Judicial races often don’t get much attention. As a result, many voters feel unprepared when it comes to casting votes in those races.
The Spokane chapter of the NAACP sponsored a forum to introduce voters to the four municipal court candidates running in two contested races. A fifth candidate, Kristin O’Sullivan, is unopposed and didn’t attend.
The candidates running for the Spokane city municipal court are, for position 2, Judge Mary Logan and her challenger, Lynden Smithson. The incumbent for position 3 is Gloria Ochoa-Bruck. The challenger is Sarah Freedman.
A few highlights from the forum. Responses lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
What steps would you take to address any implicit biases that may affect judicial decisions?
Mary Logan: I had an experience with someone that was in the courtroom that was super aggressive. It turned out that he was the victim and that very much caused me to respond to him in a way that wasn't appropriate. And I knew that. And so I took a breath and began to listen more just to his statements, as opposed to how he was being very physically aggressive in the courtroom. And by those means, and this isn't to say that that's always what's going to happen, but it's a matter of being sensitive to the fact that it could happen at any moment in time, and you never know what party or what instance is going to trigger it. But it's being sensitive to it enough to address it, and not react to it.
Lynden Smithson: I think the first thing you have to do is you have to recognize that it's there. And you have to take it head on and make sure that you are educating yourself on the topic, making sure that you are, as the judge, being fair in all of your rulings, in all of your hearings. Part of that is allowing everybody to have their say.
Gloria Ochoa-Bruck: I'm going to give you a really quick example from tribal court. I was accused of being harsher on women in cases. And it was a very particular subset of cases in which it was like the middle of the night, and it involved drugs and being out. And in the morning, they were worried about their children. I didn't realize that being a mother is the most important role that I hold dear and that I was doing that. And so I had to take, it made me obviously feel bad, but now understanding where I came from, I was able to make sure that when I had litigants before me that I checked myself, I screened it, and if this was a man, would I have been responding in the same way?
Sarah Freedman: I think a judge should not be afraid to call a recess, whether the parties are getting a little out of hand, or whether the judge themself needs to take a breather, I think that's something that is really effective. And I don't think that it's underutilized necessarily, but I think it's not always the first thing that comes to mind. And I think that it's something that really is an effective and important tool, because it also gives the judge the ability to think, wait a second, I know I'm partway through this case, but should I be recusing? There's nothing that says that a judge can't recuse partway through a case.
Are there any reforms or innovations you would propose to improve the efficiency of the court?
Lyndon Smithson: When I was in our mental health court, we had navigators that would help people through the system. They would be put on probation. They could call this person and the person would help them figure out where they have to go to get an evaluation. They would remind them when their treatment dates are, and they would make sure that they come back to court. I believe that the participants of community court need that help. We need to work with partners somewhere in the community. I don't know where that's going to come from. I'm pretty sure it's not gonna come from the city paying for these positions. So we're gonna have to be creative.
Gloria Ochoa-Bruck: I do have a pilot program right now that's in with the VOA (Volunteers of America), with the Crosswalk (shelter). They have this program called InReach that works with youth 18 to 25. They get assigned a case manager and it's very wraparound services. It's a partnership also with CHAS, and they have a partnership with the Spokane Community College for those students that are interested in getting vocational training or training, and also connecting them to treatment. So they're already doing that work in the community as well, and so when I see a young person that falls within that age group, I ask about family structure and I find out they're either homeless or they're not in a stable situation. It's being able to create formal partnerships with those organizations already doing that work with those specific demographics that come through our criminal justice system to really make sure that they're successful.
Sarah Freedman: When it comes to municipal court criminal protection orders, we should be asking two questions when a victim in a case is coming and asking for those orders to be dropped. The thing you have to understand is in a criminal protection order, victims are not the ones who get those put in place. There are two parties to those orders, right? The parties are, in municipal court, the city of Spokane and the defendant. The victim, in most cases, did not ask for those orders to be put in place. And so when they're coming in asking for those orders to be terminated or modified in some way, the judge doesn't have to do it just because they're asking for it. We should be asking two questions. We should be asking, one, do you have a safety plan? Obviously not asking what it is, but do you have one? And two, do you know how to get a civil protection order if you change your mind? And then we should be giving every single person a sheet of paper with where to go to get a civil protection order and when the hours of operation are open.
Mary Logan: The innovations that exist in the municipal court include a buffet, an array of collaborative and cooperative relationships, ones that I and my team put together, particularly with reference to community court. We had an outreach into the community to establish those relationships with service providers, sent out an invitation in 2012 and about 166 showed up. From that sprang the service provider room that now exists at the library and is available to anyone. No one has to be criminally legally involved to access things such as getting your ID, which is the gateway to every other service that could possibly be provided, including housing. We have continued to evolve in this process to include even more services and more opportunities to engage with treatment.
