Judge Mary Jane Phelps retiring after 24 years ,of service on the bench

MARY JANE PHELPS, pictured in 2019 with her daughter, Laura Jane, will retire as district judge in Woodford, Scott and Bourbon counties at the end of the year. Laura Jane and her mom are the fifth and sixth generations in their family to become lawyers. Mary Jane, a native of Grayson, jokes, “We have double-names” in eastern Kentucky. (File photo by Bob Vlach)

LAURA JANE PHELPS, daughter of District Judge Mary Jane Phelps, is pictured with her family when she and her cousin, Andrew Wilhoit, were sworn into the bar in October 2019. From left are Laura Jane, Judge Henry R. Wilhoit Jr., Andrew, Phelps and her brother Rupert Wilhoit, a district judge in Carter, Elliott and Morgan counties. (Photo submitted)

After she completes 24 years as a district judge in Woodford, Scott and Bourbon counties at the end of the year, Mary Jane (Wilhoit) Phelps will retire from what she describes as “my dream job.” “I can’t think of any other job I would’ve wanted to have for the biggest part of my career,” says Phelps. She still loves her job and working with “the best clerks and bailiffs and staff,” but says it’s time for her to “close this chapter and move onto a new one.” Her next chapter won’t revolve around relaxing in a Lazy Boy recliner, she assures, because she’s never liked being bored. Phelps doesn’t know who will replace her yet (that’ll be decided by voters on Nov. 8), but she knows Bolton Bevins or William Rich will bring fresh ideas and a new approach to the courtroom. Being in a courtroom has always been Phelps’ favorite part of her job. “I went to law school because I’m a people person and … I knew that I wanted the courtroom to be my office,” she says. Phelps was an accounting major at Transylvania University, but she realized after one semester of doing tax returns that wasn’t her career path. A part of her didn’t want to follow her dad’s path and be the fifth generation in the Wilhoit family to become an attorney, but by her junior year at Transy Phelps says she knew law was her route. “And it certainly wasn’t because of pressure put on by my father. But he was definitely an influence, a very positive influence in my life,” she says. Phelps was still in high school when her father, Judge Henry R. Wilhoit Jr., was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Ronald Reagan, “so you can imagine there was a lot of law talk in our home growing up,” she says. Her brothers also went to law school. Rupert is a district judge in Carter, Elliott and Morgan counties. Will has a private practice in their hometown of Grayson. (Phelps’ daughter Laura Jane is also an attorney, working in her Uncle Will’s firm.) Henry Wilhoit always told his children, “the practice of law is very unique,” recalls Phelps. She, like her dad, embraced a legal career because, as he told her and her brothers, “every day will be different in the practice of law.” When judicial seats opened in the circuit and family courts, Phelps says she resisted the urge to run because in district court she had an opportunity to affect the lives of people in many ways. From civil to criminal to probate to juvenile, the cases coming into her courtroom gave her a chance to make a positive impact on human lives, she says. “Even with traffic cases, you never know what you’re going to get. Every day is different,” says Phelps, echoing the words of her dad, who died Sept. 12. For 24 years, Phelps says her vacations and days off were mostly determined by the court’s calendar. She never knows how long it’ll take to get through a court docket on any given day, so it’s difficult to even plan a lunch, she says. In addition to being in a courtroom four and sometimes five days a week, Phelps says she and District Judge Sarah Hays share on-call duties – meaning one of them is always available to sign emergency protective orders, arrest and search warrants, as well as juvenile pickup and 24-hour mental health orders. Fortunately on nights when Phelps gets two or three wake-up calls to sign orders or warrants, she says, “My body is trained (for interruptions). I get up, sign it and I go back to sleep.” Before technology allowed Phelps to sign EPOs and warrants at home, her young son Christopher, who now works in the film industry, grew up with police officers regularly coming to their house. “He would just hand the police officer a game controller and let them play along with him while I was signing papers,” recalls Phelps, laughing. While pregnant with her son, Phelps went into labor on the bench in Bourbon County. Her bailiff had to drive her to the hospital, where she gave birth to Christopher, who “came a little early,” on Aug. 30, 2000, she says. Daughter Laura Jane was 3 years old when Phelps was sworn-in as district judge, so “they kind of grew up in the courthouse,” she says. Phelps says she knew she wanted to be in a courtroom and prosecute criminal cases by the time she graduated from law school at University of Kentucky in 1989 and spent a year clerking in the state Supreme Court. “When I found out (longtime 14th Judicial Circuit Commonwealth’s Attorney) Gentry ‘Sonny’ McCauley had an opening, I absolutely burned his phone up. And I kept calling him and calling him. I think he gave me an interview to make me go away,” she adds, laughing. That’s how her family ended up in Woodford County – her being hired by McCauley as an assistant prosecutor in 1990. “He was amazing, just a wealth of knowledge,” Phelps says of one of her earliest mentors. “He literally turned me loose …” Within a week of being hired, she was prosecuting a burglary case in Woodford County. “And that’s how I learned,” she adds, “trial by fire, trial by fire.” When she decided to run for district judge in Woodford, Scott and Bourbon counties in 1998, many of the voters thought she was related to well-known and respected local Judge Anthony Wilhoit; maybe “distantly, but I didn’t grow up in Woodford County,” she says. Looking back on her successful campaign to become district judge (winning 76 percent of the votes in Woodford County), Phelps says, “It sure did help me having Wilhoit in my name on the ballot. That’s for sure. “To this day, some people think I’m related to Tony Wilhoit’s family.” Phelps did not faced any opposition in subsequent races (she was re-elected to the bench in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018), but she did not see herself running a campaign while continuing to serve as a judge at this stage in her life –especially if she found herself in a contested race, she says. With all the demands of being a district judge (she’s also been chief regional judge in the Bluegrass area since 2009), Phelps and Wes, her husband of 33 years, are both looking forward to her having more freedom. At some point in the future, Phelps does plan to continue serving her community in the retired judges program and, possibly, mediate felony cases if she decides to complete the necessary training. “I still plan on being involved in the law,” she says. Phelps credits conducting court via ZOOM during and after the pandemic shutdown for helping ensure her successor will not have a backlog of cases. “And I’m going to invite my successor to come (to court) after the election … hopefully to make it a smooth transition,” she says. “There’s a lot to learn.”