How is Judge Bob Schwartz doing after the election?

I went to visit the courtroom of one of our newest district court judges for a little follow up after the primary election. The reason for the visit was to see how the new judge was keeping up with the ideas that he put forward in his interview before the primary election. I will leave off the names of the defendants because the idea is not to glorify them by naming them but to give common examples of the types of cases district court judges see each and everyday of the week. The two cases I watched were only too of the most common in our state district court system.

The first was a drug addict who had a fourteen year history of crime and addiction. The defendant had been clean for six months really too short a period of time to be able to tell if the rehab program mandated by the state laws would have a lasting effect on the defendant. Theses defendants are not good at communication. They don’t express themselves very well in a court of law. Their attorneys try as best as they can to prepare them for the hearing. The defendants were before the judge to be sentenced for their crimes. Listed below is the charges the first defendant was facing:

Charged with:

COUNT 1: TRAFFICKING IN A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE (POSSESSION WITH INTENT TO DISTRUBITED)
COUNT 2: TRAFFICKING IN A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE (POSSESSION WITH INTENT TO DISTRUBITED)
COUNT 3: POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPH
COUNT 4: POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA (1 OZ OR LESS)

Judge Robert (Bob) Schwartz listened carefully and asked a few questions. He allowed the prosecutor and the attorney for the defense to both speak. Both spoke well and showed knowledge of the case. Although the attorney for the defense appeared to have a little more knowledge then the prosecutor nevertheless the prosecutor held her own before the judge. The judge decided to defer the sentencing for six more months because he wanted to give the defendant a real chance at proving he could stay away from drugs. The defendant would remain in a rehab program until it was finished and them come back to face sentencing for his crimes. If the judge had disregarded the progress of the defendant then it would have destroyed any progress made over the first six months of time in rehab however he was not released because the time period was too short to be clear that the defendant could stay away from drugs. Judge Schwartz lived up to his idea of trying to be fair and impartial to people who end up facing him in his courtroom while still protecting the best interest of the general public.

The second case was a much younger defendant who was charged with the fourth DWI which carries a harsher sentence in our state thanks to the hard work of people like Tom Udall. Now Congressman Udall worked to increase pentalities for DWI while he was attorney general. The defendant had done very well in rehab and finished a one year program in good standing but had not followed up with a regular AA program or any counseling after release from the rehab program. The individual clearly was not following a course that would lead to staying out of the system in the future. This defendant is just like many that have ended up killing families on our highways. The defendant came from a good family and the parents were trying their best to keep the individual from trashing a young life but to no anvil at this point in time. The young defendant had a very good and experienced lawyer otherwise the defendant would most likely have been found guilty of more serious crimes. The prosecutor brought with her people who had worked with the defendant in rehab. It is clear from what they had to say that our rehab system in this state is seriously under funded to the point that it is preventing the system from doing a quality job that might save lives in the future. Rehab programs could use more funding in the future which just might lower the number of repeat crimes from drunk drivers in our state. It was clear from listening to the defendant speak that like so many drunk drivers that the seriousness of the crime did not sink in. Judge Schwartz felt the need to require the steps that the young defendant had not followed through with on his own and to drive home the impact of what he had been found guilty of in the first place. The young man was required to be active in a local AA program and to restart counseling. The judge also required him to do a victim impact panel where he would face the results of his crime and what he could have done if there had been a victim in his case.

Both defendants were place on supervised probation which would help to protect the community from them committing further crimes. It also did not fill the local jails with people who could be better helped by further treatment for their addictions. Judge Schwartz showed careful consideration of each case and balanced the best interest of both the defendant and the community in his decisions.

I did have to give Judge Schwartz just a small bit of a hard time for one rookie mistake when he did not tell the people in the courtroom to sit down after he entered the room. Not what I would call a major mistake by any means but it did prove that he is human and new to the bench. I was once told by an attorney that a new judge objected for the defense on his first case. So in the scheme of things Judge Schwartz is clearly doing well in his first year as a judge maybe all of that time as a district attorney is paying off for him. It just goes to show that our bipartisan judicial selection committee, Governor Richardson and the voting public are an unbeatable team when it comes to picking quality candidates for the bench.