FINAL JUDGMENT: Superior court judge Eric Smith to retire in July

PALMER — It took Palmer Superior Court judge Eric Smith more than 30 seconds of mostly silent reflection on two decades as a superior court judge to come up with his proudest accomplishment.

“That’s a really hard question to answer,” he said.

Then, in a gesture familiar to anyone who’s sat through a lengthy hearing in his court, Smith leaned back in his chair, interlaced his fingers on top of his head, and answered the question.

“I guess I hope I’ve succeeded in treating everybody fairly and respectfully,” he said.

20 years before the court

Smith, whose last day in robes will be July 29, declined to discuss his rulings in past cases, because they would create a record of an opinion separate from that issued in court, which is against judicial ethics.

However, Smith has sentenced numerous violent criminals, and presided over odd, grim, and even comical court cases, judging by a handful of old newspaper articles. He once settled a lawsuit over custody of an office cat named Carl. He issued a maximum 99-year sentence to Suzette Welton, convicted in 2002 of burning down a house to kill her sleeping, drugged 14-year-old son for life insurance money. Smith rejected the appeal of “Wild” Bill Nelson, a Palmer resident who had asked that his 1999 acquittal of assault charges at trial be overturned.

He said the hardest type of cases to decide are decisions to revoke parental rights, the undesired outcome for Child In Need of Aid (CINA) cases. Smith, 62, is married with two adult sons and an adult daughter, which makes the decision harder.

“You do it because you’re protecting the kids, and sometimes that’s what you have to do to protect the kids,” he said. “But, you know, I’m a dad, and it’s really hard to look at somebody and say ‘You can’t raise your kids. In fact, you can’t have any contact with them.’ That’s a really, really hard thing to do.”

Judges frequently have to make permanent or long-term decisions based on limited information, and Smith said he tries to compensate.

“It’s an interesting thing that society has decided that they’ve got someone like me making decisions about people’s kids,” he said. “When I get a snapshot of the people — I rarely see the kids — I see them at their worst. I recognize all that and take that into account when deciding what I do.”

Gauging success from behind the bench is difficult because people defer to judges, Smith said.

“It’s not like people will come up to you and say ‘I wish you’d done X,’ or ‘You might want to think about what you’re doing up there,’” he said.

When judges do receive feedback, it can be pained or emotional. Smith received a few death threats over the years, though most he attributes to people lashing out during high-stress, emotional situations. On a few occasions, things became more serious.

“There was one guy who was more problematic than that,” he said. “But a couple people (were) really angry at decisions I made and said things that they shouldn’t have. There were a couple times when there was more reason to be nervous. Nothing (serious) ever happened.”

Occasional insights have filtered through, Smith said. One woman thanked him years later for a particularly strict sentence, which she said allowed her to get sober. Smith told another defendant he was almost 30-years-old and needed to re-think his life, based on his criminal history. The defendant later thanked him in his sentencing allocution, Smith said.

Ingredients of justice

Smith presides over the Palmer court’s Public Accountability with Certain Enforcement (PACE) program, and helped establish traditional justice models among Alaska Native communities throughout the state.

PACE and “circle sentencing” are two examples of how the job has changed during his tenure, Smith said. Circle sentencing is designed to add a community component to sentencing in areas with strong cultural traditions, by issuing confidential sentences at the hands of tribal elders. PACE allows judges to issue short-term sanctions for minor parole violations — missed or failed drug tests, for example — rather than revoking probation or parole altogether, which was the case before it started, according to studies by the University of Alaska Anchorage Center for Justice.

Judges are viewed more as problem-solvers than referees, Smith said.

“When I started, I think the view of a judge was holding contested hearings and making decisions based on those contested hearings and applying the law in that context,” he said. “We still do that, it’s still part of the role, but I think it’s recognized that judges need to do mediations, do settlement conferences.”

Good judgment makes for good judges, Smith said.

“You need a fair amount of common sense, you need a fair amount of scholarship, and you have to have a good understanding of the relevant rules and relevant laws,” he said.

Smith lets jurors ask written questions of witnesses, a practice he implemented after reading about it shortly after he was appointed to the bench in 1996 by then-Gov. Tony Knowles.

“I heard about it, and my initial reaction was, ‘That seems kind of strange.’ And then the more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn’t strange at all, that that could be really effective,” he said. “It gives the jurors a stake in what’s going on in a way that being passive listeners does not.”

Gavel ambitions

Fourteen lawyers have applied to replace Smith, according to a press release issued by the Alaska Judicial council. Half are Palmer-based lawyers and a local judge, including Mat-Su Borough Attorney Nicholas Spiropoulos, Office of Public Advocacy attorney Paul Maslakowski, magistrate judge Tara Logsdon, assistant district attorney John Cagle, public defender Jeff Bradley, assistant attorney general Candice Marie Bales, and assistant district attorney Krista Anderson.

The process will culminate in September, when the Alaska Judicial council recommends possible successors to Governor Bill Walker following an extensive survey, background check, and interview process, said Alaska Judicial Council Executive Director Susanne Dipietro. Walker will then make his appointments.

The process is designed to find someone who can handle the sometimes-unique needs of the Palmer Court, DiPietro said.

“We want to choose the most qualified person given the needs of that particular judgeship in that particular area,” she said.

Even the most well versed legal scholar can sometimes face the unknown in the more wide-ranging Superior Court, DiPietro said.

“I don’t think there exists a person in the state that has done all of the casework they might be required to know,” she said.

Smith doesn’t intend to give up law altogether. He plans to spend more time hiking and skiing, and he has ideas for some projects he’d like to work on part-time.

“I will use my law degree to do work, but it’ll be more along the lines on working on kinds of projects,” he said. “I don’t plan to work full time. I plan to play, get out and do fun things. Take trips.”

Respect and humility would probably be among his top recommendations to any successor, Smith said.

“You got an important job, you’re not an important person,” he said. “Keep an open mind. And treat everybody with respect.”

More information about submitting a public comment to the process and the list of all 14 applicants for the Palmer judgeship are available at: http://www.ajc.state.ak.us/sites/default/files/imported/selection/applicants5-2016.pdf

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.