Judge who bit police officers was elected head of Ovidiopol court

The judges of the Ovidiopol District Court of Odesa Region have elected Volodymyr Kochko as chairman of the court, who will preside over the court from April 14 to April 13, 2029.

This was reported by the Judicial Power portal.

According to the Law of Ukraine "On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges," the court chairman is elected for a term of three years, but not more than the term of office of a judge. In his declaration, the judge indicated that he owns a 143.6-square-meter house in the village of Limanka, Odesa district, and a 0.05-square-meter plot of land in the same place.

In 2025, the judge's income consisted of UAH 1 million 99 thousand in salary, UAH 231.7 thousand in pension, and UAH 250 thousand in insurance payments. Savings amounted to USD 30 thousand in cash.

In 2021, the High Council of Justice reprimanded a judge for a month because the judge bit police officers. The incident occurred in 2018. Patrol policemen stopped a car driven by the judge's wife, with him sitting next to her. The driver was intoxicated. So the patrol policemen began to draw up a report of administrative violation, after which Volodymyr Kochko started swearing at them and bit them.

In 2025, Volodymyr Kochko was severely reprimanded and deprived of his salary supplement for three months. The police complained against him again about violations during the consideration of a case in which they were one of the parties. For example, when considering one of the police cases, the judge did not inform the police about the case and the subsequent decision, although a document was attached to the case file stating that the Main Directorate had allegedly received a notice of the trial. The judge was then deprived of his judicial allowance.

Meanwhile, the High Council of Justice brought to disciplinary responsibility judge Oleh Ivinskyi of the Podilskyi City District Court of Odesa Oblast and imposed a disciplinary sanction in the form of a motion for dismissal.

Кирило Бойко