The Good Judge

They all come into the courtroom singing some version of the same song. Cue Atlantic City by Bruce Springsteen. A guy out of work, down on his luck, tired of coming out on the losing end, trying to get by in a world turned against him meets someone who promises the solution to all his problems. With nothing left to lose he takes a chance and does a little favor that turns into a bigger favor. For a few days, months, whatever, his life seems to work. But eventually, it all comes undone. Every Friday inside the tall wooden doors of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington men and women stand in front of Judge John Coughenour singing their sad song of a life come undone.

On paper, laws are easy. They are hard and fast. They are written, passed, obeyed, broken, upheld, appealed and repealed. But it is in the judgment of a broken law where the real dilemma dwells. Judgment works with variables and determinates. It should not be done with automated impartiality, rather, with a holistic consideration of the unique circumstances in each scenario. This, however, has not always been the standard for U.S. District Courts. From 1985-2005, as absolute legal standards were set forth by congress, judges were repeatedly stripped of their judicial autonomy. Every U.S. District Court Judge was forced to abide strictly by congressional ideals and mandated sentencing guidelines.

***

Brian Turgeron, 42, white male, Canadian, sat next to his lawyer on the 16^th floor of the Seattle Federal Courthouse on Stewart Street singing his version of Atlantic City. His family sat behind him. They looked nervous, but sat with good posture. Mr. Turgeron was arrested and convicted for smuggling marijuana from British Columbia into the United States, with a layover in Mexico. Unbeknownst to him the smugglers he worked for were also heavily involved in trafficking cocaine and heroin. Before Turgeron got involved—in his younger years—he had been a bush pilot, flying from Alaska to BC. When his wife got pregnant Turgeron quite his never-home lifestyle and got a job as a logger so that he could be around more often for his family. After years of hauling lumber and doing log runs, back pain and severe arthritis caught up with him. Unable to keep up with the pace of the river logging industry, he lost his job and became highly dependent on prescription drugs for pain. His doctor wrote him a refillable prescription for morphine. Turgeron’s mind went with the pain, and along with them both, his employability. During these dark days his wife left with their son, and Turgeron slid further into financial destitution. Depression set in. A couple of years went by. Then one night at a bar near his apartment a couple of unfamiliar men introduced themselves. The men bought Turgeron a couple Molsons and told him they heard he used to fly planes. They told him he could still make good money at it if he was up for it. The two men, Eddie Boucher and Turry Morin, wanted him to fly their plane down to Mexico and back to BC, stopping off in southern California on the way back. They told him it was safe and reminded him it paid well. Turgeron wanted his life back; he wanted his family back. The only foreseeable way to get them back was to put a little money away and clean up his act. Turgeron took the job.

***

Before 1985, everything was different. The U.S. District Court system was the Wild West. Without congressional impute or any oversight whatsoever, Judges had free reign to judge as they saw fit. Then, legal standards were absent and judgment was almost totally random. Racial prejudice and career gain played major roles in judgment. Two people convicted of the same crime in different districts might receive radically different sentences. Some judges were especially trigger happy with their sentencing, while others were extremely lenient. Each U.S. District Judge was in a very literal sense ‘The Law.’

Today, a judgment is usually made within a guideline range recommended, but not mandated, by congress. Within the guideline range there are always three forces at work: the defendant, the probation, and the government. These three forces prepare cases and argue over what the final sentence should be, giving the judge various perspectives, pleadings, and points of view so that he or she can best understand the position of every person who has been affected by the case and will be affected by the final judgment—from the person who committed the crime, to the victim, to the general tax paying public paying for the proceedings. Ultimately, the judgment may go below or above the guideline range, but the judge must always justify their decision for departing from the guideline.

***

Eight months after Turgeron’s hopeful night his neighborhood bar, he found himself in a forest in the North Cascades, pinned between the steering wheel of a two-prop Cessna and approximately two-hundred kilos of marijuana. He and a cohort had taken off from a runway in BC and were heading down to Mexico. The building of the runway was commissioned to the farmer who agreed to let his land be used for the drug trafficking. During the construction of the runway a problem occurred. The farmer ran out of room. Instead of telling his commissioners about the problem he decided to finish the job the only way he could. The final fifty meters crooked drastically to the left. Upon takeoff, Turgeron realized the lazy farmer’s miscalculation and had to take off early to avoid crashing into the tree line. Without reaching the proper takeoff velocity the plane struggled at low altitude, dipping and bobbing in windy conditions for miles. Turgeron’s bush pilot experience came in handy in the crash landing, but the two men could not avoid being trapped in the tiny plane. After hours of trying to free themselves they radioed a covert distress call with a ten thousand dollar reward to the first ATV to come unload the plane. Within the hour a couple resident men on ATVs came, relieved them of their load, and freed them from their entrapment. But the plane was grounded, and Turgeron and his cohort were seriously injured. They took to the woods, heading north, needing medical attention, leaving behind the trappings of a drug smuggling gone wrong. Later that day, Border police found the plane and determined its purpose. They figured the men involved in the crash would have sustained serious injuries. The authorities alerted hospitals on both sides of the boarder. The following day Turgeron and his cohort checked in to a Canadian clinic with broken bones, claiming they were in an ATV accident. The police were called. They arrived at the hospital, and the two men were arrested.

