Former Avon Lake judge Darrel Bilancini now Elyria Municipal Court magistrate

Less than a year after he left the Avon Lake Municipal Court bench as an elected judge, Darrel Bilancini is back — this time as a full-time magistrate in Elyria Municipal Court. He's now overseeing misdemeanor traffic and criminal cases in the courthouse on Broad Street in downtown Elyria. All are minor misdemeanor and unclassified misdemeanor cases or anything that doesn't include jail time as a possible penalty, Bilancini said. Elyria Municipal judges Robert White and Gary Bennett "found the caseload for that position was exploding. They knew I didn't want to retire, and contacted me to ask me if I was interested in the position," he said. Bilancini gave it some thought and "decided to unretire," he said. It's an almost job-for-job swap between Bilancini and his successor on the Avon Lake Municipal bench, Judge Allison Manning. She held the same magistrate job, which previously was a part-time one, in Elyria Municipal Court before winning Bilancini's former seat in last year's election. Bilancini called the new position a good opportunity to extend his career, which is one of the same reasons he ran for Common Pleas judge in 2022. "It's fairly stressless because I'm not dealing with more serious offenses, but I do have the opportunity to help people out," Bilancini said. Manning said that she enjoyed being an Elyria Municipal Court magistrate and was sad to leave, but "I think it's really neat he'll be able to take over and bring all his years of expertise to the bench," she said of Bilancini. "I'm excited for him. I have no doubt he'll love it there and he'll do a great job," Manning said. The new position also means a near full-circle in Bilancini's legal career, which started in Elyria as a juvenile legal referee shortly after he was admitted to the bar in 1978. He later partnered with attorney Jerry Savoy in a practice that lasted for 35 years in three different buildings in downtown Elyria. A Republican, Bilancini ran for Lorain County Common Pleas judge in 2022 but lost to Judge Melissa Kobasher, a Democrat, in the November election. He then aged out of running again for an elected judgeship. Manning, a Republican, defeated Democrat Geoff Smith in the November 2023 election to succeed Bilancini on the Avon Lake Municipal bench. Manning said she and Bilancini continue to have "a great working relationship," now that they're doing each other's old jobs. "I've called upon him with a couple questions over the past couple months and he's called upon me on how things work over there," she said. "It's nice that we've been able to share our knowledge." Bilancini's new position means he can no longer serve as a visiting judge on local municipal court cases. Recently, he had been assigned by the Ohio Supreme Court to hear misdemeanor DUI charges against Tony Dimacchia, a Democratic candidate for Lorain County commissioner. Because of Bilancini's new job, visiting Judge John Ridge is now handling Dimacchia's case in Lorain Municipal Court. Bilancini said that it might take a while for court employees to just call him "Darrel." "The staff is getting used to that," Bilancini said with a laugh. "I've heard a lot of 'Judge ... I mean, magistrate ...'" Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.