Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Judge Daniel Milliron talks with his granddaughter Alexis Milliron (left), 13, and her mother Monica Milliron during a surprise retirement party for the judge in the commissioners meeting room at Blair County Courthouse.

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Roaring Spring man who has been in Blair County’s DUI Court program for almost two years recently asked Judge Daniel J. Milliron to stay on the bench until March.

“I’ll miss you,” the man told Milliron, who is retiring and transitioning in January to senior judge status with a reduced workload. “You ought to stay on until I graduate.”

Milliron, who is turning the DUI Court over to fellow Judge Elizabeth A. Doyle, praised the man for almost two years of sobriety. Then the judge relied on his wit to decline the man’s request.

“Judge Doyle will do a better job,” the round-faced Milliron said with a smile, prompting those in the courtroom, including Doyle, to smile.

That same day, Milliron also praised an Altoona woman who came to DUI Court to present a plaque to recognize the judge’s pending retirement.

The woman, who now works as an addiction recovery specialist, said Milliron sentenced her 10 years ago to DUI Court, where she learned how to cope without alcohol.

“My life wouldn’t be the same without you or your program,” the woman said.

In February, Milliron publicly announced his plan to retire at the end of this year.

Now 66 years old and closing in on that goal, the judge said he has had no second thoughts.

“It’s the right time,” Milliron said as he spoke of his desire to do other things in life while admitting that he has no specific plans.

“I have agreed to be a senior judge for one year,” he said. “But that time frame isn’t fixed in stone.”

The judge also wants to devote more time to his family.

“I’ve been blessed with a wonderful family, and I need to give them back much of what they’ve given me and the sacrifices they’ve made for me over

my lifetime,” he said.

Twenty years ago

Milliron was 46 years old in July 2002 when he accepted an 18-month appointment to the county bench.

At that time, the Altoona native was a local attorney who garnered community recognition by serving as the city’s mayor, a post to which he was elected in 1990. He also chaired and served on study commissions that delved into serious issues, like the local growth in illegal drug trafficking and the proposed privatization of the city’s water supply.

To get the 18-month judicial appointment, Milliron agreed not to be a judicial candidate in 2003. So at the end of 18-months, he resumed his work as an attorney, then ran for judge in 2005 and easily won his first 10-year term, starting in 2006.

In 2015, he ran for retention and secured his current term that started in 2016.

Altoona attorney David P. Andrews recalls Milliron’s first pursuit of a 10-year term and retained a 2005 campaign button that he wore to a recent surprise retirement party for Milliron.

“I knew him as someone who always cared about people,” Andrew said. “So when he was running, I said ‘This is a guy who will give everybody a fair deal.’ And isn’t that the kind of person you want as a judge?”

Andrews, who described Milliron as having been an excellent judge, recalled being among a large group of potential jurors where Milliron spoke of their duties and obligations.

Though Andrews wasn’t selected, he remembers Milliron’s presentation.

“He made you feel good about the idea of being on a jury,” Andrews said.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski
Judge Daniel Milliron talks with Judge Elizabeth Doyle during Milliron’s surprise retirement party.

DUI Court changes lives

After 17.5 years as a judge, Milliron named DUI Court as a significant reason for remaining on the bench. He keeps notes in his drawer from prior DUI Court participants.

“It’s the change you see in people’s lives and the impact on their families,” Milliron said recently in his office. “It’s far and away the thing that has meant the most and has been the most important to me.”

Milliron credits former President Judge Jolene G. Kopriva for giving him “unlimited control” over developing the county’s DUI Court, which provides offenders with alternatives to incarceration. Those alternatives typically require regular contact with the county’s parole and probation department and twice-a-month attendance at DUI Court.

In his recent DUI Court session, Milliron praised the county’s parole and probation office staff for the success of the state-accredited problem-solving court program. He also referred to program coordinator Scott Schultz as the backbone of DUI Court, praise that Schultz later returned when asked about the reference.

“He’s the one who has guided all of us,” Schultz said, praising Milliron for his ability to help people address problems in their lives.

“He has the biggest heart,” Schultz said. “He cares about everybody who comes into the program and finishes it. And he shows compassion for those who don’t.”

Doyle has a similar assessment of her fellow judge.

“It’s hard for anyone to admit that they may have been wrong, especially a judge who everyone looks to as the authority,” Doyle said. “But Judge Milliron has always lived the saying that goes: “Little ego, big heart.”

In a recent meeting of the DUI Court team, Doyle said there was a debate over sanctioning a participant by withholding a Christmas gift card.

She said it was Milliron who weighed in with a different perspective. He reminded the team, she said, that “the purpose of the Christmas gift cards is for the children whose parents don’t have sufficient income to help these kids.”

