Judge/Magistrate

Judge William H. Jones

County Administrative Judge
Biography from the Maryland Manual Online

William H. Jones, County Administrative Judge, Dorchester County Circuit Court, 1st Judicial Circuit, since February 11, 2022.

State's Attorney, Dorchester County, June 19, 2009 to February 11, 2022 (Interim State's Attorney, April 11, 2007 to June 19, 2009). Assistant State's Attorney, 2002-04. Senior Assistant State's Attorney, 2004-07.

Member, Court Commission on Professionalism, 2004-06; Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council, Dorchester County, 2007-; Task Force to Study the Laws and Policies relating to Representation of Indigent Criminal Defendants by the Office of the Public Defender, 2012-14.

Magistrate Mary Elliott O'Donnell, Esquire

Mary Elliott O'Donnell was appointed Magistrate in June 2020. Until Magistrate O’Donnell’s appointment, she had been serving as the Assistant County Attorney for Talbot County.  She has extensive experience in CINA, custody, visitation, child support, delinquency, truancy, domestic violence and child abuse cases. She was the Assistant City Attorney for the City of Alexandria, Virginia for fourteen years specializing in CINA cases representing the Department of Community and Human Services. Other notable accomplishments include:  assisted with establishing and staffing a family drug treatment court; helped with the creation and implementation of Alexandria’s child advocacy center; a qualified GAL for nineteen years; liaison to the Board of Directors for the Center for Alexandria’s Children; and regularly assisted in training CASA volunteers.

Magistrate O’Donnell will regularly preside in domestic matters in the Circuit Courts for Dorchester and Wicomico Counties beginning on June 3, 2020. Additionally, she may be assigned to sit in Somerset and Worcester Counties.


Magistrates

Maryland Rules 2-541, 9-208, 11-110 and 11-111 provide for referral of certain divorce, custody, visitation, child support, juvenile delinquency, child welfare and other matters to a standing magistrate. A magistrate is not a judge, but is vested with the authority to make findings of fact, conclusions of law and recommendations for court orders. A magistrate is charged with the authority and responsibility to conduct hearings and make evidentiary rulings. The magistrate’s findings and recommendations are reviewed by a circuit court judge before an order is entered. A party may file exceptions alleging a specific legal error to the magistrate’s recommendation within ten days in a domestic case, or five days in a juvenile case.