A candidate for judge in the Butler County court says the county judicial system is little more than an old boys club and the president judge is at the helm, while those she is accusing say the baseless accusations are a political grab.

Attorney Jennifer Gilliland Vanasdale said when she learned in October 2017 of the sexual misconduct lawsuit filed by county probation officer Crystal Starnes against Thomas Doerr, the president judge at the Court of Common Pleas, she called the president of the county Bar Association, Tom Breth.

Vanasdale said she felt the case would merit a special meeting of the county bar.

“I thought (the case) called into question (Doerr's) integrity and propriety,” she said.

She said Breth told her he would think about it, then called her the next day to say there would be no special meeting on the Doerr case.

A few weeks later, she saw a Butler Eagle article stating that an attorney with Breth's law firm, Dillon McCandless King Coulter and Graham, would be representing Doerr in the lawsuit.

Vanasdale said she called Breth and asked him if he had related their conversation to that attorney, Tom King, to which Breth replied he had.

She said Doerr soon recused himself from all cases involving Vanasdale, which she assumed was the result of Breth sharing her request for a bar association meeting with Doerr as well.

“The good old boys decided it was time for them to take care of themselves and stop the meeting,” Vanasdale said.

Doerr and Judge Kelley Streib are the two family court judges at Common Pleas court, which is the branch of law Vanasdale practices.

Vanasdale filed a response to Doerr's recusal from her cases, in which she claimed the action was a result of her request to call a special Bar Association meeting.

Vanasdale also takes issue in the response with Doerr's wife, attorney Lori Doerr, and the wife of District Attorney Richard Goldinger, attorney Rebecca Lozzi, serving as attorneys representing children in some family court cases in which the attorneys, custody conciliators, the judge or others feel the children involved in a case are in need of legal representation.

Vanasdale feels it is improper for Lori Doerr and Lozzi to act as attorneys for children, known in the legal world as guardians ad litem, in Butler County due to the positions of their husbands.

She said while the Doerrs were told by the Supreme Court when they married that Lori Doerr could practice law in the county as long as she did not appear before her husband or become a partner in any law practice, a 2014 amendment to the state code of judicial conduct precludes the two women from being appointed guardians ad litem.

She said the section stating that “A judge shall not appoint a lawyer to a position if the judge either knows that the lawyer, or the lawyer's spouse or domestic partner” disallows Goldinger's and Doerr's wives from serving in the position.

“It says a judge should avoid nepotism and favoritism,” Vanasdale said.

Vanasdale also questions the women's salary of $150 per hour when they serve as guardians ad litem.

“It was very clear to me that it was likely inappropriate for them to even serve in that capacity, but I also thought the compensation was not appropriate either and was something that should be reviewed,” Vanasdale said.

Vanasdale said she was then summoned to the chambers of Streib, the county's only other family court judge.

She assumed Streib wanted to discuss rescheduling cases resulting from Doerr's recusal.

“When I got there, it was an ambush,” Vanasdale said.

She said Streib, who she said appointed both Lori Doerr and Lozzi as guardians ad litem, gave her until 4 p.m. the following day to amend or withdraw her response regarding the guardian ad litem or Streib would also recuse herself from Vanasdale's cases and contact the state disciplinary board to report her.

“I left her office feeling very complicit because I know I needed to stand up for what is right for the community, but if she recused herself, that would leave me with no family court judge,” Vanasdale said.

At that point, Vanasdale retained an attorney who advised her against acquiescing to Streib's demands.

The next day, she contacted Streib's office to report that she would not follow the judge's orders. She also contacted the disciplinary board to share the situation.

Vanasdale said the disciplinary board cleared her of any wrongdoing in two days.

As for her family court cases, a judge from Armstrong County came to Butler as necessary to hear her represent her clients.

She said at first, having both family court judges recuse themselves from her cases affected her practice, but she has now transitioned all of her cases to others in her practice and is concentrating on her campaign for family court judge.

“I want to make sure we have fair and unbiased judges,” Vanasdale said.

Lori Doerr said on Sunday that “absolutely nothing improper was done by anybody.”

She said Vanasdale could have voiced her opposition to her serving as a guardians ad litem in 2011, when Doerr was appointed to the position.

“If Ms. Vanasdale felt something inappropriate was going on in the county, she had an absolute obligation to turn that in to the discipline board,” Doerr said. “Where was she for all these years?”

Doerr said she had never practiced in her husband's court, and that about a dozen attorneys are on the list to serve as guardians ad litem.

“I feel like there are accusations that my husband appointed me, and that is 100 percent, flat-out untrue,” Doerr said.

Doerr said she thinks instead of just running for the family court judgeship vacated last year by Marilyn Horan, who was appointed to federal court in Pittsburgh, Vanasdale is pitting herself against the sitting judges.

She said when she married Judge Doerr and moved to Butler in 1999, her husband contacted the Supreme Court to ask if she could practice in the county.

The reply was that she could, but not in his court and she could never be a partner in a law firm so that all attorneys in any firm where she worked could try cases before Judge Doerr without facing an appearance of conflict of interest.

Regarding hourly rates, Doerr said attorneys can set rates for guardians ad litem work. She said she made $120 per hour for several years and eventually petitioned Streib for a raise to $150, which she received.

She said others make the same rate.

In some cases where the parties are not financially stable, Doerr works for $60 per hour.

“If I can give back at a reduced hourly rate, then I am going to do that because I'm qualified, experienced and capable of doing what Judge Streib asks that I do,” she said.

She said Streib knows she is going to do her best to fairly represent minors.

“There is nothing inappropriate and I have no concern over the fact that I was appointed,” Doerr said. “I'm proud of the fact that the judge had the confidence in me to appoint me.”

Although Vanasdale claims her calling attention to the matter cannot be related to her campaign because her call to Breth occurred in 2017, before a judge's position was open at the courthouse, Lori Doerr disagrees.

“I feel like this is for her (Vanasdale's) political gain,” she said. “It's her way to turn around and twist something that nothing is wrong with and no one ever complained about.”