Gender Matters: Prosecuting the Toughest Cases

Ask Marianne Hemmeter ’94 what a typical day is like as an assistant prosecutor in Delaware County, Ohio and she might tell you it’s being paged at 3 a.m. to go to a crime scene, tracking down information or presenting evidence at a hearing. Regardless of the day, she said, there is no typical day.

“That’s what makes the job fun,” she explained. “You do a lot of everything. You follow cases from the investigation through to trial. There is no typical day.

“Every day is different,” she continued, “and every case is different. Even if it’s the same crime, every situation is unique.”

Though she wasn’t sure she would pursue a career in law as a history major at Trinity, Hemmeter said she knew she wanted to do trial work as soon as she got to law school.

“I really enjoyed my criminal classes and I wanted courtroom experience,” she said. “The prosecutor’s office was the quickest way to do it.”

So following graduation from Ohio State Law School in 1997, Hemmeter, a native of Dayton, Ohio, joined the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office. Located just north of Columbus, Ohio, Delaware County is one of the 10 fastest growing counties in the country, Hemmeter said, and with that, the crime rate is also growing rapidly.

Consequently, Hemmeter has tried every kind of felony and currently tries a large number of domestic violence and sexual assault cases.

Is there a connection between being female and working on cases that typically involve crimes against women?

“I do feel a sense of responsibility,” said Hemmeter, who noted that she is the only female senior trial attorney in the office. “I think it’s important to have a woman on the trial team.

“I’m bringing something to this county that didn’t exist before,” she added. Currently there are no female judges in Delaware county, Hemmeter said, and most other professionals involved in cases, including police and law personnel, are male.

An Ohio native, Hemmeter said she came to Trinity on the Helen and Marie Rotterman Scholarship after learning that another student from her high school had attended Trinity on the same scholarship.

She credits her undergraduate studies as good preparation for a career in law.

“History is a good major to learn how to research and write,” she said. “And being able to argue your position in a small classroom at Trinity made for an easy transition into law school.”

She advises students interested in law to do what makes you happy and worry about the money second.

Clearly, Hemmeter heeds her own advice. Though she knows she could earn more money in a private law firm, she says she has no immediate plans to leave prosecution work.

“I really do enjoy the trial work,” she emphasized. “And I think there is some job satisfaction knowing the victims are having their cases tried competently.

“Ninety percent of cases end in pleas,” she explained. “If you’ve done your work, you can get a good plea.”

And getting good pleas can be challenging, Hemmeter said, especially in cases of sexual assault.

“It’s a lot of his word against her word,” she said. “Sexual assaults are the hardest cases to prove. They are a challenge to get good pleas.

“You can’t guarantee what will happen,” she continued, “but that is the system.”

That system has also allowed Hemmeter to try murder cases. At age 31, she is one of only two prosectors in her office who have tried murder cases. As a result of that senior status, she now currently trains and mentors younger assistant prosecutors. She is also often on-call in the event a serious felony occurs and will go to a crime scene to guide police officers.

Though the forensic and police work is interesting to Hemmeter, it does have its drawbacks.

“It’s easy to be objective about evidence,” she said, “but it’s the emotional wear and tear that law school can’t prepare you for.”

– Jenny Steffens