SHELBY – No changes will be made on the bench at the Shelby Municipal Court after city voters re-elected Judge Sheree Studer Tuesday.
According to final, unofficial totals from the Richland County Board of Elections, Studer received 59.96 percent of the votes to defeat Jonathon Elgin, 3,134 to 2,093.
Studer’s new term will commence Jan. 1, 2024 and conclude Dec. 31, 2029.
The Shelby Municipal Court serves the City of Shelby, as well as Sharon, Jackson, Cass, Plymouth, Butler (except Sections 35, 36, 32 and 31) and Blooming Grove townships in Richland County, according to the court’s website.
Studer ‘grateful for the support’ of Shelby community
“I am grateful for the support of my community,” Studer said late Tuesday night. “And I am proud to serve you as the Shelby Municipal Court Judge.”
After graduating from Pioneer Career and Technology Center and Buckeye Central High School in 1996, Studer attended North Central State to obtain her paralegal degree.
She also earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Ashland University and graduated from law school at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University.
She’s spent her entire legal career in the Shelby community, and has worked at Benham and Ream in different capacities since 2004.
Currently in her sixth year on the bench, Studer was elected to her first term in 2017, replacing Jon Schaefer, who served as judge for 30 years in Shelby.
Prior to her appointment as acting judge, she was the magistrate of the Shelby Municipal Court since July 2014.
Accomplishments from first-term
In October, Studer told Richland Source she’s proud of her work to advance the court’s online public access, which she said was virtually non-existent prior to her term.
She added that at the end of last year, the court was also successful in its effort to obtain recertification of its drug court program.
Addressing state audit findings
The municipal court has periodically been at the center of passionate Shelby City Council discussions for more than a year due to repetitive state audit findings.
During an October council meeting, Councilmember Garland Gates reported to council significant deficiencies were found in the municipal court’s monthly bank reconciliations, a recurring issue that dates back to 2017.
Studer told Richland Source in October the court has been working to correct the issue.
“Once we obtained that first audit, we hired our programmer Henschen and we also hired an independent CPA,” she said.
“We’ve also gone through and reviewed the records ourselves and we’ve balanced to the same figure now from December of 2018 until now,” Studer said.
She said the court is dedicated to resolving this issue and expects it to be finalized in next year’s audit.