Current Conditions
39°F - CLEAR
(118) (107) (76) (57) (40) (20) (9)
Judges Joseph C. Madenspacher and David L. Ashworth, if retained, would continue presiding over criminal and civil court cases.
Voters will be asked to choose yes or no to keep the judges on the bench for another term. Lancaster County judges earn an annual salary of $152,115.
Madenspacher most recently presided over the trials of two young men convicted of murdering Ray Diener of Elizabethtown.
The judge also has handled such well-publicized homicide cases as those of Micah Stewart, convicted of killing his Columbia girlfriend and dumping her body in a wooded area, and Francisco David, who set fire to his ex-girlfriend's city home, killing her four young children who were trapped inside.
During his first term on the bench, Ashworth also handled the cases of a number of young murderers, including David Ludwig, who killed his girlfriend's parents in Warwick Township; Jesse Dee Wise, who killed six members of his family in Leola, and Alex Kreider, who broke in to his best friend's home, killing the 16-year-old boy and his parents.
Madenspacher worked in the district attorney's office for 25 years, the last eight as the county's district attorney, before he was elected to his first term as judge 10 years ago.
A graduate of Penn State University and Temple University School of Law, Madenspacher, 63, of Lititz, served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam and as a staff attorney for the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Ashworth, 53, of East Hempfield Township, worked for 20 years in civil law, including personal injury and product liability cases, before becoming a judge.
A graduate of Gettysburg College and the Delaware Law School of Widener College, Ashworth was in private practice as a partner in the Lancaster law firm of Wagman, Ashworth, Kreider & Wright.
