By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Hunter Brown made the decision early on to use his law degree to serve the public.
“I’ve always liked the idea of working for the good guys,” said Brown, Bowling Green’s new city prosecutor.
When Brown moved into his office at Bowling Green Municipal Court on Monday, there was something very familiar. It wasn’t just that he had worked as prosecutor in a college town before. It wasn’t just that he graduated from BGSU and interned at the local court during law school.
It was all that, plus that he was born and raised in the community he was now working for as prosecutor.
“I’m about as local as you can get,” Brown said. “This is the community I’m from. It gives me a chance to help out the community.”
Brown, who now lives in Toledo, has taken the seat formerly held by Matt Reger, who was recently elected Wood County Common Pleas Court judge.
Reger held the city prosecutor’s job for 20 years. “The hard part about leaving is we’re a family out there,” he said. But Reger added that he leaves knowing the office is in good hands.
“He’s from Bowling Green. He knows the community. He knows the people,” Reger said of Brown.
And he knows how to work in a college town, since he has spent the last three years as city prosecutor in Tiffin.
But when he took over this week, Brown said he quickly realized some differences. “This job is bigger. The caseload is bigger,” he said. “It’s something I’m excited to tackle.”
According to Reger, the municipal court sees up to 13,000 cases a year, with the city prosecutor’s office handling as many as 4,000 of those. The court’s jurisdiction covers most of Wood County except for Perrysburg and some villages.
The types of cases heard in this court have a lot of similarities to those in Tiffin – another college town.
“A lot of them are alcohol related,” Brown said. Heroin is also a big concern here as well, and the new prosecutor said he hopes to continue the Vivitrol program already in place here to help opiate addicts break their addictions.
Brown said he plans to spend some time getting to know the community again, learning the issues that Bowling Green residents and officials are concerned about. “Those will be my concerns, too,” he said.
Brown said he is hoping for a seamless transition for those using the court. “Matt has an open door policy. That’s what I’d like to continue. I have a lot of respect for the way Matt handled the job.”
