Superior court judge candidate visits Butler County
A Republican candidate for the Superior Court of Pennsylvania visited Butler County on Friday to garner support.
Chester County President Judge Ann Marie Wheatcraft met with some area Republicans for about an hour at Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham law offices to explain what she brings to the table as a superior court judge candidate.
Wheatcraft explained the Superior Court is a step above common pleas court but below the state Supreme Court. It’s also on the same level as the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, which only hears cases involving government and government entities. The superior court sees cases appealed from common pleas court.
Wheatcraft is running against Republican attorney Maria Battista in the May 20 primary, and the winner will run against Democratic Judge Brandon P. Neuman in the Nov. 4 election.
Wheatcraft is in her 14th year as a judge after serving 12 years as an assistant district attorney concentrating in criminal and treatment court. Wheatcraft said she worked after college and during law school in the mental health, and drug and alcohol fields, which focused her on treating nonviolent offenders.
“Diverting nonviolent offenders into the treatment they need is the way that we stop the revolving door in the criminal justice system,” she said.
Wheatcraft said Chester County started one of Pennsylvania’s first treatment courts to which she helped introduce comfort dogs. She said in her experience working with children in family and dependency court, she found dogs “lower the temperature” and soothe children in difficult situation.
She explained she thought these dogs would help children in the courtroom, but her former president judge declined. Wheatcraft then volunteered with her local service dog agency and instead brought in a service dog in training, which could not be denied in court.
After seeing the success in the courtroom, she began taking service dogs to annual judge conferences until the dogs were in every county in the Commonwealth.
From the superior court, Wheatcraft said she aims to stay involved in treatment court statewide and discuss with the legislature how they can benefit treatment courts in Pennsylvania.
