This is the twelfth of our Court Times articles that highlight up close and personal a member of the Indiana Judiciary. Franklin County Circuit Court Judge J. Steven Cox is our judge featured in this issue. Since Law School and before becoming Judge of the Franklin Circuit Court, he was engaged in private practice, served as Franklin County Public Defender, Municipal Attorney, and Fayette County Deputy Prosecutor. He was elected by popular vote in November 1994 and re-elected in 2000 and 2006. His current term will expire on December 31, 2012. He graduated from Indiana University in 1987, and received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Valparaiso University in 1990.
What do you like most and least about being a trial court judge?
Kids who need Indiana’s Courts are what most reward me about being Judge in our community and what I like least about being judge. I have been on more than a few occasions discouraged to learn how people in a community can treat a child. Nothing is worse than an ugly abuse /neglect case.
On the other hand, I have been on the bench now long enough to see wards of the court graduate, have children of their own, and become good parents and assets to our community. I have been fortunate enough to be included in their adoptions, their weddings, supported them in academic pursuits, toured homes they have built in vocational programs, and be seen as someone who has made a difference in their lives. How could any job be better than that?
What was your major at Indiana University and why did you decide to study law?
I attended Indiana University – Bloomington as an undergraduate. While at I.U., I majored in Forensic Sciences with areas in Psychology, Sociology, Political Science and Religion. I worked in the Monroe County Probation Department as an intern for the Juvenile Division, served as the coordinator for the Indiana University Volunteer Students Bureau coordinating volunteer efforts of students to the Boy’s School Reformatory at Plainfield, and served as an assistant undergraduate instructor for Art Appreciation for non-majors. I served in the Indiana State Senate as a legislative assistant for Senator Johnny Nugent on Roads and Transportation Committee, and Senator Ed Pease on the Judiciary Committee.
I attended Law School at Valparaiso University. While there I served for three years as the Valparaiso Law School Representative to the Law School Division of the American Bar Association and as the Lt. Governor of that Division’s Seventh Circuit. I also served as President of Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity and student attorney in the Legal Aid Department for Northwest Indiana. I worked for the Indiana Attorney General’s Office under attorney David Miller during summer breaks.
What are your accomplishments as judge and what would you do if you were not a judge?
In 1994, I ran for and was elected Judge of the Franklin Circuit Court. While on the Court I have served as Representative to the Indiana Judges Association, Board of Managers of the Indiana Judicial Conference, Graduate of the Indiana Judicial College and Chief Justice Shepard’s current appointment to the Indiana Legislature’s Commission for the Preservation of Historic Courthouses. In 2006, I petitioned the Indiana Legislature to expand the Franklin Circuit Court to a two court system and began a massive renovation/restoration of our courthouse.
Today we are the newest unified court system in the state and were able to accomplish the entire expansion of systems and facilities without any need for new tax revenues. We have utilized our newly renovated facilities to increase the public’s access to their court house by hosting community organizations and their events as well as an art exhibition of Hoosier Group paintings of Franklin County, and, most recently, an oral argument before the Indiana Court of Appeals.
I am a member of the American Judges Association, American Judicature Society, Indiana Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the Indiana Bar association. Locally, I have served on the Board of Directors of the Richmond Art Museum, Whitewater Valley Community Library Commission on the Arts, Franklin County Citizens for Historic Preservation, Franklin County Arts Council, Franklin County Historical Society, Sons of the American Revolution and Kiwanis.
If I were not judge, I would likely return to private practice in our county and possibly attempt to gain a part-time faculty position at some local institution of higher education.
Who are the people you most admire?
My grandparents were very influential in shaping my vocational aspirations. They were all supportive of my interests and my grandfather who had to quit high school and provide for his siblings during the depression was of particular influence. He was a journeyman at the Fernald Uranium Processing Plant near Ross, Ohio and President of the local worker’s union. He told me when I was very young that had he been able to stay in school he thought that he would have liked to have been an attorney. While at the time I didn’t know any attorneys, or what they did, he always encouraged me to pick a vocation that gave voice to others.
What are your hobbies or favorite leisure activities, and how did you first get involved?
I have a lot of outside interests. I enjoy horseback riding, fishing, hunting, landscape painting, photography, playing music, quad riding, architectural renovation and travel to name a few. I grew up with horses so I have continued that hobby along with fishing and hunting. I collected early Indiana Art concentrating mainly around the Hoosier Group and first generation Brown County Artists. At some point I purchased a painting at auction and paid what seemed to me to be an excessive amount of money and realized while waiting to pay for it that I really didn’t know the first thing about what made a painting good or bad. I decided that I would educate myself on the subject, and after piles of “how to” books and yards of unfortunate canvas, I got hooked on the process. Most members of my extended family play some sort of instrument or sing. I grew up around music and so when my brothers, cousins and I got to an age where our joints couldn’t handle the usual softball or football games out in the yard, playing music was our fallback activity due to its relative low physical impact. I’m currently working my way through acoustic instruments most commonly associated with Bluegrass. Last year I began a complete renovation of an 1850’s gothic revival, stone farmhouse, which had been abandoned for the past twenty years, along the Ohio River in Jefferson County, Indiana. I completed the project and sold it this past May.
What are your favorite books, and have you read any recently, or are reading now, that you would recommend?
My favorite books are generally biographies or histories. I am currently enjoying a book by Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Reading the Man, which is a portrait of Robert E. Lee through his private letters.
Where did you grow up and how would you describe your childhood?
I was raised in Metamora, Indiana. I am the youngest of three boys and I was always an outside kid. Growing up in rural, Southeastern Indiana during the 1970’s and 80’s my world was filled with work and play. I worked for farmers bailing hay, setting tobacco, detasseling corn, and anything else I was told to do. In high school, I spent summers as a lifeguard and teaching kids to swim through the American Red Cross. Franklin County is very diverse geographically with flat farm land, hills, rivers, Brookville Lake, and vast wooded areas. I spent a lot of time hunting, fishing, boating, skiing, and horseback riding.
Do you have a favorite quote(s)?
“If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati. Everything comes there ten years later.”
—Mark Twain
Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Several years ago I bought a house in Bradenton, Florida just off of Anna Maria Island. I don’t know if that’s my favorite vacation spot, but it’s hard to beat the last couple of weeks in February.
Do you have a favorite meal, recipe, and restaurant?
I don’t think I have a favorite recipe or meal but I can say that one of my court reporters brings in a terrific coconut cake when she thinks she’s on the carpet for some reason.