Monongalia County resident Cindy Scott will be sworn in as the newest member of the 17th Judicial Circuit on Monday after winning the June 9 election.
Scott couldn’t take office until the election results were certified. However, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t been preparing for her new role. Scott said she’s been spending time at the Monongalia County Justice Center reading cases, physically moving into her office and going over the schedule.
Chief Judge Phillip Gaujot said he thinks Scott will conquer the learning curve of becoming a judge quickly.
“She was always timely and had a grasp of the facts and was a good prosecutor, and I think she’ll be a good judge,” he said.
She managed that while finishing her most recent job with the West Virginia University Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Scott worked on Title IX enforcement and said the types of cases she handled were similar to those in her time as a prosecutor.
“I had a lot to wrap up,” she said.
Scott, 55, moved to Morgantown before she started school and has completed all of it in Monongalia County — from high school to law school. Her dad still lives in the home they moved to in 1969.
After graduating from WVU in 1986, Scott worked for a bank in Wheeling but couldn’t see herself doing that for the rest of her life.
She married her husband, Todd, and moved back to Morgantown, attending the WVU College of Law at the “ripe old age of 27.”
Scott started at Oliver & Yackel while in law school, worked there through law school and then for the next 12 years following her graduation in 1994. At the firm she practiced a variety of law, including criminal defense, civil litigation, family court, and child abuse and neglect cases.
She also had her two kids, Brent, 24 and Jensen, 22.
Scott then joined the Monongalia County Prosecutor’s Office and prosecuted cases involving sexual assault and domestic violence.
In 2016, she resigned from her position to run for judge. At the time, all three judges had announced they weren’t planned to run again, and Scott said she wondered what the county would look like without them.
With her experience as a defense attorney and prosecutor, Scott said she thought her skills would benefit the community as a judge.
2020 was a second chance for Scott to run for the rest of the unexpired term left when Judge Russell Clawges retired. Judge Debra Scuidere was appointed
to replace him by Gov. Jim Justice. Scott beat Scudiere in the non-partisan 2020 primary election.
Scott said she’d like to finish her career as a judge. If she wins the next judicial election in 2024, she’ll be able to serve 12 years on the bench.
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Morgantown Area News
'Friday, July 26, 2024'
