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After 23 years, Judge Robert Messham is leaving municipal court

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By Lawrence Budd, Staff Writer 4:55 PM Thursday, January 12, 2012

MIAMISBURG — After 23 years, Judge Robert Messham has left the bench in Miamisburg Municipal Court.

Messham, 65, of Miami Twp. decided not to seek re-election to the municipal judgeship.

In the Nov. 8 election, voters in the jurisdiction, which also includes Miami Twp. and West Carrollton, Germantown and German Twp., picked Robert Rettich to replace Messham.

While expressing confidence in Rettich, Assistant Clerk of Courts Laura Coleman said it was difficult to get used to Messham’s absence.

“He’s really the only judge I remember,” said Coleman, who has worked 24 years for the court. “I miss him horribly.”

Messham still plans to work as a visiting judge, starting Feb. 1-3 in place of friend and colleague, Kettering Municipal Court Judge Robert Moore.

For years, Messham and Moore traveled together to an annual judges’ meeting.

“Not this year,” Messham said over coffee at Holly’s in West Carrollton. “I’m going to be sitting for him.”

Rettig said he also asked Messham to sit in while he attended the meeting and hoped Messham would return to the Miamisburg bench in Rettig’s place.

Messham is a Dayton native and graduate of Centerville High School.

He joined the Baver and Doan firm, located across from Miamisburg City Hall, after graduating from The Ohio State University law school in 1972.

Partner Lawrence Baver was the first Miamisburg Municipal Court judge in the 1950s.

John Ebersole, part of the firm still in the same law offices, lost to Rettich by less than 1 percent of the vote.

Messham was appointed to complete the term of Charles Lowman III after Lowman’s election to the Montgomery County Domestic Relations Court in 1989. Lowman was also Messham’s only opponent, challenging him in 1999.

The judgeship is a full-time job presiding over a court handling 12,000-15,000 cases a year.

“80-85 percent of the people who come in are just nice people who made a mistake,” he said. “There’s probably 15 percent, that’s what they do for a living.”

Messham said he learned to anticipate a frequent defense of women accused of speeding. In November, a pregnant woman asked if she could speak with him about her case.

“I said, ‘You had to go the bathroom. She asked how did I know that. I said I’m just a good guesser,” Messham recalled.

The judge joined wife, Sue Messham, a longtime nurse at Miami Valley Hospital, in retirement.

“It’s going to be different,” she said. “I’ve got a honey-do list for him.”

The judge said she was actually the handy spouse. Instead he said he looked forward to having more time to help raise his granddaughter, Madisson, 8, attend area luncheon clubs and visit family in North Carolina.

“There just comes a time for everybody. This is my time,” he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2261 or lbudd@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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