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ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — Nominees are confirmed to fill the vacant seat in the Ohio Fourth District Court of Appeals, which covers 14 counties, including Athens.
Athens Municipal Court Judge Todd L. Grace is the Democratic nominee. He was selected as a replacement candidate for incumbent Judge Peter B. Abele, who died Sept. 25. The Republican nominee is Pickaway County Prosecutor Jayme Hartley Fountain.
The candidates are running for a six-year term beginning next February. The Independent spoke with both about their legal careers and interest in the Fourth District seat.
Todd Grace
Grace, now serving his 11th year in the Athens County Municipal Court, is an Ohio University alumnus who also graduated from the University of Michigan Law School. He previously had a private practice in Athens and spent 13 years as a magistrate in the county’s juvenile court.
“It’s very much a service-oriented court, making sure that the needs of the people coming before the court are met,” Grace said about Athens Municipal Court. “It’s been a very positive experience.”
That court has jurisdiction over misdemeanor cases, some of which are punishable with jail time but not prison, he said. The court handles numerous cases, including traffic violations and first-degree misdemeanors, such as domestic violence and theft charges. Grace said he personally handles about 10,000 cases a year, some of which last four to six months.
Grace said he is interested in joining the appellate court due to its broad impact across multiple counties and focus on examining cases decided by lower courts. He has practiced law primarily in Athens County, but said he has also handled cases in Hocking, Jackson, Meigs, Vinton and Washington counties.
“In private practice, I very specifically enjoyed the tactical and strategic components of having a case and peeling it apart, trying to find what my angle would be,” Grace told the Independent. “When I moved to municipal court, there was a county-wide equivalent for making a difference in peoples’ lives, but there was no great equivalency for the tactical component.”
On the appellate court, Grace said, he can take more time to better investigate the legal issues on individual cases because of the reduced volume.
“One of the advantages of an appellate position is that the number of cases coming in at any given time will be significantly lower than the number of cases coming through a municipal court,” he said.
Grace described a non-partisan approach to the role of a judge and said decisions should not be motivated by politics.
“It’s always about serving the public. That’s my judicial philosophy,” he said. “It doesn’t come from party affiliation.”
Jayme Fountain
Pickaway County Prosecutor Jayme Fountain, the Republican candidate, told the Independent she has been a career prosecutor for two decades.
“I’ve handled every type of case from a misdemeanor all the way through a murder case,” she said.
Fountain graduated from the University of Kentucky, where she studied chemistry, and then earned her law degree from Capital University in Bexley. A longtime resident of Pickaway County, she said her father grew up in Laurelville, in Hocking County.
She served as assistant prosecutor for 18 years before her election as the county prosecutor in 2024. She told the Independent that serving on the Fourth District Court of Appeals has been “a lifelong dream.”
“It’s a huge district and that’s exciting to me,” said Fountain, who noted that appellate judges need to travel to different counties for oral arguments.
“I really enjoy the research and the writing. For me, a lot of that has to do with my conservative judicial views of not legislating from the bench.”
Fountain stressed the principle of judicial restraint and said lawmaking should be left to the legislature. “You’re elected by the voters to issue fair, impartial decisions,” she said. “A judge has to be very careful, when they’re interpreting legislation, not to impugn an additional twist that was not intended in the legislation.”
The prosecutor told the Independent that while she has not been a judge, she has extensive experience at trial. “I’ve taken cases all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court and argued in front of them,” she said. “I have the background to do the legal research and the writing to make decisions based on other attorney’s arguments.”
