Robin Piper
HAMILTON — After 27 years as a prosecutor, Robin Piper has left the trial, but not the courtroom.
On Feb. 8, the man who served as Butler County prosecutor for 10 years, walked away from his days of putting people behind bars and moved on to studying and analyzing the law as a 12th District Court of Appeals judge.
On his last day as prosecutor, the 57-year-old Hanover Twp. resident sat in the corner office on the top floor of the Government Services Center and chuckled about some humorous jokes he left for his successor, “who ever that might be,” he said.
He admitted leaving the office, trials and the camaraderie of fellow attorneys will be difficult, but he was ready.
“I am excited about it,” Piper said. “As attorneys, we go to law school and learn all of these concepts. We have a noble idea of this is how we are going to help maintain criminal and civil justice in the United States.”
But trying cases and even administering justice, a trial judge is fast-paced and seemingly never ending, he said.
“At the court of appeals we get to look at legal issues. Looking at the legal concepts and making a determination if there was a fair proceedings. There’s no such thing as a perfect trial, but we want to make sure there is a fair trial,” Piper said.
Piper is a native of Marietta and moved to Butler County as a teen. He is a graduate of Hamilton Taft High School and Miami University, where he majored in public administration.
He didn’t plan to become an attorney. But while working as a probation officer, Piper said he took the LSAT exam for law school admission just for practice in test taking.
“I started thinking it would be kind of cool to be a lawyer,” Piper said. His father, Robert, was an attorney in Oxford and had also served as a minister.
In 1982, Piper graduated from the University of Dayton School of Law. A short time later he found his calling in the prosecutor’s office as an assistant to John Holcomb working in the child support division.
He and his wife, Nancy, live in a log house. The family includes two grown children, a grandson and three dogs.
While he considers himself a student of law, which is why the appellate judgeship is a good fit, Piper admitted trial work will likely always be is first love.
In his final weeks as prosecutor, Piper stood in front of a jury in three murder cases, including a two week, double homicide death penalty case.
“Of course I will miss it,” Piper said. “I am a people person, love working for the citizens of the county, speaking for victims, and working with the law enforcement community. I know I will miss the degree of contact I have with the public.”
Assistant Prosecutor David Kash said Piper allowed his staff the autonomy to try cases on their own but was knowledgeable and inquisitive enough to ask questions about anything that might pop up in a case.
“I knew I better be prepared when I went in to talk with him,” Kash said, noting Piper had a presence about him in the courtroom that was hard to beat.
“He was the ultimate advocate for the victim,” Kash said.
Longtime Hamilton police Det. James Nugent became an investigator for the prosecutor’s office 10 years ago when Piper earned the top spot.
Over the years he and Piper worked together on more than 20 homicide cases.
“Personally and professionally I enjoyed him,” Nugent said last week, adding he misses Piper in the office. “But I wish him well in his new job.”
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