Judge Thurgood

I went to a funeral last week.

Judge Thurgood was one of the district judges when I was hired. We have two district judges and they are resposible for administering their juvenile and adult probation departments. At that time the two judges split those duties and Judge Thurgood was "our judge".

I was in awe of Judge Thurgood. He was like the Perry Mason of Judges. He was brilliant, tough and had frighteningly powerful eyes. Have you ever watched any of Billy Graham's early crusades? Judge Thurgood had eyes like Graham's. If you got caught in the Judge's gaze and he told you to drink the kool-aid, you'd do it and ask for more. We could pretty well predict the future of whatever schmuck was before the court by gaging the waggling of his eyebrows. If they rose on the outside and gnarled together in the middle, it was time to kiss your momma goodbye.

Judge Thurgood was a fair man. He was a man with high expectations of anyone he came into contact with, whether defendant, attorney or other court officers. He hated unneccessary delay. We grumbled about this frequently when we worked late into the evening dealing with people he was sending to us from his court. He worked until the job was done. Hopefully that happened by 5:00, but if not, so be it.

One day I waited on a court hearing in a hallway teeming with lawyers. You hear lots of interesting stuff in those situations. A couple of lawyers from Big Flat City were gossiping next to me.

"Did you hear about the Saturday court?"
"Yeah, I got my letter from Judge 'God' Thurgood!"

When the Judge couldn't get attorneys to bring their cases to court in what he felt was a timely manner, he would hold court on Saturday. This way none of the attorney's could claim other court duties as a reason to request a continuance.

The Judge was a powerful presence on the bench. Never before or since have I known anyone who could gnaw on a person like he could. If you were convicted of a crime in his court, he made sure you knew how society felt about your particular misdeed. My favorite of his speeches was the Lonesome Dove speech. It started with him pointing out a window and asking the defendant "Do you see that tree out there?"

Oddly enough, one thing I will always remember about Judge Thurgood is his handwrighting. He had the most gorgeous penmanship I have ever seen. His handwritten notes looked like the Declaration of Independence. ChevyPickup and I spent hours learning how to mimic his incredible signature. After all, forgery is the sincerest form of flattery.

Judge Thurgood was a survivor. He'd had hodgskin's disease 25 years ago. One day, several years ago, he left the bench following a court hearing, saying he didn't feel well. Within moments he'd suffered a major heart attack. He recovered from the heart attack, but not from the heart surgery. The cancer treatment he underwent years before had ravaged his body and he could not heal. Eventually he had to step down from office.

I didn't see him for several years after that. He became a sought-after visiting Judge all over this half of the state. He eventually retired from that and went into private practice in Big Flat City.

I hated it when he represented one of my people. Truthfully, I'm still in awe of him and being on the opposite side of the table from him could be pretty stressful. Despite his stooped, white-headed body and the ever present oxygen bottle, he still had those powerful eyes. Everytime I ran into him, he would smile, his eyes would sparkle and he'd say "We sure had a good thing going back then, didn't we?"

We sure did, Judge.