The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Meyers announces run for judge of county common pleas court
Candidate serves as magistrate for retiring judge
The right-hand man to retiring-Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Mark A. Betleski now wants to replace his boss on the bench.
Kim R. Meyers, who has worked as magistrate and staff attorney for Betleski, formally filed petitions Jan. 19 with the Lorain County Board of Elections to run for Lorain County Common Pleas Court judge.
Betleski is retiring and his replacement will start a six-year term Jan. 3. 2023.
For the past 11 years, Meyers worked for Betleski as the judge’s magistrate and staff attorney.
Meyers said it is that “experience” that makes him qualified for the job.
“It’s a natural progression to go from magistrate to the judge,” he said. “I enjoy working at the court. I enjoy serving people and think my experience is best suited for that position.”
Meyers will have to survive a May primary before advancing to the general election in November.
As a magistrate working for Betletski, Meyers conducts pretrial conferences, hearings in open court, hearings on evidentiary damage and discovery matters, temporary restraining orders, injunctions, civil stalking protection orders, and settlement conferences.
He assists the judge in preparing decisions, reviewing briefings, preparing rulings on a wide variety of civil and criminal
matters, and preparing rulings on pretrial motions and jury instructions for both civil and criminal cases.
Meyers earned his law degree from the University of Dayton and his undergraduate degree at Arizona State University.
He has worked in both private practice and on the public side of the law.
For 20 years, he worked in private practice with the Elyria law firm of McCray, Muzilla, Smith, & Meyers Co., L.P.A., where he was a partner.
Meyers and his brother Randy, who would go on to become a Lorain County sheriffs deputy, became the first brothers to each win
the Lorain County Soapbox Derby and qualify for the All-American Soapbox Derby in Akron.
Meyers said he still owns the cars he and his brother raced and stores them in the basement of his home.
“They are in pretty good shape,” he said. “Other than having some cracks in the paint, the wheels and everything are in really good shape.
“Every four or five years, I will take them out and look at them and admire. It was a very fun time for us.”
Meyers also was a basketball star at the now-shuttered South Amherst High School, where he earned All Lorain County and AllNortheast
Ohio his senior year.
He was a member of the Wellington Kiwanis Club for 15 years, served as its president and worked on numerous community service projects and fundraisers for them.
Meyers also served as a director of the Lorain County Agricultural Society, which annually runs the Lorain County Fair.
At the Ohio Fair Managers Association annual meeting Jan. 9 in Columbus, he was elected to the position of District 5 director.
Meyers has been married to his wife Molly for 36 years and has three adult children.