleas – Domestic Relations judge

After nearly 33 years as an attorney, Robert Essex is running to be a judge for the Licking County Common Pleas – Domestic Relations court, with a goal to treat everyone who passes through his courtroom with fairness.

“I’ve always thought that everybody should be treated fairly,” Essex said. “That’s one of my passions in representing, because we represent people [who] are underserved and underprivileged.”

His career as a lawyer began in 1994 at the Franklin County Public Defender’s Office, disrupted only by a stint in private practice from 2006 to 2012, where he worked in both Licking and Franklin County, taking on many domestic relations cases.

He returned to the public defender’s office in 2012 and has been there ever since. While the majority of his career was spent in the courtroom trying felony cases, his current job there is working in appeals.

“We pretty much do appeals for all sorts of criminal [cases], not necessarily domestic, but we do appeals of juvenile cases and a lot of those touch on domestic relations issues,” Essex said.

Essex said he is running because of “skills that I think I can bring to the job,” and is operating his campaign off his motto to “treat everyone fairly.”

“I take it personally whenever I think a judge goes a little overboard in chastising someone,” Essex said. “I don’t believe in that. Yes, you’ve got to be firm, but… just because you’re the judge or you’re their attorney, you’re not somehow more deserving of respect [than them].”

After years in the courtroom, Essex said that he’s realized “if a lot of our clients didn’t have me and the people that I work with in my office, they would just get steamrolled by the system.” 

If he becomes domestic relations judge, he says he will provide support for people to seek treatment throughout his service.

“Threats of jail and so forth only goes so far,” Essex said. “YSomebody has to want to do something to make themselves better… I’ve always had a very encouraging nature and part of that is a function of my job. So that’s something I believe would serve me well on the court.”

Essex’s opponent, Judge Richard Wright, has served as domestic relations judge since 2009. Essex argues that his lack of experience in being a judge himself will not hold him back.

“Nobody has experience as a judge when they first become a judge,” Essex said during the WCLT candidate forum co-hosted with The Reporting Project on Oct. 2. “I’ve already said that I’ve practiced in many different areas of the law. I’m confident that I have the experience necessary to do this job.”

Licking County Judge David Branstool was initially running against Wright in order to keep him from running unopposed, but dropped out of the race after recruiting Essex to run. 

“He knew that he wasn’t going to ultimately run for this, but he wanted to make sure that somebody did,” said Essex. “So basically him going out, getting the signatures and everything at least gave him time to recruit somebody, to find somebody to run.”

Essex decided that it was the right opportunity to run after thinking about it and discussing it with his wife. He said that he did not think Wright should have any issue with having an opponent, regardless of the unusual circumstances.

“No elected official should have a problem having an opponent, regardless of how it came up,” Essex said. “Everybody should be opposed.”

The race is nonpartisan, but both candidates have political affiliations, and Essex emphasized that he would make nonpartisan decisions.

“He’s endorsed by the Republican Party, and I’m endorsed by the Democratic Party,” he said. “And I would hope that it doesn’t mean that our decisions would have anything to do with what party we’re from. I would like to think that he’s as fair as I think that I would be.”

During the candidate forum, Essex said that the biggest challenge that the domestic relations court is facing is the availability of resources.

“Regardless of what courts you’re in, be it criminal court or domestic relations court, we need funding for programs to assist people, to assist families, because it’s not just the drug addict or the alcoholic that is causing the problems in the family,” Essex said. “The other members of the family need resources also. Victims need resources. Children need resources who are caught in these unfortunate situations.”

He emphasized that as a judge, he would work to always bring respect and dignity in all situations.

“I understand fairness, I understand treating people with respect,” he said. “That’s what I’ve done every day for 33 years. and I would like to bring those beliefs and those practices to the bench.”

On Election Day, Nov. 3, polls will be open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Ella Kitchens writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.