SLIPPERY ROCK — Taking the bench is all in the family for Bill O'Donnell.

Judge-ship is in his blood. His father, William R. O'Don-nell, was the district judge for Butler Township, before the gavel was passed to Bill's brother, Kevin O'Donnell, who holds that position.

Bill O'Donnell wanted to wear the judge's robe as far back as the 1980s, but circumstances held him back.

“My plan was to follow in (my father's) footsteps, but he was still working in the '80s, and I bought a house in Center Township,” Bill O'Donnell said. “When he decided to retire, I wasn't permitted to run for his office because I didn't live in the district, and you have to live in the district at least a year, which means I would have had to move the family.”

It seemed O'Donnell had another chance in the early 1990s when the Slippery Rock seat opened up. However, redistricting eliminated the opening.

O'Donnell spent the next 21 years as an administrator in Butler County government. Then in January, he was sworn in as the Slippery Rock district judge.

He is one of two new district judges this year in the county.

In all that time, he hasn't forgotten his father's advice.

“Sometimes you don't go by the letter of the law, you go by the spirit of the law,” Bill O'Donnell said. “There's some people that never had a break in life, and if you're the one that's able to give them that first break, maybe it changes their life and turns it around.”

He enjoys working with the students at Slippery Rock University, where he graduated with a political science degree in 1978.

“I think most satisfying is trying to get people on the right track,” he said. “Obviously the (driving speeders), they get caught speeding again, that's their problem, but trying to help the students out, trying to keep them in school because a lot of them are in education and a lot of their degrees, they can't afford to have certain violations.”

O'Donnell shows leniency by erasing fines, taking points off licenses and working with police to reduce charges when he can.

He has seen his methods work. He spoke of a girl who stood with her mother in his courtroom, on her third underage drinking offense. She had passed out from her drinking and needed to go to the hospital.

Had O'Donnell followed through with punishment, she would likely have lost a year on her license.

He told of how she had never had the opportunity for counseling or a rehabilitation class, so rather than charge her, he ordered her to the class and counseling, and to come back in three months.

In return, he would dismiss the charges against her.

“She came in, she looked a lot better,” he said. “She's doing a lot better; she's still in school.

“So there was one time where, if I had found her guilty on her third offense, it really could have hurt her life, and it may not have helped her, and that was a case I was happy about.”

O'Donnell often deals with traffic violations and DUIs, having jurisdiction over a sizable stretch of Interstate 79 and Route 422.

However, it's the compulsory student attendance at schools that caught him off guard. He didn't expect so many students to be paraded in front of him for missing more than the allowable number of days of school.

“I think the biggest thing probably was the young kids not going to school, and the ones that are in cyber school, they don't have to spend a whole lot of time on the computer and they're not doing that,” he said. “A lot of it I blame on the parents.”

O'Donnell is mostly enjoying the bench. He credits his staff for helping him on a day-to-day basis.

“I have five excellent assistants,” he said. “They're all specialized in different areas, and it just makes my job so much easier with the knowledge they have and what I've learned from them.”

And even though it took longer than he initially planned to get here, Bill O'Donnell wouldn't change anything about the road he took.

“I just think it's something that I wanted to do from the beginning, and I don't regret working 21 years at the county,” he said. “I don't think that would change the knowledge I learned.”

William 'Bill' O'Donnell

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Age: 60

Address: Slippery Rock

Family: Wife, Susan; daughters, Brooke, Fallon

Education: Political science degree from Slippery Rock University

Hobbies: Playing golf, watching football

DJ office budget: $348,000

Employees: 5

Jurisdiction: Townships of Slippery Rock, Brady, Franklin, Mercer, and Muddy Creek; boroughs of Harrisville, Prospect, Portersville, Slippery Rock and West Liberty.

Number of cases a year: 4,500