Key West, Not Your Usual Fish Story

I was going through my old shoebox looking at photos the other day when I found this picture taken way back in the day. It has absolutely nothing to do with real estate other than dealing with the consequences of being located in the wrong place at the wrong time. We all know that location, location, and location are paramount to successful real estate deals. Bad locations often lead to bad consequences.  But this true story has only a tangential reference to real estate location which I will get to later in today's blog.

I was a legal staff assistant to a county judge in Jefferson County Colorado in the late 1960s. In 1964 the voters of Colorado got to elect county judges for the first time ever. I was a junior in high school and president of the Jeffco Teen Dems. Our group of teens walked door to door on weekends canvasing for three attorneys who were candidates for three judgeships. Two of the three were elected, and in 1969 I got a full time job working for one of them, Francis W. Jamison. (I had just started law school.) After he left the bench, he went on to become a full time professor at the University of Denver College of Law. I attended his memorial service a few years ago. It was the largest such memorial I ever went to. The place was filled with a lot of gray haired old men and women (I recognized the faces of the older men as being judges or lawyers) and as many or more younger men and women - mostly attorneys who had studied under him.  I don't know how many of my dear readers have gone to a professor's funeral. I never did until then. But when I stepped inside that room I knew exactly why the old lawyers, judges, and young lawyers were there: respect for the man who taught the law and in earlier days practiced it and later presided as a judge.

During the time I worked for him we had many discussions about all kinds of things - about his time in Korea; working his way through law school by attending law school at night like I was doing; politics; living in the world; teaching by example on how to be a man.  The courthouse was located ten miles west of Denver. Like Key West, it's not a place you happen to stop by. You go there for a reason. But while there, many practicing lawyers would drop in to pay their respects to Frank. The DU Law School had a practice program approved by the Colorado Supreme Court which permitted law students to provide legal assistance to indigent people. Many students would often stop by to visit the judge even though their cases were in other courtrooms.

The color photo above shows the Jefferson County Hall of Justice on the right. It was built new to house the judges elected to the bench in 1964. That was more than fifty years ago. Jefferson County is located west of Denver.  As Denver grew much of the population moved westward and into the mountains. The 1964 Hall of Justice no longer exists. A new and larger building is now located a few miles to the south. The county courthouse shown on the left jn the photo is also gone. Google maps shows this space is now a parking lot at the Colorado School of Mines.

Three judges were elected to the bench in 1964 - two Democrats and one Republican. Each had a different personality. Judge C.F. Johnson was the sole Republican elected in 1964. He was at least a decade older than either Democrat. He reminded me as being a sly old fox. I think he was smarter than all get out, and comfortable with himself not to call attention to himself. Judge Shannon was the other Democrat who was later elected as District Judge and then became Presiding District Court Judge of the First Judicial District.

In the 1960s and 1970s the county bench had limited jurisdiction over specific civil and criminal matters including wildlife violations. One day Judge Jamison heard a case involving an over-zealous wildlife officer who cited someone for something. I don't remember anything about the trial, but I remember what happened later. The officer's name was Hatfield or something like that. He was nice enough, I guess. But I could tell he had an authoritarian personality. I guess a lot of people have those. One might think judges have them. After I became practicing lawyer I ran into a lot of judges and quickly realized many judges have authoritarian personalities. Judge Jamison told me he did not judge other people. He said he didn't have the power to do that. He listened to the evidence and decided if the defendant had broken the law or if a plaintiff had proved his or her case. 

The State did not prove the case that Officer Hatfield had lodged against a wayward fisherman or whatever it was. The wildlife officer dropped into the Judge's chamber after the trial to pay his respects before he went on his way. The officer did not challenge the finding. Later the Judge told me the story which took place soon after the election. He and his two county judicial running mates had been stopped by the same wildlife cop up in the mountains outside of Golden, Colorado. They had gone fishing and allegedly did something wrong, enough so that Officer Hatfield cited them for it. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Judge Jamison said they held a summary trial on the spot - just like the top photo. I think the non-elected attorney was appointed a special prosecutor who lost the case. The three fishermen were set free. Now that may read like a kangaroo court proceeding. I know it reads and sounds fishy.  Maybe it was. Maybe it was a lesson not to be so aggressive with the public. Just because a person wears a badge does not mean that every infraction must lead to some kind of legal peril. 

I wrote about Judge Jamison a couple of times earlier in my blog. He was the biggest influence on my career and in my life, even more so than my father and mother. The only time I saw him get angry was after the trial of a two truck driver who beat a small boy with a belt. The boy's grandmother discovered belt marks on the boy's back and buttocks while she was bathing him a couple of days after boy was beaten. She called the police who arrested the boy's mother's tow truck driver boyfriend. A jury convicted the man after an all day trial. The Judge started to speak as if he was going to impose sentence. He recited the awful things proven during the trial which the Defendant had done to the small boy. Then the Judge said something like "The Court is so angry at what the Defendant has done, that I cannot impose sentence today" or words to that effect. He ordered a per-sentence evaluation. The sentencing hearing was held a month or so later. The Judge imposed jail time and stopped talking for a prolonged silence. (He did that on a few occasions to get the attention of other defendants who never before appreciated the fact they could be spending time in jail or prison for their behavior.)  When he resumed speaking he ordered the Defendant to undergo anger management therapy and put him on probation.

Later in chambers I expressed my displeasure with the sentence. Imagine little old me, a pipsqueak law student, telling a judge he had made a mistake in sentencing. What balls I must have had. He said he didn't like the tow truck driver's conduct any more than I did. Then he said the guy must have a lot of problems in life to take out that much aggression on a little boy. He said putting that guy in jail would not have done anything other than make him angrier. He said he hoped escaping punishment and entering into a supervised probation program would help this man to figure how to behave.

(The above photo is of Judge Joseph P. Lewis, Betty Astle, Velma Bates, and me.  Judge Lewis was appointed to fill Judge Jamison's position on the county court after Jamison retired to become a law professor. Judge Lewis was a real gentleman. I admired him deeply.)

I hope you like my tale about roadside justice. It wasn't your usual fish story.