Butler Township District Judge Kevin O’Donnell remembers the only man in his 30-year career he didn’t look in the eye when finding him guilty.

O’Donnell remembered questioning what he should do. The defendant was “out of control,” and O’Donnell had a feeling the guilty ruling would agitate him further. So he didn’t look up, he said. It was the only time he didn’t in the estimated tens of thousands of cases he’s seen.

“How you treat people is probably one of the biggest things about this job,” O’Donnell said.

Now 30 years into his career as the only county judge elected to five terms, O’Donnell is proud of the way he’s done the job.

District judges see criminal cases at the preliminary level one day per week. The judge conducts a preliminary arraignment, where they explain to the defendant the charges against them, and a preliminary hearing, where the judge determines if there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial in Common Pleas Court.

For the rest of the week, the district judge officiates weddings and handles civil cases such as landlord/tenant disputes, traffic citations and lawsuits with claims under $12,000. District judges serve six-year terms while Common Pleas judges serve 10-year terms.

The job does not require a law degree, but it does require certification and training through the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts if not already an attorney.

“I thought I could be the person that, if you were here and (they) were here, we could resolve it,” said O’Donnell, who has no law degree.

O’Donnell learned to treat the prosecution and defense equally from his father, William R. O’Donnell. As a boy, O’Donnell watch as his dad served as a justice of the peace. While similar to the role of a district judge those officials saw criminal cases of a lower severity over a wider geographical jurisdiction. Pennsylvania switched to the magistrate district judge system in 1992.

Equal treatment principles also shaped O’Donnell’s views on surety bond, which is the amount a defendant must pay if they fail to appear at court. He recalled a state conference he attended in Erie where he sat beside a senior judge who told O’Donnell the highest bond he had ever issued was $5,000.

“Personal opinion: When I started, here we used the bond for punishment,” O’Donnell said. “We’re not the people to be punishing people. We don’t determine guilt or innocence.”

O’Donnell said law enforcement and prosecutors usually advocate for higher bond because they want to defendant to appear at the preliminary hearing.

O’Donnell instead preferred to issue release-on-own-reconnaissance, or ROR, bonds, where the defendant is released without a fee and signs a form promising their appearance in court.

“Nobody ever had to tell me I’m not there to punish them on bond,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell also isn’t a fan of incarcerating people accused of low-level misdemeanors such as retail theft. He said retail thefts now are different from in previous years with commonly stolen items now being food and diapers. He said many retail theft perpetrators are also younger and from single-parent families.

“They had a tougher life than I did growing up,” he said.

O’Donnell recounted seeing the children of people who have passed through his courtroom now being accused of similar crimes.

“It’s like those kids never had a chance,” O’Donnell said. “Now they have kids. They never had a chance.”

O’Donnell didn’t always think he’d be the one giving defendants a chance. He just needed a job.

He knew some aspects of the work from his father conducting hearings in the basement of their family home beside Bill’s Beer Barn on New Castle Road. He and his older brother, William S. O’Donnell, who goes by Bill, would listen through the floor vents as state troopers brought defendants into the basement.

Kevin O’Donnell also learned the worst parts of the job from watching his father. He recalled another of his father’s offices on Chestnut Street being firebombed in the 1970s. He also remembered his father wearing a bulletproof vest to a relative’s funeral after shots were fired through the windows of his office.

O’Donnell credits his father with helping him form social connections that later assisted in launching his political career. O’Donnell said his father was a member of several social clubs and took O’Donnell with him, so he’s remained a lifetime member since he joined in his youth.

In 1985, O’Donnell began working for former Pennsylvania Treasurer Robert Budd Dwyer. Dwyer, who was convicted on 11 counts related to bribery, died by suicide during a televised news conference in 1987.

O’Donnell then returned to Butler and was appointed as the director of the Butler County Bureau of Elections in 1988. He resigned in 1991 after commissioner infighting, even within the same party, turned the job into a “nightmare,” he said.

“When I worked for the commissioners, people didn’t like you because of your last name, people didn’t like you because of who you’re friends with, people didn’t like you because you had a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ in front of your name, they didn’t like you because of who you worked for,” O’Donnell said.

He left to work at the O’Donnell family-owned Butler Snack-N-Pack. He worked there until he ran for judge in 1993.

Kevin O’Donnell lost the 1993 election to Dennis Armstrong, a relative of Harold Armstrong, who beat his father the first time he ran for justice of the peace in 1969, according to Bill O’Donnell.

“Losing is tough,” Kevin O’Donnell said. “This term is six years apart. That’s a long time.”

