The county prosecutors

1998 – today

The office and the city: The prosecuting attorney of St. Joseph County is a county officer, elected countywide, but the office's work is the city's criminal record: its courtrooms sit in South Bend, and the cases that define eras of the city's life — the housing-authority fraud and the Eric Logan episode among them — pass through this desk. The modern succession is documented whole. Michael Barnes held the office through 1998. Chris Toth defeated him that year and was prosecutor from 1999 to 2002. Michael Dvorak defeated Toth in November 2002 — leaving the state House seat he had held since 1986, in the handoff the statehouse entry below records — and was prosecutor from 2003 to 2014; his 2002 leadership team named, among his chief deputies, the man who would eventually succeed him.

Cotter: Ken Cotter, a Mishawaka native and Notre Dame graduate of 1984 and 1990 (the law degree), had served as a deputy and chief deputy prosecutor for almost twenty years when the voters elected him in 2014; he took office on 1 January 2015. His tenure carries this record's most consequential act of recusal: in July 2019, in the matter of the police shooting of Eric Logan, Cotter stepped aside, and the special prosecutor who found the shooting justified — Ric Hertel of Ripley County — was appointed in his place; the episode entire stands in City Controversies, and the Logan civil case closed at the Supreme Court's denial of certiorari on 17 April 2023. On 21 January 2026 Cotter announced he would not seek re-election, and endorsed his chief deputy.

Cressy, the first woman: Amy Cressy had interned in the prosecutor's office in 2003 and returned as chief deputy prosecutor and chief of staff in 2022. In the general election of 3 November 2026 she defeated the Republican John Maciejczyk — himself a former county chief deputy, of 1999–2002, chosen by his party's caucus — by 45,438 votes to the balance of 76,000-odd cast, 59.5 percent, in the unofficial returns reported election night. When she takes office on 1 January 2027 she will be the first woman to hold the prosecutor's office in St. Joseph County's history. The returns are printed as reported, pending the Election Board's certification.

Sources:

1. The election and office record 1998–2014 (standard references and the Tribune) — Barnes through 1998; Toth 1999–2002; Michael Dvorak 2003–2014, his 2002 leadership team naming Ken Cotter a chief deputy.
2. St. Joseph County Prosecutor's office biographies (county) — Ken Cotter, prosecutor from 1 January 2015; Mishawaka native; Notre Dame 1984 and J.D. 1990; deputy and chief deputy for almost twenty years.
3. The City Controversies section of this history — Cotter's stepping aside in July 2019 and the Hertel appointment; the Logan record.
4. St. Joseph County Clerk, precinct summary of the general election of 3 November 2026 (unofficial), as reported by WNDU, the South Bend Tribune live returns and St. Joe Current (8–9 November 2026) — Cressy 45,438 votes, 59.5 percent; Maciejczyk's chief-deputy service 1999–2002 and caucus nomination; Cressy the first woman elected prosecutor in the county.