Former Washington detective a candidate for district judge

A former Washington police detective, Dan Stanek, has announced he’s running for Magisterial District Judge in District 27-3-10, which is soon to be vacated by Ethan Ward.
Stanek, 52, of South Franklin Township, is pursuing both Republican and Democratic nominations for the seat, which includes Amwell, Blaine, Buffalo, East Finley, Donegal, Hopewell, Independence, Morris, South Franklin and West Finley townships, and the boroughs of Claysville, Green Hills and West Middletown.
Stanek works as a police officer for the Trinity Area School District. In 2019, he retired from the City of Washington Police Department as lieutenant of the detective unit. He has more than 30 years of experience in law enforcement.
He was Washington’s first DARE officer and spent 24 years in the department’s criminal investigations unit. Among the hundreds of criminal investigations Stanek conducted, 25 were homicides.
As a detective, Stanek worked closely with the Washington County District Attorney’s Office and the Washington County Coroner’s Office. He’s testified in court “more times than can be counted,” he said in a news release.
Stanek has also been active in McGuffey School District the last 16 years, coaching youth sports. He and his wife, Christy Carl Stanek, live in the district with their three children.
Stanek announces the McGuffey Varsity Girls Basketball games, and has served on the boards of South Franklin Baseball, McGuffey East Baseball, Ten Mile Valley Baseball and the South Franklin Park Board. He was president of the McGuffey Varsity Baseball Boosters for two years and served on the Brownson House Advisors Board, Communities that Care and the Drug-Free School Zone Committee.
In his release, Stanek said he plans to continue “his dedication to justice and community” with the “integrity and fairness he has shown throughout his career and life in the district.”
Because it’s been a difficult year financially for businesses and friends and family, Stanek said he plans to self-fund his campaign. Stanek said the district is important to him, not just because he lives there, but because it’s where his children have grown up.
“It’s where honesty, traditions, values, hard work and respect are not just spoken, but seen,” Stanek said in his release. “It’s where I work and play. It’s where good, hard-working people have made an imprint on me, my wife and children’s lives.”