One of the longest-serving elected officials in Monroe County will soon no longer be a part of public life, as Dennis Doyle retires this week as the county’s resident judge in the 20th Judicial Circuit Court. 

That will mark the end of Doyle’s 36 years of public service to Monroe County. 

“I just had a wonderful career here, and I owe it to the people of Monroe County who let me do it,” Doyle said. “It’s a great place to work. I owe such a debt of gratitude to the people of Monroe County for the career that I’ve had.” 

Doyle graduated from John Marshall Law School in 1980, after which he got a job as an assistant state’s attorney in St. Clair County. 

He practiced law in that office for four years, working his way up from traffic court to the head of the felony division. 

In that time, Doyle also moved to Columbia. In 1984, he was elected Monroe County state’s attorney. 

“It was more work-related than politics,” Doyle said of his decision to run for that office. “I was more of a prosecutor than a politician. It was just the job I wanted to do.” 

Doyle, a Democrat, served as state’s attorney here for 17 years.

“It was a very good job,” Doyle recalled. “It’s a great place to be state’s attorney. Times were different then — the county was smaller and there was less crime.” 

Doyle said part of what makes him look back fondly on those days is the support of the county’s residents, who he described as “law enforcement oriented.” 

While he prosecuted some cases all the way to jury trials, Doyle said the vast majority of cases he dealt with resulted in the suspects pleading guilty and him negotiating those pleas. 

“It’s satisfying getting justice for victims,” he said. “You work with them all the time as state’s attorney.” 

That role was not without its stresses. 

Doyle noted it is the state’s responsibility to meet the burden of proof and provide a speedy trial in cases it prosecutes. 

“You always have to be cognizant of the trial dates, gathering evidence and talking to witnesses,” he explained. “There was always pressure to prepare the case properly in the correct time and not make mistakes.” 

Those and other concerns were still paramount in different ways when Doyle was appointed in 2001 to fill the resident circuit judge seat formerly held by Dennis Jacobsen. 

Jacobsen, who retired that year, became judge the same year Doyle was elected state’s attorney. 

“It’s kind of a natural progression,” Doyle said. “Frequently, the state’s attorney becomes judge, and that was always a goal of mine.” 

Although he was appointed by his superiors on the court, Doyle still had to win the approval of voters. He faced a primary election in the spring of 2002 and a general election that fall. 

“Besides learning how to be a judge, I was also involved in elections for about a year,” Doyle remembered.

He won both those elections. Doyle was also retained by voters twice as judge and re-elected state’s attorney four times. 

Once he became the county’s judge, Doyle said he quickly learned the Monroe County position held some unique challenges. 

Unlike in larger counties, the judge here gets assigned to every case as opposed to specializing in certain areas of the law. 

“In Monroe County, I’ve been involved in literally every type of law,” Doyle said. “You may be doing a personal injury case one day, an adoption in the afternoon, a criminal case the next day, property settlements and wills. Everything you can imagine, I’ve done.” 

That made the resident judge job both more difficult and more interesting for Doyle. 

“For me every case was starting anew,” he said. “If I hadn’t dealt with that area of law before, I had to start from the beginning and, with the help of the attorneys, research the law and get up to speed with the issues.” 

Even though he judged so many areas of law, Doyle said he approached each case with the same mentality. 

“Each of those cases had someone, or more than one someone, who was very interested because it had a big impact on their lives,” he said. “I was always very aware of the fact that each case was very important to all the people who were involved.” 

After his official retirement day this Sunday, the 66-year-old said he and his wife will travel more once the pandemic ends and he will still practice law privately.

But he said it will be a little strange not being an elected official. 

“My life has been intertwined with being a Monroe County public official,” Doyle said. “My three grown children have never known me when I wasn’t a Monroe County public official. My wife and I got married six months after I became state’s attorney.” 

Nevertheless, Doyle said he made the right decision to step down, in part because believes he is leaving the county in good hands with Republicans Chris Hitzemann and Lucas Liefer taking over as judge and state’s attorney, respectively.  

“I’m happy that I did. I think it was the right decision,” Doyle said of his retirement. “I’ve reached the point of retirement age. I think Chris Hitzemann and Lucas Liefer will do a great job filling these positions. We’re ready for the third time to start fresh with a new judge and a new state’s attorney.”