Dayich takes the helm as Greene County’s president judge
WAYNESBURG – Five years ago this week, Lou Dayich nervously paced the hallway outside the Greene County elections office wondering what his future would hold.
It was the morning after the 2015 general election and Dayich was locked in a tight race against attorney Jeffry Grimes to become the next judge of Greene County after a seat on the bench opened up earlier in the year.
Just 94 votes separated the two candidates, and now the elections staff was counting more than 300 absentee ballots to determine the winner. When the final votes were tallied, it was Dayich’s close friend Rudy Marisa who told him the news that he would go from a local magistrate to county judge on the Court of Common Pleas.
“I’ve never had an experience of being this nervous in my life,” Dayich exclaimed as he embraced Marisa.
“You do all of this work and what you wish for is a very difficult job,” Dayich added.
Now, more hard work is in store for Dayich, who was elevated to president judge Sunday, giving him the authority to supervise all proceedings inside Greene County Courthouse, along with the honor that the title brings.
“For Lou, it’s a very prestigious thing. He’s a very capable person and things will move forward,” Marisa said Friday about Dayich’s new role. “He’s very intelligent, and likewise, he has a very great sense of humor. Those two things might be overlooked by the public.”
It’s something that Marisa said he never expected when he congratulated Dayich in that hallway five years ago.
The promotion comes after embattled President Judge Farley Toothman announced recently his plans to step down from that role Oct. 31 to become the courthouse’s junior judge. Toothman, who has been a judge for 11 years and served as president judge since 2015, has been accused of judicial misconduct in the handling of several cases and treatment of courthouse employees. Toothman’s case is now before the state Court of Judicial Discipline, and he announced he won’t run for retention of his seat when his 10-year term expires at the end of 2021.
Dayich, 58, of Waynesburg, politely declined an interview for this story, saying he wants to focus on the job ahead. But people who know him said he’s the perfect person to be thrust into a difficult job.
“I think he’ll be an excellent president judge, because that’s a position where you need power of persuasion,” said Joseph DiSarro, a political science professor who taught Dayich when he attended at Washington & Jefferson College in the early 1980s. “Considering what’s going on with the courts down in Greene County, he’ll be excellent. He’ll do what’s needed after a situation like this, by bringing people together and letting them know there’s a leader that cares about him.”
Dayich’s intelligence, friendliness and seriousness about the law will help him navigate the tricky situation in the courthouse, DiSarro said.
“Lou’s the right person for the job down there,” DiSarro added. “His social skills will bring that courthouse together with that leadership. That’s not to say it will be easy. He’ll treat it as a challenge.”
After graduating from W&J, Dayich attended law school at the University of Pittsburgh. While studying there, he started his own business selling hot dogs out of the back of his pickup truck to hungry students in Oakland. After leaving Pitt, he returned home to become a public defender in 1988.
He brought “Sweet Lou’s” back to Waynesburg, selling hot dogs from a storefront on High Street while running his public defender’s office in the back of the shop.
“Fantastic guy. One of the best people I’ve ever known,” said longtime friend Greg Leathers. “Great family … just down to earth. What you see is what you get.”
The two became friends while attending W&J together, and have remained close ever since. Leathers, now the executive director for Region 13’s Southwest Regional Anti-Terrorism Task Force, said Dayich hasn’t changed one bit, even as he rose through the judicial ranks after being elected magistrate in 1999.
“His demeanor, his ability to solve problems,” Leathers said. “He’s the same guy to me.”
That low-key approach is what DiSarro appreciates about his former student. The professor recalls seeing Dayich at annual college homecoming events wearing a denim jacket and baseball cap, rather than a three-piece suit.
“He’d be incognito. He enjoys being himself,” DiSarro said, noting that personality also helps him apply the law as a judge. “He treats everyone the same. He’s not an elitist. He’s an every man. He believes in equality.”
DiSarro saw those qualities years ago when Dayich would argue a legal position in class, and then take his opponent’s viewpoint and attempt to argue that one as well. DiSarro said Dayich was always “community minded” and figured he would run for office one day, anything from mayor to Congress.
“He was always very loyal to his community,” DiSarro said.
After working for four years as a public defender and a few more years in private practice, Dayich spent 15 years as a magistrate before running for county judge as a Democrat in 2015. After winning that seat, he took on the majority of criminal cases in the courthouse, spending hours ruling on plea hearings, trials and sentencings for defendants.
Just before taking on that new role, Dayich noted the weight of the job and how it can impact many lives.
“You have this great responsibility, this great privilege,” Dayich said during his swearing-in ceremony as county judge in January 2016. “You’re accepting the baton from another generation and the race continues.”