Biography
BACKGROUND
I wanted to be a lawyer ever since I saw Perry Mason obtain justice for the wrongly accused once a week on CBS television. After more than 25 years of seeking justice in various courthouses in Michigan and Arizona on a daily basis, I am running for the office of Flagstaff Justice of the Peace. My professional and life experience will allow me to be an effective judge for the people who appear in Justice Court.
EDUCATION
My experience as a student attorney in the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School in 1981 defined my career direction: seeking justice for abused and neglected children. In 1988, I was appointed an assistant attorney general to represent the child welfare authority in Detroit’s Wayne County. It was a start up division of the Attorney General’s Office with four assistant attorneys general and our chief assistant handling 17 busy courtrooms. We prosecuted cases of child abuse and neglect to juries and judges, and defended our results in the Michigan Court of Appeals and Michigan Supreme Court. This division of the Michigan Attorney General’s Office is now the biggest in the state with 23 lawyers and much support staff. My boss, the assistant in charge, said of me: “He served his community faithfully and diligently bringing respect and honor to the court in which he served and to the Michigan Attorney General who hired him.”
I took a leave of absence in 1994 because my wife, who hails from Phoenix, asked me to try out Arizona. The temporary leave became permanent as I developed a law practice in Phoenix and had three children. My law practice included juvenile and child welfare cases plus Family Law, Criminal Law, Probate and Contract Law. In 1996, I was appointed a Judge Pro Tem (a substitute judge) in the Maricopa County Juvenile Court.
JUDICIAL EXPERIENCE
During the three years prior to moving to Flagstaff, I served about 400 hours on the juvenile bench. In 1999, I was appointed a Judge Pro Tem for the Phoenix Municipal Court for which I received a great deal of training, and presided over criminal misdemeanor calendars. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Pamela Franks, for whom I frequently substituted, said of me on the bench: “he has good judgment and good common sense …. I recommend that he be considered for any judicial officer position.”
In 1999, my wife and I moved to Flagstaff so we could raise our school-age children in a small and beautiful community. I was hired to manage the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which represents the Arizona Divisions of Child Protective Services and Child Support Enforcement in Coconino, Navajo, and Apache Counties. In 2001, I took a position with the Coconino County Public Defender, in order to eliminate my frequent travel to Holbrook and St. Johns and the overnights stays away from my young children. In the last nine years with the Coconino County Public Defender, I have represented children and adults in the various Coconino County courts and the Arizona appellate courts.
MY FAMILY
My wife owned and operated Hands on Art, a pottery painting studio on South Beaver Street in Flagstaff, for five years. She is now employed by NAU as a program coordinator at the Martin Springer Institute.
In addition to my day job, I currently teach business law and ethics at NAU, I mediate civil and family law cases for the Coconino County Superior Court’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Program, and I volunteer as a high school mock trial coach. I have studied classical guitar at NAU, and performed in the pit orchestra as a guitarist in the Flagstaff Light Opera Company’s productions of Evita and Man of La Mancha and NAU Opera’s production of Der Kaiser Von Atlantis, an opera written in a German concentration camp. I have been an on and off member of the Flagstaff Master Chorale. I also served as a member of the board of trustees of the local synagogue and presently serve as a member of its ritual committee. I have participated in Flagstaff’s mountain biking and hiking, and ridden the last 3 Tours de Tucson.
WHY DOES JUSTICE COURT NEED A REAL JUDGE?
Justice Court addresses crime, including domestic violence and drunk driving, often before the offenders graduate to committing felonies where it’s too late to do much other than send them to prison. The Justice of the Peace can require offenders to participate in domestic violence and substance abuse counseling in lieu of or in addition to serving jail time, and likewise convince the mentally ill to engage in treatment as opposed to jail. These are powerful rehabilitative tools that can lead to an offender becoming a productive member of the community instead of repeatedly engaging in criminal behavior and ultimately being sent to prison.
As an experienced mediator, I have helped parties come together to agree on a resolution to a problem, thus eliminating the need for costly litigation. I will use my conflict resolution skills in Justice Court to help the parties in civil cases find a mutually acceptable way to solve their disputes. However, if people cannot do this, then their cases will be decided fairly by either me, as Justice of the Peace, or a jury.
Justice Court is a real court that handles real cases involving real people. The Justice of the Peace is a judge who has the authority to send a criminal defendant to jail for up to 6 months, and to require a civil defendant to pay a plaintiff up to $10,000 plus costs, interest, and attorney fees. These are substantial powers that should only be granted to the most qualified candidate.
Please vote for me, Howard Grodman, the most qualified candidate for Flagstaff Justice of the Peace.
