Wadsworth law director Norman Brague prepares for retirement

WADSWORTH — Spending nearly a half-century in the legal system can serve as a front-row view of great societal change. Outgoing Wadsworth City Director of Law Norman Brague has made full use of that opportunity. Brague, 73, will retire at the end of this year after serving as the first and only director of law in city history. He began representing the city as an attorney in 1973 and was appointed as assistant solicitor in October of that year. Two years later, he won election as city solicitor. In 1977, the solicitor position was changed to director of law; Brague has win reelection 10 times since then. "That kind of support from the voters and my colleagues has meant a lot to me," he said. "I certainly would like to thank all of the staff I've worked with over the years. They've been very helpful to me along with so many city officials. The general public and community has always been very welcoming and supporting. "I've also enjoyed great bipartisan support among public officials, both Democrats and Republicans. We've never had any of this atmosphere you see at the national level and sometimes the state level." Brague has prosecuted a long line of misdemeanor criminal cases and taken part in numerous cases in the Court of Appeals of the 9th Appellate District. He has emerged victorious in the Ohio Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of the Ohio reckless operation statute and protecting the authority of a municipal corporation under then existing law to prohibit the sale of beer within a zoning district. He was born in Marietta and moved to Wadsworth when he was 12. After graduating from Wadsworth High School in 1965, he attended The Ohio University and The Ohio State University College of Law. He later took part in a course on land use planning at Harvard Law School. Organizations that have called Brague a member over the years include the Medina County Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, Federalist Society, Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of the American Legion, Free and Accepted Masons, Wadsworth Masonic Lodge 385 and the Medina County Republican Central Committee. "I don't know what my future plans are yet but I'm going to stay in this community," Brague said. "I've met so many good people over the years. I'll give that some more thought once I am retired and probably reflect on that for a little bit before I chart any specific plans." When asked about what large-scale legal changes in society he's enjoyed seeing come to pass during his career, Brague immediately cited stricter impaired driving laws that came about in the 1980s as well as the creation of the domestic violence charge as opposed to all such crimes being classified as assault. Harsher penalties for drunken and impaired driving became a national trend in the late 1970s with new state laws leading to a domino effect over the next 20 years. Groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Destructive Decisions largely have been credited with putting pressure on local and federal legislators leading up to those changes. Many experts consider a 1988 crash that occurred in Kentucky to be the final straw for drunken driving leniency. A man named Larry Wayne Mahoney, who had a previous DUI conviction and a blood-alcohol content more than twice the state's legal limit, crashed his pickup into a church activity bus. The crash impact sealed the bus's exits and ruptured its gas tank. The bus burst into flames and 27 out of 66 passengers trapped on on board died. Another 34 passengers suffered serious injuries. Mahoney was sentenced to only 16 years in prison and served just 11. "Those changes needed to happen," Brague said. "There were great, great changes in the 1980s. The definition of the offense changed and an offense was established for a person having a particular level of alcohol in their system. Before that, it was just a rebuttable presumption. Then the breath tests and the blood tests came along. It wasn't just a presumption anymore. Public attitudes changed drastically and became much less tolerant toward these offenses." For the majority of the 19th century, most American legal entities considered "wife beating" to be a husband's legal right in enacting authority over his spouse. In 1850, Tennessee became the first state to outlaw the practice with other states soon following suit. Between the 1870s and early 20th century, more courts began to formally oppose husbands having the right to "physically discipline their wives" and it became more common for police to intervene in such cases. Arrests, however, remained rare. In 1920, "wife beating" was made illegal across the entire U.S. "When I started, there was no offense for domestic violence," said Brague. "A person could be charged with assault but there was no differentiation in the law for situations where a family member was a victim as opposed to a nonfamily member being a victim. The adoption of domestic violence law changed all of that. Then you had the establishment of temporary protection orders and it has gotten stricter and stricter over the years in terms of what it specifies." Feminist and women's rights movements in the 1970s brought more attention to the problem with the term "domestic violence" first being documented in 1973. In following decades, the legal spotlight also begin to fall on domestic violence committed against men. Three ensuing Violence Against Women Acts were passed into U.S. law between 1994 and 2005. Brague will be succeeded by Thomas Morris, who won an uncontested election Nov. 5. He has served as the city's assistant law director since 2014. The soon-to-be retiree advised future officials to always be ready to adapt. "You have to constantly be ready for change and have a plan for how you'll react to that change," Brague said. "Changes in society are inevitable and those changes can bring about new problems that might need even more change on your part to address. I'm sure in some cases leaders can be afraid of change, but people in this community have always handled it well." Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.