Her shoes match her suits. Her lipstick matches her nail polish and she always looks collected, no matter how horrific the case or what the defense throws at her.
“I try,” she said smiling.
But those fooled by the quiet polished, exterior soon learn the Fairfield resident has a passion for her work that drives her to anticipate everything before stepping into the courtroom.
“Oh, she is very thorough,” said Juvenile Detective Janice Jones of the Middletown Division of Police. “Always prepared for court. Does her homework. Really what an attorney should be. I think she’s wonderful.”
Jones, who has worked with Muench-McElfresh on many child assault cases — including one earlier this year of a convicted sex offender who paid a mother to have sex with her 11-year-old daughter — said at first blush some might think of Muench-McElfresh as a teacher or “someone’s sister.”
“They don’t expect her to be hardball. But buddy she is,” Jones said.
Hamilton police Detective Mark Hayes said Muench-McElfresh is “always the most well-prepared lawyer in the room.”
“She is extremely professional and ethical. She just has a calling for what she does,” Hayes said.
“She has put some bad guys away. In that way she is always helping people out. She is putting away people who harm children.”
Defense attorneys also appreciate her ethics in the courtroom, win or lose.
Greg Howard, defense attorney and former president of the Butler County Bar Association, called Muench-McElfresh honest and fair.
“She deals with child assault cases and it takes a special person to do that,” Howard said. “She does an excellent job not only in court be also dealing with her victims, cops and defense attorneys.”
Muench-McElfresh, 37, is a graduate of McAuley High School, a Catholic girls school in Hamilton County, where she was involved in drama and singing.
“My claim to fame, I guess, was as Lucy in ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown’,” she said, making face and shaking her head when asked if she still sings.
Muench-McElfresh married her high school sweetheart, Robert, who is a construction manager. They live in Fairfield with their 5-year-old son.
When not in the courtroom, Muench-McElfresh serves on the Fairfield Civil Service Commission. She enjoys traveling with her family and reading — even mysteries and crime dramas.
“But I do have to stick to reading. I can’t watch the crime shows like ‘Law and Order’ without saying ‘that’s not going to happen’ or laughing at something that happens in the courtroom. My husband always tells me to stop the commentary,” she said.
However, she did once have a “Perry Mason moment” while questioning Aimee Leonard, a Middletown mother convicted of setting a fire that killed her 7-month-old son.
Muench-McElfresh said Leonard denied her responsibility for the blaze until she began cross examination.
“She picked that moment to admit she set the fire,” Muench-McElfresh said. “It was a Perry Mason moment and it probably never happen again.”
Muench-McElfresh said she works very hard to leave her work at the office, but it is difficult not to bring it home. And it never gets any easier.
“I don’t think you ever get used to interviewing a child and hearing some of the things that come out of their mouths. Things they shouldn’t know about at their age,” she said.
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