Candidate has not yet responded.

Candidate has not yet responded.

Candidate has not yet responded.

Candidate has not yet responded.

I try to be righteous. I became a lawyer in 1981 and ran my own solo practice for nearly thirty years, handling the full range a District Court hears — criminal, divorce, custody, civil, personal injury, probate, and juvenile cases, before juries and judges. I have never served as a judge, but no one has until they become one. Every judge starts as a lawyer, and I have put in the time. I have represented people of different races and different economic backgrounds — those who could afford a lawyer and those who couldn't. The biggest thing I would bring to the bench is treating people fairly. People who aren't privileged don't want more, just equal justice. They deserve that whether they win or lose.

I start with the charges, the allegations and the law, and apply the law to the facts — each case on its own record. My job is to evaluate the case myself, not to adopt the position of either side. I don't favor pretrial detention for juveniles, and for the most part neither does our law: it tells a court when it may not detain a child, and that locking one up is the last thing you do, not the first. Where the law mandates detention, I would follow it. After guilt is determined, the law gives options — probation, treatment, supervision — and I would use them where the facts support it. Through all of it, I would not lose sight of the victims. They seek justice too.

Judges say they are fair and impartial to everyone, regardless of race, religion, or economic status. Perhaps that's true in some instances, but in many I have not found it to be. Privilege exists. Prejudice exists. What over thirty years as a lawyer has taught me — representing people of different races, religions, and different economic backgrounds, people who sought me out as their attorney — is that they want to be treated fairly. The same. They don't want more, just equal treatment. Although I can identify a person's race, I see people. My commitment is to keep seeing human beings, and to treat people the same, with equal justice, courtesy, and respect.

Mental illness is real. It is a serious illness that does not discriminate — it reaches every race, every income, every kind of family. I am not neutral about it, and I do not need to be persuaded. These cases reach a court in different postures — competency, sentencing, commitment, guardianship — and a judge must know which question is in front of her. Many who end up incarcerated are dealing with mental illness, addiction, or both, and our jails have become where we put the sick. A judge cannot fix that, but should use the options the law provides. A jail is not a hospital. I am not a clinician; I would rely on the evaluations and decide, and say why.