Mirror photo by Gary M. Baranec / Jackie Bernard stands outside the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg. Bernard closed the door on her 22-year career as a prosecutor last week and will be sworn in Wednesday as a judge in the Blair County Court of Common Pleas.

Mirror photo by Gary M. Baranec / Jackie Bernard stands outside the Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg. Bernard closed the door on her 22-year career as a prosecutor last week and will be sworn in Wednesday as a judge in the Blair County Court of Common Pleas.

When attorney Jackie Bernard walked out of the Blair County District Attorney’s office last Wednesday afternoon, she was closing the door on a 22-year career as a prosecutor. For Bernard, it was not a sad day.

“It’s good for me. It’s good for the District Attorney’s office. It’s Pete Weeks’ time to lead,” she said of her replacement as the first assistant to District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio. “It’s time to be doing something else in a different capacity.”

That “different capacity” she talked about will be as a judge in the Blair County Court of Common Pleas.

On Wednesday, she and several other newly-elected officials will be inaugurated.

While Bernard felt somewhat embarrassed to talk about herself, she agreed to an interview in which she discussed her career, sometimes with great emotion, because in the past 22 years she has handled many high-profile cases, and many troubling cases which, while not high profile, touched her deeply.

She always tried, she said, to give voice to the victims and their families, even though the sentences received by the perpetrators did not always commensurate with the crimes committed. Bernard started her career under former Blair County District Attorney William J. Haberstroh as the county’s first child-abuse prosecutor, and she said she was second chair to Haberstroh during the Ashley Decker homicide case.

Ashley Decker was a young child beaten to death by her father’s girlfriend, and after the trial, in which the perpetrator received a life sentence, she admired how Haberstroh used his influence to gain legislative approval of “Ashley’s Law,” which mandated child welfare authorities to work closely with police on complaints of child abuse.

“Bill was a tremendous person to learn from for many reasons. He was able to make changes that were way beyond Blair County,” Bernard said.

After a stint prosecuting child abuse cases, Bernard moved on to a series of major drug trials in which she worked with Pennsylvania Senior Deputy Attorney General Mike Madiera, helping to bring down several major drug gangs operating in Blair County, including those led by Efrain Hildago of Buffalo, Akil Johnson of New York and Charles Bellon of Philadelphia.

Weeks was eventually hired as a prosecutor specializing in drug cases, and Bernard began handling major homicide cases: those involving Miguel Padilla, who murdered three people at a local after-hours club; Nicholas Horner, a veteran who killed two during a robbery spree; and most recently, Hugo Baez, who murdered Willie Solomon at a nightclub in Altoona.

Bernard said she worked closely with the victims or the families of the deceased victims to comfort them, to help them understand the justice system (she pointed out that many victims do not savor the publicity that comes with high-profile cases), and to give voice to their emotions.

The newly-elected judge also had another side to her legal career.

For the last 14 years, she has been involved in civil litigation, working in the law offices of Altoona attorney Joseph A. Grappone.

Bernard said she loved the civil side, also, because she was able to work with people like her parents in preparing wills and estates and representing many business enterprises involved in development projects.

In looking back at her career so far, Bernard referred to her favorite quote from President Teddy Roosevelt: “The best prize in life is to work hard at work worth doing.”

“Even on the tough days, it was all worth it,” she said.

Bernard said she became a lawyer because she likes people, she likes to serve and she believes she can contribute.

Lawyers sometimes have reputations for doing things other than service, Bernard said with a smile. She knows that, but she said growing up in the coal mining community of Barnesboro — now called Northern Cambria Borough — in Cambria County, the lawyers she knew and met as a young person were good people, and that led to her desire to become a lawyer.

Her father, Sydney Atherton, was a lineman for Penelec, and her mother, Sandy, was a homemaker.

She was raised with two sisters, Tracey, who was older, and Erin, who was much younger. Bernard was a teenager when Erin was born and can remember holding her as a baby.

Her close-knit household also included a great-grandmother and an aunt.

Bernard said she was the first person in her immediate family to go to college.

She began college at Penn State Altoona and then moved to the University Park campus, where she majored in political science.

After graduation, she married Greg Bernard, who was employed in private business at the time, but who later joined the Pennsylvania State Police.

Bernard graduated from Duquesne Law School, and after law school, she became a clerk for Cambria County Judge F. Joseph Leahey Jr.

Bernard said she loved being in the courtroom. She loved the practical side of the law, and she was in search of a job after her clerkship.

That’s when she met Blair County’s now-president judge, Elizabeth A. Doyle, at a conference at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

At the time, Doyle was a Blair County prosecutor and told Bernard she thought her office was about to create an assistant district attorney spot to oversee child abuse cases.

Haberstroh eventually received the grant and Bernard became a full-time prosecutor in 1995.

“I can’t remember at what point I wanted to be a lawyer,” Bernard said, “but I wanted to be in a service-related field.”

She remembered that lawyers in her part of Cambria County were always involved in the community.

“I had exposure to good lawyers,” she said, and when she and her husband moved to Blair County, she became involved with the community, joining a Woman’s Club, doing things like driving a food truck during the Tour de ‘Toona, and many other activities over the years.

Bernard decided to run for the judgeship this year to replace former President Judge Jolene G. Kopriva, who is retiring after 30 years on the bench.

“I know I am called to public service. I enjoy being a public servant,” she said.

In joining the Blair bench, she will again be a colleague of Blair’s youngest judge, Wade A. Kagarise.

Like Bernard, Kagarise was an assistant DA and also a supervisor in the office.

The two tried many cases together.

“She’s a great lawyer and a great person, and she’s going to be a real credit to the bench,” Kagarise said.

Kagarise, unlike Bernard, had to weather a tough three-person race when he was running for judge.

Bernard had no competition.

Kagarise said he can’t remember a judge’s race where there was no competition, but he said: “I feel comfortable saying that was a testament to her reputation. She had strong support from the beginning. I think a lot of people realized that. It was a credit to her broadbased experience. … It made her a well-rounded, excellent candidate. It was a real honor for her.”