NEW MAGISTRATE — Maresa Baes Taylor, right, was sworn in as Jefferson County’s new magistrate by Common Pleas Judge Michelle Miller. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — Maresa Baes Taylor is Jefferson County’s new magistrate, presiding over its domestic docket as well as civil protection orders. 

While her family looked on Taylor, 44, was sworn in Monday by Common Pleas Judge Michelle Miller. Miller and Common Pleas Judge Joseph Bruzzese Jr. picked Taylor to succeed Adrian Hershey, who retired after eight years as magistrate. 

“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Taylor said afterward. “I’m looking forward to being able to serve the community, kind of on a different level than individual clients.” 

Taylor earned her undergraduate degree from Mount Union College in 2000 and her law degree from Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law in 2003. She’d worked for the prosecutor’s office while she was in law school through the fall of 2004. She and her husband, Frank, moved around a lot after that, and for the next few years she practiced with various law offices in Ohio and Indiana and taught at West Virginia Northern and Eastern Gateway community colleges. 

In 2019 she opened her own practice in Steubenville. 

“It’s an opportunity to change lives,” Miller told Taylor before swearing her in. “As an attorney you were able to help people, but as magistrate you have more control over proceedings, how quickly people get in, how quickly their cases are heard, if things need to be delayed so you can flesh out information better from certain agencies. 

“You know, they say if you want to test a person’s character, don’t give them adversity because those people will rise to the occasion,” Miller added. “If you want to test someone’s character, give them power … you will have that. You will have the power to make change, at the most basic level — over people’s custody (issues), their divorces, all of those things that they hold dear. It’s the fabric of society.” 

“But most important, or just as important, we think you are very trustworthy and honorable, and that is what is needed for a member of the judiciary,” Miller said. 

Taylor said it’s hard to walk away from her practice, in no small part because she likes working with people.  

“It’s like Judge Miller said — you can see where you make a difference in peoples’ lives, sometimes when you least expect it,” she said, pointing out judges and magistrates “get to help (people), to make sure that the law is applied fairly.” 

Miller said they chose Taylor because of “her intelligence, her analytical skills, her commitment to justice.” She said she and Bruzzese had seen her in action in their courtrooms and “we knew she had the temperament and the qualities that it takes to be a fair member of the judiciary.” 

“It’s an important job — she’ll decide where kids go to live. she has the authority to put someone in jail, deprive them of their liberty if they don’t follow the rules of the court. That requires a steady hand and a judicious temperament, and she has that, “Miller said. 

“Lots of people watch something on the news and say ‘hang them high,’ but judges can’t do that: They have to calmly, analytically, with reason and objectivity, dispense justice. That’s exactly what that job entails. She will directly affect families’ lives.” 

Taylor grew up in Toronto and graduated from Catholic Central High School in Steubenville. She and her husband have two children.