Centre Co. prepares for hotly contested judge's race ahead of Tuesday's primary

Centre Co., PA (WJAC) — In Centre County, the two candidates vying to be the next judge on the county’s court of common pleas both have a lot of legal experience but have major differences in what qualifications they think are vital in becoming the county’s next judge.

We caught up with Gopal Balachandran and Julia Rater at a recent candidate’s night where Balachandran again repeated an assessment of the current Centre County judges and why he sees his experience in criminal law as a difference maker.

“The reason I mention criminal law specifically is because there are a significant percentage of cases that are handled by the court that are criminal. Right now there is no one on the bench that has a significant background in criminal law.”

Rater has focused on family law for decades but stresses she’s familiar with criminal law.

“I see protections from abuse, domestic violence sexual assaults. I have a case right now involving corruption of minors and rape. So, I have a very broad experience, which is important. Our judges don’t specialize. Our judges hear all types of cases.”

As to Balachandran’s claim of a lack of criminal law experience on the current county bench, let’s review some information from AOPC: the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

For 2021, in Centre County, just over 1,400 criminal cases were filed, with a little more than 1,700 cases processed.

Before the pandemic, in 2018, criminal cases in Centre County court totaled close to 3,000.

Criminal cases have a lot of stages that often times are overseen by judges and an increasing number of cases are often involving children.

“A few years ago, I and other members of the community established the children’s advocacy center of Centre County. That’s an entity in which children who reported abuse can come to a one stop shop where they’re not subjected to interviews by children and youth, and the police separately. It all happens at one time, and those kiddos are protected there.”

Balachandran has been a public defender in several states. He’s the director of a criminal law clinic at Penn State, and the co-founder of the Centre County Pardon Project.

“I haven’t had a paid client since 2006. The legal clinic I direct, we work on all kinds of cases throughout Pennsylvania.”

Both candidates are heavily involved in a number of community organizations, and Balachandran is also a State College Borough council member.

Both candidates have also cross-filed in the Republican and Democratic primaries for Tuesday’s election.

And there may be some added incentive, with a current vacancy on the Centre County judicial bench, the possibility, and it’s been done here before, that if one candidate wins both primaries, they could be sworn in early, before the November general election.

ncG1vNJzZmivmpawtcKNnKamZ56axLR7y6iamqRfmLKvwNGeZJynXaW%2FprzAq5ysZZakv260zq2jsmWTpLu1sdKtnJ1lmqqxqLHSZqmam5VirqmxwJ1kqJ5dqcKmv8OasKxloKe2rq3Rsg%3D%3D