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FIVE HOLDERS, FORTY-EIGHT YEARS · EARLIER LINE NAMED AS GAP
The modern line in fact runs whole, in five holders. Michael Phillip Barnes was elected prosecutor in 1978 and served twenty years, 1979 to 1998: he started the Adult Protective Services program in 1985, founded the CASIE child-abuse center in January 1994, was elected president of the National District Attorneys Association in 1995, and after the prosecutor's office went to the Indiana Court of Appeals, retiring June 1, 2018; he died May 22, 2020. Chris Toth defeated Barnes in 1998 — the county Republican Party's one countywide breakthrough of that era — and held the office 1999 to 2002. Michael A. Dvorak defeated Toth in November 2002 and served 2003 to 2014; his 2002 leadership team named Ken Cotter a chief deputy, and Dvorak himself is a Granger resident whose wider course stands in the banked People leg. Kenneth Cotter, who had served as a deputy and chief deputy for almost twenty years before his election, took the office January 1, 2015, and held it through 2026; on January 21, 2026, he announced he would not seek re-election and endorsed his chief deputy. Amy Cressy — an intern in the office in 2003, its chief deputy prosecutor and chief of staff from 2022 — was elected November 3, 2026 (45,438 votes, per the banked leg), and takes the office January 1, 2027, the first woman to hold it (see the firsts article). The sheriff half of this audit row rides the banked Crime leg's named gap GAP-CRIME-3 (the sheriff's line, 1832–1966 and 1971–1994), whose settler stands as printed there. The prosecutors' own earlier line — the holders before Barnes, back through the office's nineteenth-century district form — is the residue named here: its settling sources are Monks, Courts and Lawyers of Indiana (1916), whose St. Joseph County chapter prints the prosecuting attorneys' list, Stoll (1923), and the office's own records.
Sources: Obituary of Michael Phillip Barnes (Legacy, May 31, 2020 — elected prosecutor 1978, served 20 years; Adult Protective Services 1985; CASIE Center, January 1994; NDAA president 1995); The Indiana Lawyer, May 29, 2018 (Barnes's retirement from the Court of Appeals; 27 years with the prosecutor's office). South Bend Tribune, 2002 (Dvorak prosecutor-elect; his chief deputies, Cotter among them; Toth's 1998 defeat of Barnes); January 21, 2026 (Cotter prosecutor since January 1, 2015; deputy and chief deputy for almost 20 years before; Cressy intern 2003, chief deputy 2022). Banked Government and Crime legs (the 2026 result; GAP-CRIME-3).