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Montgomery Superior Judge Daniel Petrie didn’t choose the path of law in the way many people do.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in religion and a minor in Spanish from Wabash College, Petrie wasn’t entirely sure what to do next. But when he saw a job listing for an attorney position, he decided to go to law school.
“I was graduating from a liberal arts college and didn’t necessarily know my immediate next step, and I said I wanted to go for a degree that kept a lot of options open,” Petrie recalled.
He went on to graduate from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 2010, then eventually became a partner at Henthorn Harris & Weliever P.C. in Crawfordsville.
“Getting out of law school, I had absolutely no intention of doing anything in the criminal defense world. That was something I said I would absolutely never do,” Petrie said. “And that’s most of what I did for my 10 years of practice and ended up really enjoying that area.”
When his predecessor, Judge Peggy Lohorn, decided to retire in 2020, Petrie threw his hat into the ring to succeed her. He ran as a Republican and earned 69.6% of the vote to take the bench in Montgomery Superior Court 2.
Now more than halfway through his third year on the bench, Petrie said his favorite thing about being a judge is being involved with Montgomery County’s problem-solving courts. He founded the county’s family recovery court and inherited its veterans court.
And his liberal arts education has come into play, too, with his background in the Spanish language turning out to be beneficial as a judge.
“We have to use translation at least two mornings a month,” Petrie said. “We set all these cases and it’s nice — I’m able to double-check the translators and make sure everything’s on the up-and-up.”
Petrie is the most recent trial court judge to be featured in Indiana Lawyer’s Spotlight series, which focuses on judicial officers in more rural areas of the state. Here’s what he had to say about life on and off the bench.
What has been the most surprising thing about being a judge?
How hectic pro se litigation can be. When you’re in practice, you never see the hearings where it’s just two people without attorneys fighting it out. But just some small claims stuff where people are real fired up and they can get feisty, (I’m) trying to maintain control while still letting everyone say their piece — I didn’t realize the extent to which that happens, and that’s a bigger part of the job than I originally thought. Also, I’m in a fairly high-traffic court — misdemeanors, traffic, small claims — so just the sheer volume of things that come through was surprising when I first started.
What is something you have learned about yourself since becoming a judge?
Something I’ve learned about myself are things I always have to keep in mind: that it’s about the people in the room, sitting up in front of the room. You see everyone’s faces the entire time, and maybe it’s just for me, but it hits more that it’s about the parties in the chairs, not the attorneys, not what’s going on with the courts. It’s just about what’s going on with those two people, and you have to put aside all the other stuff that can come along with legal processes. (You have to) remember that it’s about either one person’s future and possibly a victim in a criminal case, or two, three parties in a civil case. It’s all about, they need me to settle a dispute, so how do we do that best to serve all these parties? So it’s learning how to just maintain your focus on what actually has to happen instead of all the outside noise.
What is a favorite memory of yours while being judge?
I have two treatment courts that I oversee. I inherited one from my predecessor, who started the veterans treatment court; I’ve just kind of taken that over and tried not to screw that up. And then I started a family recovery court. So on the veterans treatment court, one of my great memories (was) just a few weeks ago. We had a participant who graduated last year who just came back and was sworn in as a veteran mentor. We have veterans in the community who help mentor the people in the program, and seeing him come back after knowing him when he started in veterans court and didn’t want anything to do with anybody, and now he is just joyful by helping out any way he can, it’s really heartwarming to see.
In family recovery court, I have a couple of participants who are almost close to graduation, just a few weeks away, and seeing how they started out in the depths of active use, children removed, and now their biggest concern is they’re looking for a promotion at their full-time job with their kids back in house. Their biggest concern now is, “Do I get this promotion? And what does that mean for future insurance benefits?” Just seeing how people have progressed with the work they’ve been able to put in, and to have played some small part, that’s unreal. But helping to kind of shepherd them through a program where they get that success has been really, really fun to watch.
What do you like to do when you’re not on the bench?
I’m married and I have two kids. I have a 7 year old and a 9 year old, so sports, clubs, all this stuff involved with having two elementary-aged kids. With a couple state parks nearby, I try to go hiking as much as possible — get outside, turn off all the noise, stay engaged in the community as much as possible. It’s the beauty of living in a small town; just those connections with conversations, people. So getting out into the community and involved in some local organizations, like my church.
Anything else you would like us to know?
There’s a joy to this, and it seems like a completely different job than the larger Lake or Marion, those counties. … You see people on a daily basis that you know personally, either defendants or attorneys. It’s all the people in your community. It’s very close-knit, which is fun, because you get to see the decisions you make. You just push people’s lives one way or another and you can see how you can — ideally positively — impact your entire community through doing that. That’s always fun to see in a small town.•
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