Ryan Butler, one of the seasoned prosecutors who put fraudster Ira Hatch behind bars, has been appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to be Indian River County’s Clerk of the Court and Comptroller for the next 19 months, filling out the balance of Jeff Smith’s term.

Butler left the State Attorney’s Office in 2020 to become Smith’s chief deputy and general counsel.

“Jeff knew he wasn’t going to run again. He brought me on to learn the side of the clerk’s office that I wasn’t familiar with from working in the court system,” Butler said. “Clerks have literally 1,000 statutory duties, but 70 percent of our personnel and our budget is on the courts side.”

The other 30 percent of the job entails auditing all the county agencies, keeping inventories of county capital assets, and guarding against fraud and abuse of county funds and property. The agency also serves as clerk to the Board of County Commissioners.

While working together the past three years, Smith and Butler have modernized the court records system to make more documents available online and made numerous frequently used forms available online to help pro se litigants who do not have an attorney.

Butler said they’ve also streamlined some of the court processes to increase efficiency and to be more user-friendly for everyone who uses the court system. The evidence system has also been revamped so there are electronic-filed versions of paper exhibits.

Butler, 53, will need to qualify and run in the 2024 Republican primary if he wants to stay in office.

Beyond being a Vero Beach native, Butler holds degrees from Duke University and the University of Florida Levin School of Law. After a stint in private practice, Butler signed on with State Attorney Bruce Colton in 1995, moving up through the ranks from juvenile cases to misdemeanor supervisor in 1997.

He’s worked felony and major economic crimes in Florida and Colorado, and for a five-year period he served as a federal prosector while on loan from the 19th Circuit.