He was encouraged to run again by former county Commissioner Glenn Anderson and worked with Christina Ligas, a Butler County Democratic Committee member and former president of the Butler County Democratic Women’s Club, to launch his next campaign. She died in 2009.

O’Donnell said everywhere he went, he saw Ligas wearing his campaign T-shirt and talking about him — even when running into constituents at the grocery store.

It was her idea to put up billboards on New Caste Road and Route 8 about 50 yards apart with one word on each of them. The signs together read, “Do” …” You” …” Know” …” Kevin O?”

“And it worked. It took off like wildfire,” O’Donnell said.

In 1999, O’Donnell was sworn into office by former Chief Justice Stephen Zappala Sr. of the state Supreme Court. He remembered the chief justice telling him during his swearing in, “you don’t get paid to be right. You get paid to make a decision.”

William R. O’Donnell, who died in 2002, was able to watched his son serve.

Kevin O’Donnell was thrown into a heavy caseload after his first election. He learned when he took office his predecessor quit, leaving two months before his term was to conclude. O’Donnell said the office staff continued each case until the next year.

At the time, the Butler Township district court covered the City of Butler, the township, Connoquenessing and Connoquenessing Township. O’Donnell said he peaked at 1,300 criminal cases per year during that time running criminal hearings from 8:30 a.m. Monday to noon Friday.

“It took until May or June to get caught up,” O’Donnell said.

In 2024, the largest number of criminal cases seen was in Butler district court with 368. District courts in the county have one day per week dedicated to criminal hearings.

The heavy caseload in his first term didn’t stop O’Donnell from solving the problems he saw in the job. He said there was an incorrect public perception that law enforcement and judges were sharing details about cases before the hearings — creating a prejudiced situation.

When he was elected, O’Donnell said police officers would commonly bring defendants in through the back door of the district court closest to the judge’s office. Officers would take the defendant through the court’s office space to get to the courtroom, or sometimes straight into the judge’s office.

Six months into office, O’Donnell instituted a policy that officers must take defendants through the front door of the court, and officers weren’t permitted in the office space —- creating separation. He said police were upset at first, but O’Donnell didn’t change his mind.

O’Donnell’s career ran into trouble on Sept. 11, 2004, during his reelection campaign. He was charged with driving under the influence. News reports at the time said O’Donnell had a blood alcohol content of 0.195%. The legal limit in Pennsylvania is 0.08%.

O’Donnell continued his run for office while he was on probation.

“Life could have went a different direction for me and my family,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell was accepted into the accelerated rehabilitative disposition (ARD) program for first-time DUI offenders. Completing the program removes the DUI charge from the defendant’s record for a 6-month probation sentence, restitution and a safety course in place of jail time, according to the Pennsylvania DUI Association.

“I do not expect nor do I want any preferential treatment from either the district attorney (Timothy McCune) or the courts (led by former President Judge Thomas Doerr),” O’Donnell said publicly at the time. “I regret that this event has occurred. I am sorry for the embarrassment this has caused to my family and friends.”

O’Donnell said in an Aug. 11 interview he had known multiple people, besides his former boss, who committed suicide after being charged with a crime. He said some people don’t know how to handle being charged with a crime.

“They don’t know you can plea not guilty, come in and ask for leniency,” he said.

O’Donnell was reelected in 2005 with the help of a new campaign manager, Gail Paserba, now CEO of Intentional Quality Consultants and treasurer for the Butler County Chamber of Commerce.

Starting his work in 2005, he instantly lost half his caseload when Butler Township became its own district.

About 10 years later in 2016, O’Donnell had the privilege of swearing in his brother, Bill, when he became the district judge in Slippery Rock. Kevin O’Donnell said Bill earned the certification to be a judge before being elected.

Bill O’Donnell planned to run for the district judge position in Slippery Rock earlier in his career while living in Center Township. The two were within the same district before Center Township was moved to the Chicora district court in 2005. He moved to Slippery Rock in 2015 so he could run.

Bill O’Donnell’s term ended in 2021, and District Judge Joseph Nash was elected to serve in Slippery Rock. Bill retired and moved to Boise, Idaho.

O’Donnell’s current term ends in 2030. The office staff says he’s never leaving, but O’Donnell is undecided. He would be 70 years old in office if elected again.

The office staff decorates for O’Donnell’s return every time he goes on vacation, and celebrations in the office are plentiful. Last year, O’Donnell came back from his holiday vacation to find his entire office covered in wrapping paper, including the walls and all his belongings, with 13 gifts hidden among the wrapping, according to Kelly Michalek, an office staffer of 15 years.

“The respect from his district shows you why he’s the longest-serving district judge,” Bill O’Donnell said. “They support him.”