BERRIEN COUNTY – JUDGE DONAHUE RETIRES FROM BERRIEN COUNTY TRIAL COURT

By DEBRA HAIGHT

BCR Correspondent

ST. JOSEPH – Changes are coming to Berrien County courts with the first of two judge retirements this summer. The first happened last week with the retirement of veteran Berrien County Trial Judge John Donahue. Judge Scott Schofield plans to retire in August.

Donahue, 64 and a Niles native, was first elected to the Circuit Court bench in November, 2004 and was the presiding judge of the court’s Civil Division at the time of his retirement. He spent six years in the court’s family division and the last seven and a half years in the civil division.

“The family court was all brand new to me,” he said last week in an interview with the Berrien County Record. “You need to be a people person and I do think of myself as a people person.”

Before becoming a judge, he spent 18 years as a civil litigant with the St. Joseph law firm of Straub, Seaman & Allen P.C. before being elected judge. He argued cases all over the state, at the Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court, as well as at the federal level at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Donahue said last week that he felt it was time to retire. While he’s enjoyed his years as a judge, he’s ready for new adventures in his retirement. He plans to split his time between St. Joseph and Costa Rica where he expects to spend a few months each winter.

“It’s been enjoyable,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed all of it but after 13 years I get a little worn out making decisions all the time. It will be nice to not have all these decisions week in and week out and have that anchor around my neck.”

One catalyst for his decision to retire was the July 2016 courthouse shooting that ended in the death of two bailiffs, Ron Kienzle and Joe Zangaro, and Larry Gordon, the jail inmate who shot them.

“Joe Zangaro was my best friend in the courthouse,” Donahue said. “I’ll never forget that day ever. I even wake up at night thinking about it. We heard the gunshots in the adjacent courtroom and Joe was in my courtroom. Our eyes met for an instant and he took off. He never came back. It took its toll on me.”

Zangaro’s death as well as the deaths of Drew Seaman, one of the partners in his former law firm, and a local attorney, Ernie White, started him thinking about retiring. “It made me start to think,” he said. “Then I thought of how my father and grandfather died at a young age. I wanted to be able to enjoy my retirement.”

Donahue said he knew he wanted to be a lawyer and even a judge from a young age when he would go to work with his father. His father, Edwin Donahue, Jr. was a Niles municipal judge more than four decades ago. His grandfather, Edwin Donahue, Sr., was also a respected attorney in the area, starting his Niles practice more than a century ago in 1917.

“My dad used to take me to the Niles courthouse and I’d sit in the courtroom and in his chambers,” he said. “Then after law school, I was a law clerk to Judges Hammond and Taylor here in St. Joseph and later to Judges Grathwohl and Burkholz. After all that, being a judge was really something I’ve aspired to.”

It was Judge John Hammond who had retired earlier in 2004 who swore in his former law clerk back in December 2004. Hammond said back then that Donahue had the intellectual competence, a solid ethical base and dedication to be a judge.

“There are two classes of judges: Those who remember they are public servants and those who don’t,” Hammond said then. “A judge should have a love of humanity, a willingness to listen to all and the strength of character not to be intimidated. He needs a courageous heart to save the oppressed from the oppressors. He should be learned in the law, have uncommon common sense and a full measure of compassion.”

Donahue said he’s tried to live up to those ideals during his career. “I haven’t regretted anything one bit,” he said. “There have been difficult decisions but I’ve enjoyed it … My favorite part of the job has been the everyday work and making decisions that are fair, just and reasonable. It might not be easy, but you have to stick with what you believe.”