Video Transcript
Hello, this is Brian. I want to take a few minutes and talk with you about part of the job of a Kentucky District Court judge that gets forgotten, but may very well be the most important part of the job, and that’s the juvenile court docket.
As a rule, if a child is charged with a crime in Kentucky, their case will end up and it comes to court, it’ll end up on the district judge’s docket. Sometimes there’s situations where a child can participate in a diversion program. they don’t come to court. And then in circumstances where a child has committed a very serious felony, um, murder, assault with serious physical injury, that type of thing, the case can be handled by the circuit court judge. But as a rule, most cases are handled by the district court judge. Over the last six years, I have been in Harrison County’s juvenile court day in day out. I have seen cases move through and I’ve handled everything from B felonies to B misdemeanor.
One of the things I’ve observed in my time in the courtroom is that many of the kids who come before the court find themselves in the midst of stressful family situations. Be it single parents, be it grandparents raising grandchildren, or circumstances where parents or guardians have their own legal issues, substance abuse issues, or mental health challenges.
Many of the kids who are before the court find themselves there a after years of there being a lack of supervision and a lack of discipline at home. So the district court judge becomes the last line of defense in an attempt to get the kid back on the path that has to be followed. Now, the other thing that has to be balanced by the district court judge is the practical reality that many times the kids that come before the court have done damage to other people or other people’s property.
Regularly, kids are involved in in fights where people are injured uh and have hospital bills or they do damage to someone’s property or they have stolen something from someone and and the property hasn’t been recovered. So, it’s up to the district court judge to be very aware of the reality that the victim has to be made whole. But the district court judge is charged with being able to strike a balance between compensating the victim, making the victim whole and promoting the child, promoting the child’s punishment for what they’ve done in such a way that they are encouraged to not continue in a life of crime.
I believe that I have the experience and community knowledge that are necessary in order to best serve our children and our victims of crime. I have a sense of justice that’s fair and I believe I’m the best person to be your next district court judge.