Paulding County Juvenile Court Judge Harvey D. Hyman is excited to announce the newest staff members of our probation department. Andrew McMaster started with the Juvenile Court Probation Department in July, 2023, filling a vacancy in position of Director of the Paulding County Family Resource & Assessment Center located at 451 McDonald Pike, Paulding, Ohio. He was also given the task of serving as the Court’s truancy officer. Mr. McMaster is available to work with any Paulding County youth and their families to put early intervention strategies in place, to assist youth who are low to moderate risk in an effort to redirect youth from involvement in the formal juvenile court system. Mr. McMaster will continue to work with all three county school districts to enforce that state’s school attendance laws. He meets with and monitors students in office and school settings to address violations of attendance policies, educate parents and students about applicable laws, issue warnings to youth/parents who violate attendance policies, and file formal complaints. Last year, McMaster handled over 160 referrals and 54 diversions from formal proceedings. Last school year, Mr. McMaster spearheaded the Court’s Truancy Pre-Court initiative, working directly with schools and their families to address Paulding County’s share of the national post-pandemic truancy increase, all without delaying appropriate and prompt court-involvement when necessary.
Suzanne Laney is the Juvenile Court’s newest staff member. Suzanne joined the Juvenile Court Probation Department in August 2024. Ms. Laney is the Probation and Diversion Officer. Ms. Laney will work with low level offending youth who are formally juvenile court involved, providing the youth and families support services that utilizes the least restrictive community interventions while maintaining public safety. She is committed to advocating for the best interest of the youth to promote positive behavior changes and long-term success. As the diversion officer, she will work with juveniles who are unruly or who have committed a delinquency offense to give them the opportunity to correct their mistakes and avoid further court involvement as long as they comply with terms of a specially designed program including appropriate referrals to community resources. Diversion is an intervention approach that redirect youth away from formal processing in the juvenile justice system, while still holding them accountable for their actions. Having a second probation officer restores historical juvenile court practice and will bring the probation department’s per-officer case load closer to Ohio Department of Youth Services guidelines. This will permit more intensive supervision of youth when needed, as well as staff supervision of community service and the creation of other programing initiatives. It also allows Mr. McMaster to focus on continuing and expanding his work with the schools through the very well-received and successful programming he began last year.
The Paulding County Juvenile Court welcome’s Andrew McMaster and Suzanne Laney to the court’s Probation Department as they join Chief Probation Officer Dustin Westhoven in serving juveniles in Paulding County.
