MORGANTOWN — Magistrate Darris Summers is officially retired as a Monongalia County Magistrate as of March 1.
“I thought it was a good time [to retire],” Summers, 62, on March 1, said.
The Mon County native was accepted as a Senior Status Magistrate and is now eligible to hear cases in all 55 of West Virginia’s counties, as needed.
“It still keeps me in the loop,” Summers said. “It still keeps me in the judiciary.”
Summers said he’s worked for 32 years and prior to being a magistrate, he worked as a dispatcher for the sheriff’s deparment, at the county jail and as a court bailiff for Judge Robert Stone. Summers said he was with Stone for 13 years in Circuit Court, and he tried to copy Stone’s mannerisms on the bench.
Summers knew he ultimately wanted to be a magistrate in the ’90s, after a discussion with his wife Sharon. He ran for magistrate in 1996, but was not elected. He has not lost an election since his 2005 appointment.
One of the things Summers said he’ll miss most about the job are the days when he just got to hear cases.
“The day-to-day hearings — where you sit in court, you don’t have walk-ins, you don’t have protective orders and it’s just having your hearings — I really enjoy that.”
He said that anybody can be a magistrate if all they do is always send people to jail or never send people to jail. But being a good magistrate is all about finding a balance between grace and justice, Summers said.
Drug cases are an example of where that balance is needed.
Summers said one case that’s always stuck with him involved a woman who was arrested for possession of marijuana and given a year of probation, but she kept failing her drug tests.
After each failed drug test, Summers would send the woman to jail for a little longer. Eventually, after a 30-day sentence, the woman relented, Summers said.
“It was a way that it kept her clean,” he said. “If she didn’t, she knew she was going to jail.”
Summers said he’s used that system throughout his career.
“He cares about what he does,” Kim George, Summers’ assistant, said. “He cares about the community.
People don’t see all the work that goes on behind the scenes in Magistrate Court, Summers said. He thanked and credited George for keeping things running smoothly.
George said Summers was an amazing boss and that the two are friends outside of work. The two attend the same church, Kingdom Community Church in Westover. George said not long after she started working for Summers, he recommended the church to her, and she fell in love with it.
Retirement means more chances to travel, something Summers said he loves to do. Since he doesn’t fly, Summers said he and Sharon drive everywhere.
“We see America like I think people used to do it in the ’50s,” he said. “Just pick a place and wherever we stop on the way is the way we do it.”
Mom-and-pop restaurants are a favorite stop for the two, Summers said. During a tour of the southwest a few years ago, the pair ate at just a few franchises, he said.
Summers said he has four trips scheduled for this year.
Summers also plays bass in a band, the Knighthawks, which plays country and oldies music. Summers has been in the band for 50 years and will be inducted into the West Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame in April 2019, along with his late brother, Dennis.
