By American Bar Association
Two judges are from the Midwest and were relatively new to the bench when they presided over their high-profile cases. The other, a veteran of 40 years on the bench, was midway in his judicial career when he was thrust into the spotlight in one of Colorado’s most watched criminal trials.
While having different experiences, Judges Kwame Rowe of Oakland County, Michigan; Tracie R. Porter of Cook County, Illinois; and Terry Ruckriegle of Breckenridge, Colorado, shared their recollections and thoughts on managing high-profile cases on the opening program day of the 2024 American Bar Association Annual Meeting.
Their panel, “Tips on Managing the Media in High Profile Cases,” was organized by the National Conference of State Trial Judges of the ABA Judicial Division.
Ruckriegle presided over the Kobe Bryant sexual assault trial in 2004. Porter handled the civil case involving whether Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump could remain on the Illinois ballot in 2024. And in 2023, Rowe presided over the case involving Ethan Crumbley, the teen who killed four students and injured seven others during a shooting inside Oxford High School in 2021.
Porter, who eventually dismissed the challenge to Trump’s 2024 Illinois candidacy after a U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Colorado Supreme Court erred in kicking him off its state’s ballot, said a judge facing a similar much-publicized case needs to “take control” at the beginning by outlining rules for the media as well as have a “second set of eyes” to catch “the stuff you don’t.” She was appointed to the Circuit Court of Cook County, which includes Chicago, in April 2022.
Rowe said he was on the bench for only a few months when he was handed the Crowley case. He lamented that the court system in Oakland County, which is one of the wealthiest counties in Michigan, did not have a public information department on which to draw guidance and assistance.
“I wish we had one during this case,” he said of a public information officer, adding the case was “unique to our county and unique to our state.” As an example, he recalled that a Detroit newspaper wrote him directly after he called for a briefing on where a “minor” could be incarcerated while awaiting trial. “If we had a public relations office, we could have simply referred them (there),” he said, rather than having his staff attorney handle media inquiries.
Rowe literally said the Ethan Crumbley case posed a “trial by fire” situation to see “what worked and what didn’t work.” The case ran for more than two years, he said, and “every month media took a three-minute hearing and turned it into a news special.” Both Crumbley and later his parents in separate trials before another judge were convicted.
Ruckriegle, who presided as chief judge of the Colorado Fifth Judicial District from 1994-2010, said that during the Bryant trial the confidentiality of the paper filing system was a challenge, although electronic filing subsequently employed has helped. Several issues arose at the time, including clerical errors by his court in accidentally releasing documents about the accuser’s sex life. Bryant, who died in early 2020 in a helicopter accident, admitted to a sexual encounter but insisted the sex was consensual. The case was dropped after the accuser refused to testify in the case.
Ruckriegle had some public relations assistance from the state, which he said was helpful. “The one thing media has to know is that you are not going to talk to them about anything,” he added.
Paula Hannaford-Agar, director of the Center for Jury Studies at the National Center of State Courts, also participated in the discussion. She suggested judges who have high-profile cases review the center’s resources at High-Profile Cases in the 21st Century.
The judges also talked about issues involving media and the public contacting family members and offered tips on managing – or omitting – social media engagement during the periods of high-profile cases.
“When it starts to impact your family, it becomes very difficult,” Rowe said. He added: “I wanted to be mindful of that stress. The worst thing you can do is bring that stress home.
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