***

Between the years 1985-2005 many congressional sentencing standards were exceedingly high. Possession of crack fetched a statutory ten-year minimum and a maximum sentence of life. For twenty years, seventeen-year-old fatherless teens and twenty-somethings with any number of disabilities and abusive and siblings were tried and sentenced strictly upon these congressional sentencing guidelines. And although judges (maybe better than anyone) understood the complexity of crime and punishment, their hands were tied. Depending on psychological and socio-economic factors a judge might set a crack possession sentence at six months incarceration with twenty-four months supervised release. The government would appeal the decision and the case would come back to the court with a demand for a larger sentence—ten years minimum. The judge might say, “that’s unfair, plenty of kids are running around blowing coke and getting slaps on the wrist. Six months for this case.” The government, then, would appeal the decision for a second time and the case would come back to the court with a demand for a larger sentence—ten years minimum. Eventually the judge would be forced to give in and follow the congressional guidelines without a say in the matter. Judge Coughenour and countless other judges of all political stripes have openly disagreed with, apologized for, and in some cases, retired from the bench because of these congressional handcuffs.

***

After the arrest, Brian Turgeron was tried and convicted in the United States. He was given his sentencing date in Seattle, was released on bond, and went back to Canada with a decision to make. Because he played a relatively minor role in operations, extradition was highly unlikely for his case. Turgeron knew that if he were to skip his sentencing hearing and stay in Canada, the United States would not come knocking on his door. He would be a free man. But Turgeron would not feel free. He still wanted his life back, his family. This time, however, he knew he’d have to do the right thing to get them back.

***

Ultimately and fortunately, the congressional mandate system failed. In 2005, the United States Supreme Court made a decision that drastically changed criminal sentencing. The United States v. Booker decision allowed for judicial discretion. The Booker case had been appealed and appealed all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, at which point Justice Stevens and Justice Breyer said enough is enough. Resulting from the Booker case, the Supreme Court permitted federal district judges to use their discretion and impose a sentence with reference to a wider range of sentencing factors.

***

On May 17^th 2010, Brian Turgeron reported for sentencing at the Seattle Federal Courthouse on Stewart Street. Judge Coughenour, reigning over the room and Tugeron’s sentencing hearing, asked if both sides, the defense and the government, had a chance to look over probation’s recommendation—forty-eight months with thirty-six months supervised release. They both said, “Yes, your honor.”

In sentencing hearings the defense always goes first. Turgeron’s lawyer approached the lectern and began his plea. Turgeron’s family sat nervously behind him in the first couple rows of empty courtroom benches. Some of them held hands. All of them held their breath. It was the last hearing of the morning. Turgeron’s lawyer spun a sympathetic story and the judge looked on and listened. On the grounds of Turgeron’s minor role in the smuggler’s operations and his good-faith appearance in court, the lawyer requested a sentence of twelve months incarceration with twenty-four months supervised release. He thanked the judge and sat back down next to his client.

The Assistant U.S. Attorney then stood up sharply in front of the judge. He spun a damaging castigation of the defendant. He said the fact that Mr. Turgeron was involved with not only trafficking marijuana, but also cocaine and heroine, and that he hadn’t initially complied with police questioning, and that if the court let him off with a light sentence, the message the court would be sending to drug traffickers is a dangerous one. Hiring sympathetic old men to traffic their drugs results in no real punishment. Thusly, Mr. Turgeron should be incarcerated for sixty-four months with thirty-six months supervised release. Anything less only encourages drug trafficking. The government’s lawyer gathered his papers and sat down alone on his side of the courtroom. The judge puckered his brow, and reviewed probation’s sentence recommendation.

***

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed John Coughenour to the position of U.S. District Court Judge at the Seattle Federal Courthouse. At the time, the judge was an old-guard, ketchup-eating republican from a Kansas corn town. After nearly 30 years on the bench, however, after three eras of the District Court judicial system, Judge Coughenour has evolved into an absolute liberal, free from the traditions and conventions of his former leanings. He is one of the few remaining U.S. District Court Judges who was on the bench before 1985 and still presides. And he is better for it. A good judge does not cast judgment based on prejudices or career gain. A good judge does not cast judgment based only on the hammer and nails of the law, but with high consideration of the unique circumstances in each case. A good judge must judge with his or her finger on the pulse of the human condition and the connection it has to state of the world. A good judge judges with experience, with his or her head and heart.

***

Turgeron and his lawyer sat still. From behind the tall, tiered mahogany bench, Judge Coughenour finally looked up. He asked if Mr. Turgeron had anything he’d like to say before the final sentencing. Turgeron said that he did and approached the lectern. He had prepared a statement and was holding it in his trembling hand. He began to read.

“Judge Coughenour, I understand you are a busy man and I am sorry for wasting your time and the time of the U.S. District Court.” He began to tear up. “I am here today because I want to honor the commitment I have to the crime I committed.”

The judge interrupted him. “Mr. Turgeron you could have stayed in Canada and avoided sentencing altogether.”

“Yes, your honor.” He wiped his cheek. “But I respect your country and your laws. And I need to do the right thing here for my family’s sake. My son graduates from high school this year and I want more than anything to be there for him at graduation, to start over with my wife. They have been so supportive and if there is any silver lining in this it’s that I am finally getting my life and my family back, your honor.”

He said a few more sad words before sitting back down by his lawyer. The judge looked again at his three sentencing recommendations. He gave Turgeron thirty months incarceration with thirty-six moths supervised release and mumbled some legal jargon to both sides of the courtroom. Then to everyone’s surprise the judge asked Mr. Turgeron to return to the bench. He did. The judge told him he believed he was a good man on a good path. Turgeron thanked him. The judge asked him to look into his eyes.

“Mr. Turgeron,” he said, “I want you to promise me that if you are released today and not sent directly to incarceration, then you will come back to Seattle after your son’s graduation to serve your time.

Turgeron, stunned and sober, looked at the judge. “With zero hesitation, your honor, I promise to fulfill my commitment for the crime I committed.” He spoke with elated articulation. “Yes, your honor, thank you.”

Teary eyed, Brain Turgeron turned from the judge’s bench and walked over to his family for a loving embrace. As they left the courtroom together Judge Coughenour picked up his gavel and retired to his chambers.