Susan J. Dlott (born September 11, 1949) is a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (in case citations, S.D. Ohio) is one of two United States district courts in Ohio and includes forty-eight of the state's eighty-eight counties–everything from the Columbus are ...

Early life and education

Dlott was born in

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, on September 11, 1949, to

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Russian immigrant parents.Kristina Goetz
The biggest case in town is in her court: Mediation on profiling is an effort to calm the storm
''Cincinnati Enquirer'' (February 17, 2002). Dlott received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1970 and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

Boston University School of Law Boston University School of Law (Boston Law or BU Law) is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top law schools in the United States and considered an eli ...

in 1973.

Legal and judicial career

She was a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

Alvin Krenzler Alvin Irving "Buddy" Krenzler (April 8, 1921 – September 15, 2010) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Education and career Born on April 8, 1921, in Chicago, Illinois, Kren ...

and Jack Day of the

Ohio Court of Appeals The Ohio District Courts of Appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the U.S. state of Ohio. The Ohio Constitution provides for courts of appeals that have jurisdiction to review final appealable orders. There are twelve appellate districts ...

from 1973 to 1974, then became an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gove ...

for the Southern District of Ohio from 1975 to 1979. She entered private practice in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, Ohio, in 1979. In 1981, Dlott became the first female partner at Graydon Head & Ritchey, a Cincinnati law firm.

Federal judicial service

On August 10, 1995, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

nominated Dlott to a seat on the

vacated by S. Arthur Spiegel. Dlott was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on December 22, 1995, and received her commission on December 26, 1995. She served as

chief judge A chief judge (also known as presiding judge, president judge or principal judge) is the highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. According to the Federal judiciary of the United States, th ...

of the court from 2009 to 2015. She assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on May 31, 2018.

Notable case

Dlott approved a landmark Cincinnati anti-

racial profiling Racial profiling or ethnic profiling is the act of suspecting, targeting or discriminating against a person on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or nationality, rather than on individual suspicion or available evidence. Racial profiling involv ...

agreement in 2002.

Personal life

Dlott's first husband was builder and developer Austin Eldon Knowlton. Her second and current husband is

Stanley M. Chesley Stanley M. Chesley (born March 26, 1936) is a disbarred former Ohio trial lawyer. He is the husband of federal judge Susan J. Dlott. Chesley, the son of Jewish Ukrainian immigrants, graduated from Walnut Hills High School, the University of Ci ...

; they married in 1991. Chesley, a former trial lawyer, was disbarred by the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2013. In 2004, Chesley purchased "what is believed to be the most expensive single-family home listed in Greater Cincinnati, possibly ever," a six-bedroom, seven-bathroom, French chateau-style home on nestled into of private green space with of living space.Matt Leingang
Indian Hill property has 27,000 square feet, listed at $11.9M
''Cincinnati Enquirer'' (December 16, 2009. The estate has a wine cellar and two four-car garages with apartments on top. Dlott and her husband were victims of a violent, armed

home invasion A home invasion, also called a hot prowl burglary, is a sub-type of burglary (or in some jurisdictions, a separately defined crime) in which an offender unlawfully enters into a building residence while the occupants are inside. The overarching ...

robbery by "three black men with guns and masks", Terry Darnell Jackson, 21, Demetrius Williams, 20, and Darrell Joseph Kinney, 20, on December 4, 2015. Chesley and Dlott, who were held at gunpoint, both sustained injuries. The three perpetrators were apprehended and pleaded guilty, and in April 2016, the men were all sentenced to 34 years in prison. Dlott gave testimony at the sentencing hearing. Dlott was described by the ''Cincinnati Enquirer'' in 2002 as "sometimes eccentric, often unconventional." Dlott has described herself as a "

lenient Mercy (Middle English, from Anglo-French ''merci'', from Medieval Latin ''merced-'', ''merces'', from Latin, "price paid, wages", from ''merc-'', ''merxi'' "merchandise") is benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a variety of ethical, rel ...

judge". She is known for her fondness for

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is a British breed of toy dog of spaniel type. Four colours are recognised: Blenheim (chestnut and white), tricolour (black/white/tan), black and tan, and ruby; the coat is smooth and silky. The lifespan is usual ...

References

External links

*
Profile of Susan J. Dlott
from the Southern District of Ohio website

from the

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Dlott, Susan J. 1949 births Living people American people of Russian-Jewish descent Assistant United States Attorneys Boston University School of Law alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Lawyers from Dayton, Ohio United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Pennsylvania alumni 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges