Fourth District Judges
Judge Borrello was appointed to the Court of Appeals in 2003, elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2006. He served as an attorney and partner with the law firm Gilbert, Smith & Borrello, P.C. in Saginaw, Michigan. Judge Borrello also served as an assistant prosecuting attorney from 1988 to 1990 in Saginaw County. He earned his B.A. from Albion College and his J.D. from the Detroit College of Law. He is currently an adjunct professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Saginaw Valley State University where he teaches Criminal Procedure and Evidence.
Term expires January 1, 2019.
Judge
Gadola was appointed to the Court effective January 5, 2015. He is a graduate of Michigan State University’s
James Madison College (B.A., 1985) and graduated with honors from the Wayne
State University Law School (J.D., 1990), where he served as Editor-in-Chief of
the Wayne Law Review. He practiced law
with the Dickinson Wright law firm in both Detroit and Lansing. He served as Deputy Legal Counsel, Counsel
for Executive Organization, and Director of the Office of Regulatory Reform for
Governor John Engler. He went on to
serve as House Majority Counsel in the Michigan Legislature and as Michigan Supreme
Court Counsel. He then served as Legal
Counsel to Governor Rick Snyder. Judge Gadola is a fellow of
the Michigan State Bar Foundation, a member of the Michigan Supreme Court
Historical Society, a member of the Advisory Board for the Michigan Chapter of
the Federalist Society, and is a former chairman of the Saint Vincent Catholic
Charities board of directors and former board member of the Boys & Girls
Club of Lansing.
Term expires January 1, 2023.
Judge Kelly was elected to the Court in 2008. After serving as a judicial advisory assistant to a circuit court judge, he worked as a trial lawyer in private practice for twenty years. He attended Michigan State University and earned his B.A. from the University of Michigan – Flint in 1984. Following his enrollment at the Detroit College of Law, he was accepted as a participant in the London Law Program at Regents College in London, England in 1987 and received his J.D. from the D.C.L. in 1988. He is currently an adjunct professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Ferris State University where he teaches Criminal Law and Procedure.
Term expires January 1, 2021.
Judge Amy Ronayne Krause has been on the Court of Appeals since December 2010. Previously, she served as a judge on the 54-A District Court in Lansing for nearly eight years. Judge Ronayne Krause received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan and her Juris Doctor from the University of Notre Dame.
Judge Ronayne Krause began her legal career as a litigation attorney for a private law firm and then served eight years as an assistant prosecuting attorney. In 1997, she was appointed an assistant attorney general by then Attorney General Frank J. Kelley and was the first recipient of the Frank J. Kelley Award for Excellence in Trial Advocacy. Judge Ronayne Krause worked for the Attorney General's office for six years. Before taking the bench, Judge Ronayne Krause was elected to serve on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, during which time she chaired the Law and Courts Committee. She is an adjunct professor at Thomas M. Cooley Law School and has lectured for the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan. She has also taught for the Michigan Judicial Institute, including teaching other district judges at the New Judges Seminar in 2007 and 2009. Judge Ronayne Krause also serves as faculty for the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, training other judges on a national level.
In September 2007, Judge Ronayne Krause was recognized statewide for her outstanding work with the State Bar of Michigan's Champion of Justice Award. She has served her community as a board member of the Lansing Educational Advancement Foundation (LEAF), the Uplift Our Youth Foundation, and is currently on the American Red Cross Board of Directors for the Great Lakes Region. Judge Ronayne Krause was appointed in 2011 by the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader to the State Drug Treatment Court Advisory Committee and is currently Chair of the committee.
Judge Ronayne Krause and her husband, Kurt E. Krause, live in the mid-Michigan area.
Term expires January 1, 2021.
Judge Meter was appointed to the Court in 1999. Previously, he served as a judge of the Saginaw Circuit Court, and he worked as a prosecuting attorney for Saginaw County and as an attorney in private practice. Judge Meter received his bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Notre Dame.
Term expires January 1, 2021.
Judge Peter D. O’Connell was elected in 1994 and currently serves on the Michigan Court of Appeals in the Hall of Justice in Lansing, Michigan. He was a District Court Judge for 16 years prior to his election to the Court of Appeals and also served as the Chief Assistant Prosecutor in Isabella County. He holds a Juris Doctorate from Detroit College of Law and was the first trial judge in the State of Michigan to obtain a Masters of Judicial Studies Degree from the University of Nevada-Reno. He has served on the faculty of the Michigan Judicial Institute, the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, and the National Judicial College. Judge O’Connell has also served as an instructor at New Judge’s School and is an adjunct professor at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School and Central Michigan University.
Judge O’Connell has authored articles in the Detroit Law Review, Criminal Practice Law Review, Colleague, Benchmark, Michigan Bar Journal, and the case book entitled Social Science in the Law.
Judge O’Connell has been on the bench since 1979.
Term expires January 1, 2019.
Judge Brock A. Swartzle was appointed to the Court in 2017. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Swartzle was Chief of Staff for the Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, as well as General Counsel for the House, where he worked on numerous legal and policy issues, including the Detroit bankruptcy settlement package. Judge Swartzle was previously a litigation partner with Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, where he practiced in antitrust, healthcare fraud, white-collar crime, securities, and other areas. Judge Swartzle had extensive experience in federal court prior to joining the Michigan Court of Appeals, clerking for three years in both the Eastern District of Michigan and the Western District of Michigan, as well as four years with the Hon. David W. McKeague on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Judge Swartzle currently sits on the editorial board of the American Bar Association's Appellate Practice Journal, a publication for which he was Co-Editor-in-Chief for several years, as well as on the George Mason Law & Economics Center's Judicial Education Advisory Board. He has authored numerous legal articles as well as co-authored a chapter in the practitioner treatise, Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts (West). Judge Swartzle received his B.S. with distinction from the University of Michigan and his J.D. with honors from George Mason University School of Law, where he served on the George Mason Law Review Board of Editors.
Judge Swartzle is married with three children. He volunteers with the UofM Club of Greater Lansing and is a member of the Williamston United Methodist Church.
Term expires January 1, 2019.