Judge Newsum is honored to serve Reno County

JUDD WEIL
Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Andrew Jefferson "Jeff" Newsum was sworn in on Monday, Feb. 13 by Chief Judge Patricia Macke Dick as the new magistrate judge for the 27th Judicial District which comprises Reno County. 

Governor Laura Kelly announced Newsum’s appointment to the magistrate position in January.  

Newsum is taking the place of District Magistrate Judge Daniel Gilligan, who is now serving as District Court Judge for Division III. 

Magistrate Judges in the 27th Judicial District are elected and serve four-year terms. When a judge retires in the middle of a term, the governor appoints a new judge to finish out the term. 

Prior to being appointed and taking over the magistrate judge position, Newsum was serving as Special Agent in charge of Professional Standards for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI).   

Originally from Harper County, Newsum has called Hutchinson home for 30 years. Newsum sees his new position as a natural next step for himself in his career with the law in Reno County. 

“Most of the people here [Reno County], I’ve grown old with the other judges who were prosecutors or defense attorneys and stuff like that. I handled a lot of major cases here in Reno County for many years as a KBI agent.” Newsum said. “That’s how I got acquainted with everybody. They knew me and so they supported me for this position because they knew I always wanted to do this.”  

Newsum’s career with the KBI numbers almost 35 years. For most of his career he worked major cases, primarily homicides and public corruption. 

“I'm very happy, I'm just honored by the support I got from everybody locally but also very proud that the governor let me have this chance,” Newsum said.  

Newsum describes himself as a people person.  

“I’ve always like working with people. I always try to be fair with people,” Newsum said. “I never tried to, like someone would say, ‘slam dunk’ someone, because if someone takes responsibility for their actions, I was always their best advocate. No matter how horrendous the crime was, you take responsibility for it there ought to be some kind of benefit for that.”  

Newsum said he has always enjoyed helping people and had an interest in law, which made him run for and win the Harper County sheriff’s seat when he was only 24.  

“I guess what I missed when I was sheriff, I had more ability to help, like say kids messing up and stuff like,” Newsum said. “I would work with the county attorney and instead of sending people to prison, you try to work with them so they could have a career someday and that happened and it worked out.”  

Newsum will apply his distinguished career as well as his belief that people are good to his magistrate position.  

“It's hard to explain and people wonder when I say love the guys or gals that I've had dealings with murder. They've done a bad act, doesn't mean they're a bad person. I've only had a few really coldhearted murderers over the years,” Newsum said. “If you try hard enough you, can find some good in people. There's always good if you look hard enough. That's probably the reason I was very successful in getting people to trust me and talk to me is because I did try to find the good.”  

District Magistrate Judge Andrew Newsum said he is honored to have his seat, and simply plans to just do the best he can to not let down the people of Reno County.  

CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.