GREENFIELD, Ohio — When a Greenfield police officer is subpoenaed to testify, getting to court means climbing one flight of stairs in the village building on Jefferson Street. If Highland County closes the courtroom upstairs, that walk becomes a 34-mile round trip.
That arithmetic sits at the heart of Save Our Court, a grassroots campaign launched by residents of Madison Township to keep the Highland County Court’s Madison Township Division seated in Greenfield — the only court serving the township’s 6,422 residents in the county’s northeastern corner.
“Highland County is considering closing or relocating the only court in the northeastern corner of the county — the court of record for all 6,422 residents of Madison Township,” the group says on its website, saveourcourtgreenfield.org. “Closing it wouldn’t save money. It would move the cost onto Greenfield taxpayers, weaken local policing, and shut working families out of their own justice system.”
The site describes itself as “a grassroots community information site” that is “paid for and organized by concerned residents of Madison Township,” and stresses it is not an official publication of the county, the Village of Greenfield or the court. Under the banner “Keep justice seated in Madison Township,” it asks residents to press the three county commissioners — and the area’s state lawmakers — for a full public accounting before any decision is made.
A COURT AT A CROSSROADS
The court at stake occupies the second floor of Greenfield’s municipal building at 300 Jefferson St., one flight up from the village police department. It is one of 35 county courts in Ohio — part-time benches that serve territory no municipal court covers, handling misdemeanors, traffic cases, evictions and civil claims of $15,000 or less, according to a Cleveland State University guide to Ohio government.
In 2025, the Greenfield court handled 976 cases — 349 criminal, 428 traffic and 199 civil, including 17 evictions — according to figures the campaign attributes to the court’s 2025 annual report. Greenfield police filed 623 of the 777 criminal and traffic charges, about 80%.
Judge John W. Judkins, a lifelong Highland County resident who graduated from Greenfield’s McClain High School and has practiced law in the county since 2009, has presided since defeating James A. Roeder for the seat in November 2024. Monica B. George serves as the court’s clerk and administrator. On his judicial campaign website, Judkins says every citizen “is entitled to equal protection under the law without bias.”
But the bench is likely to be vacated long before Judkins’ term expires Dec. 31, 2030. Judkins won the May 5 primary for a seat on the Highland County Common Pleas Court — a result the Highland County Press headlined as voters having “unofficially” chosen the county’s next two common pleas judges — and appears on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. The common pleas term begins Jan. 27, 2027, according to the voter information service BallotReady.
The looming vacancy has become the occasion for county officials to examine whether the court should continue at all. The commissioners are “gathering data from the Supreme Court of Ohio right now,” the campaign says, calling this “the window to be heard.”
The question has begun surfacing in public meetings. The Times Gazette of Hillsboro reported Aug. 5 that a discussion of the Madison Township court had been held, and the Highland County Press has reported commissioners hearing public comments on the county court and meeting with county officials and concerned citizens about its future. No formal proposal, deadline or decision has been published on the campaign’s site, which is asking Commissioners Brad Roades, Terry Britton and David Daniels to spell out the statutory mechanism and timeline for whatever comes next.
Judkins released a passionate statement on Thursday.
“As the sitting Judge of the Highland County Court, I am issuing this statement to express my strong opposition to any proposal to close the Highland County Court location in Greenfield,” the Judge penned on social media. “Access to justice is a fundamental responsibility of local government. Closing the court in Greenfield would impose real and disproportionate burdens on the residents of Greenfield, Madison Township, and surrounding areas of Highland County. Many of these citizens already face significant economic challenges; nearly one-fifth of local residents live at or below the poverty line. Reliable transportation is a persistent difficulty for a substantial portion of the community.”
Judkins added that the distance to Hillsboro was too burdensome for many.
“Requiring residents to travel to Hillsboro for every court interaction creates unnecessary barriers. A simple matter such as a suspended driver’s license ticket would necessitate a 34-mile round trip. For individuals without dependable transportation, the result is predictable: missed court dates, warrants, and arrests. People would find themselves jailed not because of serious criminal conduct, but because they could not get to court. That outcome is neither just nor cost-effective for the county.”
He added that the probation department carries the highest caseload in the county.
“The Greenfield County Court also provides practical local access to essential services: the County Probation Department (where the assigned officer already carries the highest caseload in the department), community-service opportunities, Small Claims Court, civil debt-collection and garnishment actions, limited driving privileges, and eviction proceedings. Removing this local venue would make each of these matters more difficult and more expensive for the people who need them most,” the Judge wrote.