All kinds of cases

Milliron’s years on the bench has exposed him to the wide variety of cases that go through the court system, including the county’s growth in drug-trafficking and related offense.

“I saw it coming,” Milliron said as he recalled his days as mayor and the community’s growing concern over the increase in illegal drugs.

“This community, the Blair County community,” Milliron said, “has been drastically changed in a negative manner by the presence of drugs and guns.”

That decline, however, has also been offset, in the judge’s opinion.

“Thank goodness for organizations like Operation Our Town,” Milliron said of the business-and-community support organization focused on fighting illegal drug use and related crimes. “I think our community has been saved by that leadership.”

Milliron has played a role, too, in the fight against drugs and crimes.

He was the judge who managed the criminal court proceedings for 14 people arrested in November 2011 and charged with drug-trafficking offenses for their roles in a major Baltimore-to-Altoona cocaine pipeline, exposed by a grand jury investigation.

The investigation was dubbed Operation Last Call because the ring’s Altoona headquarters was at the Corner Bar and Grille, 1001 Eighth Ave., where cocaine was being divided and distributed for sale.

While some of those arrested rendered guilty pleas, others insisted on jury trials where they contested and tried to minimize their role in the distribution.

“Judge Milliron essentially single-handedly conducted those trials,” Doyle recalled recently. “And he did not hesitate to hand down stiff sentences for those convicted.”

Damien Floyd of Baltimore, the alleged leader of the organization, was sentenced to 23.5 to 60 years’ incarceration after rendering guilty pleas.

Milliron imposed a sentence of 36 to 72 years on Kenneth J. Piner and 20 to 40 years on Stephen Piner, the Altoona brothers accused of key distribution roles.

The judge also handed down a sentence of 46.5 years to 103 years on Jermaine Samuel, another Altoonan with a higher-level role in the ring.

But after that sentence was challenged, Milliron concluded that he had “oversentenced” Samuel in comparison to the co-defendants. In June 2020, Milliron resentenced Samuel to 20 to 40 years.

Among other cases

Milliron said that he has made mistakes during his tenure and corrected or attempted to correct them. He recalls apologizing to a man he sent to jail during a court session where protection-from-abuse orders and alleged violations are reviewed.

“He went to jail because I believed the other person,” Milliron said. “Then I found out I was wrong.”

The judge named custody issues as the hardest cases for him, especially ones involving two good parents who cannot agree.

“I know I’m going to make a decision that’s going to disrupt their lives, and I know how much they love their children,” Milliron said. “But the marriage is falling apart, and I have to make the decision for them. That’s certainly among the hardest things I’ve had to do.”

The judge, who has a short walk from his office into the courtroom, said he has a daily routine before he takes the bench.

“Every day from the very first day I worked here, the last thing I do before I go into the courtroom is to say a little prayer,” Milliron said. “It’s: ‘God, let me be fair today.'”

He also begins the first court proceeding of the day by leading those present in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Doyle, who has been a judge since 2004, regards Milliron as “a helpful and cheerful colleague who never hesitated to help other judges or other people in general with any task.”

“He always wanted to help the little guy and the underdog,” Doyle said. “And his first impulse was always to be kind. He is a man of faith, family and friends, and he gives to each one.”

Milliron is also a man with principles, evident last year when COVID-19 forced the judges into accepting guilty pleas by video transmission from defendants who remained in their homes.

Upon seeing a defendant seated in front of a Confederate flag, Milliron advised the defendant that the flag had to come down if he wanted to be sentenced. The judge then changed his mind and told the man his plea could be rescheduled in front of one of the other county judges.

“You don’t want me to sentence you,” Milliron told him.

Coming in 2022, 2023

As for his future, Milliron said he’s looking forward to a reduced workload as a senior judge, a title he will share with Jolene Kopriva, who manages a reduced caseload for the county.

As a senior judge, Milliron will sentence former Bellwood-Antis School District wrestling coach Ryan Blazier in January, based on the seven child sexual assault convictions rendered by a jury in October.”He will be sorely missed as a sitting judge,” Doyle said. “And enthusiastically welcomed as a senior judge.”

Milliron said he will miss daily work with his office staff and other county employees.

“Our county employees are so undervalued, underpaid and overworked,” Milliron said. “I don’t think they’re appreciated enough by the general public and certainly not enough by others in the county governmental system.”

Milliron said, “Being a judge, having people trust you to make decisions that involve public safety and other issues in their lives, has been the greatest privilege of my life so far. But starting in 2023, people ought to watch out because I’m going to do something else.”

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.