By Wayne Gates
Brown County Probate Juvenile Judge Danny Bubp is retiring early.
Bubp announced his intentions at the POW/MIA ceremony Sept. 26 at the Brown County Fair.
“I turned 65 last month, so I think it’s time. My term currently goes through February of 2021, but I’ll be approaching 67 at that time, so I just decided I’m going to retire early,” he said.
“On my desk here, I’ve got pictures of grandsons. They are growing up so fast and I don’t want to miss that. When you have to go to the office Monday through Friday and they live four hours away, it just makes it difficult to see them.”
Bubp was sworn in to a six year term in February of 2015 and will be retiring approximately nine months early.
“I am looking at May of 2020, but I haven’t put anything in concrete right now. I know that I want to be able to enjoy the summer by being outdoors with bicycling and other activities.”
When asked why he made the announcement so far in advance, he said “I had already told a number of local attorneys, so I thought I should just go ahead and make it public. If people understand I’m not running again, it will give the opportunity to any attorney out there that’s interested in replacing me to file a petition to run. I know there is at least one attorney out there that has already filed his petition.”
Brown County Attorney Val Lewis has requested a petition for the office from the Brown County Board of Elections. Lewis also had a float in the Brown County Fair Parade that said “Lewis for Judge”.
“The deadline is December of this year, so others could file, so I wanted to give everyone advance notice that I’m not running for another term and that I’m going to retire early,” Bubp said,
When asked to look back on his time in office, Bubp said “The first thing is how quickly time has gone by. It is so difficult to comprehend those years are gone.”
He then talked about some of the accomplishments of the court over the past four years.
“One of the first things we did when I came into office was take responsibility for child support enforcement,” Bubp said.
That responsibility will soon include having the child support enforcement office inside the space in the court building on S.R. 125 that is currently occupied by the Brown County Prosecuting Attorney’s office.
“The prosecutors office will be moving right next door to the sheriff’s office and the child support office will be down here under the same room as the juvenile court. That will allow the juvenile judge to have better supervision of all of the staff members he is responsible for,” Bubp said.
He added that he expects the move to be complete in the next couple of months
Bubp said that having the prosecutors office and sheriff in close proximity and having juvenile court and child support enforcement together in the same building will improve efficiency for everyone.
Also, by moving child support enforcement into a building that has not been paid for, Brown County will be able to have a large portion of the monthly building payment paid by the state instead of the county. Bubp said that the move was the idea of Probate/Juvenile Court Administrator Charles Ashmore.
Bubp said that another priority for his court was to increase drug awareness among local young people.
“Right now, we are facing a drug epidemic locally and nationally. We have had a number of assemblies at local schools along with the sheriff, prosecutor and others trying to talk to the kids about the dangers of drug addiction.”
He also talked about giving some qualified youth a second chance at a clean record through a diversion program.
“We have David Gast here who is a one day a week magistrate who hears all the diversion cases,” Bubp said.
The diversion program sends some juveniles through a program that allows them to avoid a record of charges before the court if they complete it.
“What we are trying to do is change conduct. I do feel like we’ve made a difference. If you make a difference in the life of one kid or one family, then you are making progress,” Bubp said.
He then talked about some of the most difficult cases that he has to preside over.
He talked about having to terminate the parental rights of a mother who ingested crystal meth in the morning before she gave birth that afternoon, as an example.
“When you look a mother and father in the eye and tell them that they will not get their baby back until they are off drugs, that is the turning point for some of them,” Bubp said.
And when they complete rehabilitation, a painful time becomes a happy one.
“The tears just flow when you are able to say to the mom and to the dad ‘I’m proud of you.’ when you return their child to them,” he said.
Bubp added that it’s no contest when asked to pick his favorite type of case.
“My greatest joy is when I preside over adoptions. I just love having families come in who are adopting a child. We have balloons and flowers in the courtroom and they want pictures. It’s a brief time of joy in a court that often sees a lot of pain,” he said.
Bubp has a long career in public service, including time as a law enforcement officer in Hamilton County, service on active duty and reserves in the United States Marine Corps and as a local attorney and judge.