“From a fiscal perspective, the court is not a significant drain on county resources. Its total cost represents less than one percent of the county’s general-fund expenditures. Maintaining a local court that keeps justice accessible is a responsible and modest use of taxpayer dollars. Moreover, closure is unlikely to produce meaningful savings. The large majority of the court’s budget covers the employment of two court clerks. If the County Court in Greenfield closed, the Municipal Court in Hillsboro would almost certainly need additional staff to absorb the increased caseload. The expense would simply shift from one court to another, while the human and administrative costs of reduced access would rise.”
Even though Judkins will move onto the county’s “higher court,” he said the village must keep theor own.
“I will leave the Highland County Court bench in February 2027 upon assuming office as Judge of the Highland County Common Pleas Court, General Division. My opposition to closing the County Court in Greenfield is therefore not tied to any personal interest in remaining in the position. It is grounded in the duty to protect fair and practical access to the justice system for the citizens of Highland County, particularly those with the fewest resources. I urge the Highland County Commissioners and our State Senator and Representative to reject any proposal that would eliminate this local court. The modest cost of maintaining it is far outweighed by the value of keeping the doors of justice open in Greenfield.”
THE LEDGER
By the campaign’s accounting — drawn, it says, from the court’s annual report and the county auditor’s 2026 budget — Highland County’s general fund paid $184,814 to operate the court in 2025, while the court returned $64,360 to the county, a net cost of $120,454. That is 0.18% of the county’s $66.8 million budget.
The court handled $209,350 in all last year, the group says, distributed an additional $22,790 to other state and local agencies, and processed nearly $17,000 in online payments through the N-Court system. It accepts electronic citations from the State Highway Patrol, is bringing the sheriff’s office onto the same system, and refers overdue fines to the Ohio attorney general for collection at no cost to the county. Its courtroom seats a 14-person felony jury, giving the county an emergency backup venue.
Closure, the campaign argues, would not erase those costs so much as scatter them — onto Greenfield police overtime, fuel and cruiser mileage; onto the sheriff’s office for prisoner transport and warrant service; and onto the county itself for jail beds and bench warrants when residents 17 miles from the nearest courtroom fail to appear. The group says the county prosecutor has estimated that closure could require two additional sheriff’s deputies, at a cost potentially approaching the court’s entire current budget.
17 MILES TO JUSTICE
The loudest voice quoted in the campaign belongs to Greenfield Police Chief Jimmy Oyer, who has led the department since 2016 and whose officers account for the bulk of the court’s docket.
“Removing the only court in the township removes local access to eviction relief, small claims and account collection for local businesses, timely arraignment for residents, and a bench that both my officers and the Sheriff’s deputies can reach without surrendering half a shift,” Oyer wrote in a letter to the county commissioners cited on the site.
The campaign puts the same point in plainer terms: “Today an officer subpoenaed to court walks up one flight of stairs. Move the docket 17 miles away and every hearing becomes a 34-mile round trip — pulling officers off patrol.”
If the court closes, its cases would shift to Hillsboro Municipal Court in the county seat, 17 miles away. The group estimates the move would swell Hillsboro’s criminal caseload by roughly 26%, its civil docket by 22% and its traffic docket by 16% — “a burden that court could not absorb without additional staffing.”
The distance would fall hardest, the campaign argues, on the people least equipped to cover it. Madison Township’s poverty rate is 18.3% and its per capita income is $30,097, according to the site, and 172 residents qualified for court-appointed counsel in 2025.
A VILLAGE ACCUSTOMED TO FIGHTING FOR ITSELF
Greenfield, a village of 4,339 at the 2020 census, has a long habit of refusing to be written off. Founded in 1799 by Gen. Duncan McArthur, it sheltered travelers on the Underground Railroad, and was home to C.R. Patterson and Sons, founded in 1893 and regarded as the first Black-owned American automobile company. When freight service faltered in 1988, the community bought its own railroad line for $2.4 million rather than lose it — becoming, by local accounts, the smallest municipality in the country to own one.
The court fight is being framed in the same terms: a small place holding onto an institution that larger neighbors take for granted. Residents handle small claims, evictions, debt collection, driving privileges, probation and community service locally, the campaign notes, without surrendering a workday to travel.
WHAT THE CAMPAIGN WANTS
The group’s requests of the commissioners are specific: publish a fiscal analysis of closure that counts police overtime, patrol diversion, prisoner transport, warrant service, jail days and the value of the court’s space; hold a public work session in Greenfield with the relevant officials; and state the statutory mechanism and timeline for any decision.
The website directs residents to contact the commissioners as the decision-holders, and to seek support from state Sen. Shane Wilkin and state Rep. Bob Peterson, who represent the area. It also urges neighbors to add their own testimony — the evictions averted, the wages not lost to a day in a distant courtroom.
For now, the campaign’s case rests on a bet that the numbers, fully counted, will speak for themselves — and its plea fits on a single line at the top of the page: “Keep justice seated in Madison Township.”
