Hon. Dawson Engle (Ret.) was an associate district judge for the Pottawatomie County District Court (District 23) in Oklahoma. He was appointed to the position by former Governor Mary Fallin in January 2016, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon John D. Gardner (Ret.). Engle retired in 2019.
He began his judicial career as a special judge for Pottawatomie and Lincoln Counties in the Twenty-Third Judicial District in August 2005.
Prior to joining the bench, Engle was in private practice since 2003.
Before that, he had worked in the public sector as a prosecutor. During that time, Engle was a prosecutor in Pottawatomie and Oklahoma Counties (2000 to 2003) and in McClain County (1998 to 2000).
He was named the Lincoln County Domestic Violence Advocate of the Year by Project Safe in 2011.
Engle received a B.S. in business from Oklahoma State University in 1995. He went on to complete a J.D. at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1998.
Engle decided to pursue a legal career after the death of his mother, Kathy Sue Engle. In April 1986, she was kidnapped from a local mall in Oklahoma City and her body was later discovered in May of that same year. Her murder was solved in 2009 by a Cold Case Unit through DNA evidence. Engle was thirteen years old at the time of her disappearance.
At the time of his appointment, he resided in Shawnee, Oklahoma.