Belle Vernon native Barch-Kuchta appointed federal judge in California

By ERIC SEIVERLING
eseiverling@yourmvi.com

Belle Vernon native Helena Barch-Kuchta took an interest in law and politics as early as the seventh grade.
Just ask her teachers and classmates who were in the Belle Vernon Area School District in the 1970s.
As a middle-school student, Barch-Kuchta organized a sit-in to show support for striking school bus drivers.
“I sympathized with the bus drivers,” Barch-Kuchta, a 1979 graduate of Belle Vernon Area High School, said. “The funny thing is, I didn’t even ride a bus to school. I walked to school everyday.”
Barch-Kuchta’s determination and willingness to serve people has enabled her to have a pioneering law career that has spanned the globe, and on Nov. 1, Barch-Kuchta was appointed to be the U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Yosemite Division of the Eastern District of California.
Judge Barch-Kuchta sits in the U.S. District Court in Yosemite Valley, and also hears cases in Fresno, Calif. She presides over criminal matters that arise on federal lands and civil matters in the Fresno Division of the Eastern District of California. She conducts settlement conferences in a wide variety of cases.
“Every individual deserves a right to a fair hearing,” she said. “I want to make sure the laws of our Constitution of our country are upheld. You’re kind of the face of the court, and I’m very much a people person.”
Due to California courts being closed because of the COVID pandemic, Barch-Kuchta currently works remotely from her West Palm Beach, Fla., home she shares with her husband, FBI agent John Kuchta. The couple have three children, daughters Anastasia and Alexandra and son John Thomas.
Barch-Kuchta said she hopes to begin working in Yosemite by mid-November.
“I’m packing now,” she said with a laugh. “My office is overlooked by a beautiful waterfall. It’s a dream location.”
Barch-Kuchta earned her undergraduate degree at Penn State University, where she was the school’s first-ever female student body president.
She received her Juris Doctor degree from Duquesne University’s School of Law, where she also met her husband.
Barch-Kuchta’s law career began at Pittsburgh’s K&L Gates, LLP as a summer associate and later as a litigator. She and her husband relocated to Washington, D.C., where she and her family received a serious scare in 1994.
In November of that year, John had been shot by a gang leader and needed surgery to his lungs, heart, kidney and liver, and a titanium rod was placed in his femur bone.
“I was in a meeting and my secretary said I had an emergency phone call,” she recalled. “I thought it was my husband playing a prank on me. They told me he was sent to Washington Hospital Trauma Center and they would send a car to pick me up. That’s when I knew it was serious.”
John survived the shooting, and the family moved to Florida, where Barch-Kuchta took a hiatus from practicing law and began philanthropic work.
The family moved once again when the FBI relocated John to London. While in the U.K., Barch-Kuchta joined the U.S. Department of Justice where she worked in their Civil Division, Office of Foreign Litigation, European Office as a trial attorney representing the U.S. in affirmative and defensive litigation throughout Germany, Ireland, Turkey and Europe.
“My son did his entire high school overseas,” she said. “It was very beneficial to live overseas to see the world from a different perspective.”
The family returned to Florida, where Barch-Kuchta returned to the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida to serve as a staff attorney.
Barch-Kuchta said she wants to be a role model for others aspiring for lofty dreams.
“I think it’s good to encourage anybody to realize they can achieve anything they want,” She said. “They just have to figure out their path, set their goals and figure out how to achieve them. Don’t be afraid to seek out mentorship.”
And despite her travels around the world, the Mon Valley still holds a place in her heart.
“Where you grow up is always home,” she said. “Those are the people who helped form your basic beliefs. I’ve got friends from when I was 5 years old. They’re like sisters to me. I love the Mon Valley area. They taught me right from wrong. I still take that with me to this day.”