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A wine-tasting venue, restaurants and a variety of tourist shops surround the Brown County Courthouse that is home to only one judge.
Mary Wertz, the Brown Circuit Court judge, said her father’s pressure to make a career change influenced her decision to go to law school.
She graduated from Indiana University-Bloomington with her undergraduate degree in political science but didn’t go to law school right away.
“I was earning my living as a full-time bartender. And let’s just say my father was not happy about that. And so he really pressured me to go to law school. And so I told him if I got accepted in Bloomington, I would go and if not, I would not, and they took me,” Wertz said.
Prior to joining the bench, Wertz worked as a deputy prosecutor in Monroe County and then Brown County. She also worked in the Office of the Attorney General.
Wertz was first elected to the bench in 2019.
She noted since becoming a judge in Brown County she has had many hurdles to navigate. With the COVID-19 global pandemic and renovations to the historic courthouse, she has kept busy making adjustments.
“The renovations to the courthouse have been really significant in terms of security, and maximizing our space and also ensuring that we’re compliant with the Americans Disabilities Act because in a structure from the 1870s, the original structure, we have some challenges with that,” Wertz said. “And through these grants, we’ve been able to address security, accessibility and also our space issues. Anywhere that I can see that there’s a positive impact on the work we’re doing always pleases me.”
Wertz is the latest Indiana trial judge to be featured in Indiana Lawyer’s Spotlight series profiling jurists in more rural counties. Here is what she had to say about life on and off the bench.
What is something that you have learned about yourself since becoming a judge?
I think just my ability to learn all different areas of the law. I did not have experience working with things such as the state before I took this job, and just the work you put into learning those areas so that you can make the right decisions. But there were a number of different areas that I just had not experienced as an attorney. And there were a lot of challenges early on. … We’re one court so everything comes through my desk, and that was a real challenge, but I think I’ve pretty much tackled … many, many, many areas that I had not formally had much thought of.
Do you have a favorite memory from your time as judge?
There’s just been, you know, a lot to deal with over the last few years with COVID. And I guess one of the things that was particularly challenging but worked out very well was, we were able to conduct a number of jury trials at the Brown County Music Center during COVID and we converted basically that large stage into our courtroom. And the jury room was the loading dock. And there were a lot of technical things to work through and also just procedures like how are we going to accommodate this in a safe way? So I had to work with a lot of different offices in the community from the health department to the prosecutor’s office, the defense, I mean, it was a large undertaking, and it actually worked out incredibly well for what we were working with.
What are you doing when you’re not on the bench?
My husband and I hike frequently. I am a runner, I run probably about 15 to 18 miles a week. I work out, helps with my stress management. I also enjoy being with my children, although they’re grown and doing community activities. There are lots of wonderful opportunities to go to plays at the Playhouse and events with different nonprofits. So I do enjoy that.
(Editor’s note: Judge Wertz declined to provide a photo of herself or agree to make arrangements for an Indiana Lawyer photographer to take a photo of her.)
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