 Smith then served as a special prosecutor, conducting a grand jury investigation from 1981 to 1983 into organized criminal activity in central Pennsylvania.Smith became Blair County's District Attorney in 1983, and in December 1984, Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh appointed Smith to a judgeship on the Court of Common Pleas of Blair County.The next year, Smith received the nominations of both the Republican and Democratic Parties for a ten-year term as judge on the same court.