Moderator: Welcome to our chat this afternoon with Karin Drees, who chairs the committee that is seeking to oust Judge Paula Martin from office. The committee is the Justice for Children Committee. Becca Booth, treasurer of the committee, is also here and will responding throughout the chat. We have several questions that have been submitted already, so we’ll get started.

Karin Drees and Becca Booth: Hello, and thank You.

Lawrence residents from left, Karin Drees and Becca Booth, chat online Wednesday afternoon at the Lawrence Journal World newswroom.

Nick, Lawrence: Supporters of Judge Martin suggest that your group is misleading the voters. How can voters be sure that you are giving us accurate information about Judge Martin’s record?

Karin Drees and Becca Booth: All information that the Justice for Children Committee has presented is public record; we have just done the research for you. It is easily found through media searches, the courthouse and State of Ks websites.

Ray, Overland Park, KS: Our children are protected from heinous crimes, normally, by a chain of able people in our criminal justice system, including police, prosecuting and defense attorneys, jurors, judges, prison staff, and parole board, who are committed to upholding the statutes and guidelines set forth by our elected legislators. How is such a weak link as Judge Martin allowed on the district bench in the first place, to destroy our children’s protection from rape?

Karin Drees and Becca Booth: Judge Martin was one of 3 finalists selected from judicial applicants by a local committee, and was appointed by Governor Joan Finney in 1994. We , the citizens of DG Co, have never had a choice in who is appointed, but we DO have a choice in who is retained, and this is when we exercise that choice with our non-retention vote in the election.

L.S., Lawrence: Since you obviously think Judge Martin’s lacks these, exactly what characteristics do you think a good judge should have? Do you think there are times they should consider emotional issues rather than evidence presented at trial?

Karin Drees and Becca Booth: We have never implied that Judge Martin should have used “emotional issues” as opposed to evidence. Our issue has to do with the extreme departure in sentencing guidelines. The sentencing guidelines have a presumed sentence of 13 years and that is far from the 60 days given. There are mitigating circumstances in every case, but after reviewing all of the evidence presented the deviation is extreme.

Danielle, Lawrence: What does your group think about the jurors in the recent rape cases voicing their support of Judge Martin?

Election Special 2004: Judge Paula Martin retention More on the challenge to Judge Paula Martin Chat: Karin Drees and Becca Booth, chairwoman of the Justice For Children Committee, chats with votersChat: Dan Watkins, a leader of the Retain Judge Martin Committee, chats with voters

Karin Drees and Becca Booth: The jurors did their job. They found the defendants guilty. They are not participants in the sentencing process. There have only been a few vocal jurors and we have found some who were never contacted and disagree with the sentencing. These jurors, like many people, are afraid to be public with their views, for fear of possible reprisals and repercussions. And what question was exactly asked of the jurors? Without knowing that, it is hard to say what they truly agreed with. Were they asked if 13 years was too much? Or if 60 days was enough?

Brian – Lawrence: How in the world can a 13 year old kid be a “willing Participant” if she was that drunk? She couldn’t be a willing participant even if she was 30 years old.

Karin Drees and Becca Booth: That is exactly our point with this case. The definition of Rape includes “when the victim is incapable of giving consent because of mental deficiency or giving consent because of the effect of any alcoholic liquor, narcotic, drug or other substance, which condition was known by the offender or was reasonably apparent to the offender.”

The rapists began to take her to the hospital because of feared alcohol poisoning but returned home because they thought they would get in trouble for drinking.

Sam, Lawrence: Dan Watkins seems to ask us to take a lot on faith: “if you knew here like I know her,” kind of thing. You refer to the public record, like we have time to research the issue. How should the average citizen make this evaluation?

Karin Drees and Becca Booth: WE are average citizens. We DON’T have any attorneys spinning the story to their side. We have found this information by doing searches in this very paper, at the accessKs website, and by spending hours following up at the local and state courthouses. By visiting our website at www.geocities.com/justiceforchildrencommittee you can find the information we have spent hours researching. We ask the average citizen to get as informed as possible, and vote with that informed conscience.

RH Lawrence: Since you feel that there was too much of an “extreme departure” in the sentencing guidelines is the issue for nonretention, what do you feel would have been an adequate departure?

Karin Drees and Becca Booth: In this case, as in others we have cited, the judge deviated from the presumed sentence, but the difference between the 13 years possible for the offense (rape) and the 60 days given leaves a large discretionary space. Even with discretion exercised by the judge in her determination of mitigating factors, 60 days is not even on the bottom end of the chart. The sentence given was less than that presumed for writing a worthless check.

Chris, Lawrence: The opposition to Judge Martin’s retention seems to be just a reaction to her decision in the statutory rape case. How is the justice system served by removing a competent, experienced judge based on one decision that is unpopular with some people in the community?

Karin Drees and Becca Booth: This is not a one case situation. We have compiled a list of questionable cases. The Ronnie McPherson case, the Tyrone Edwards case, David Locke, and even the most recent Booher case and the federal government stepping in on the Tremble case. She has also had 8 reversals in the court of appeals, compared to the other judges, most of whom have zero.

Our community and our children deserve better.

Michael, Lawrence: The quarrel between the two committees seems to come down to, “Who should we believe.” If most of the Lawrence legal community backs Martin, why should we believe your argument over theirs?

Karin Drees and Becca Booth: The “legal community” that has rushed to her defense are Defense Attorneys that are winning in her courtroom. The have a vested interest in keeping her on the bench. In fact, Dan Watkins, her treasurer and “old friend” won a major case against the City of Lawrence in Martin’s courtroom. One of the other vocal attorneys is Michael Clarke, who represented Ussery in the rape cases–which is currently on appeal. We can only hope that in the future, Martin will recuse herself from any cases that involve her supporters representing clients.
“Most” of the legal community does not back Martin. That is the assumption based on a few of the vocal members of her committee. We have had several attorneys state their support for the removal of Martin, but cannot come forward because of their position or possibility of being in her courtroom.

Moderator: This will be our last question today on this topic. Karin Drees had to leave to pick up her children from school but Becca Booth will take this last question.

S.J., Lawrence: I’ve read everything posted in the J-W, and on both website. Since you are supposedly acting on behalf of the young woman involved, has anything been done to ask the D.A. or SRS to get involved in an obviously neglected home environment. If anything this girl is a victim of poor and neglectful parenting.

Becca Booth: I don’t believe that to be true. She is a 13 year old girl who pushed boundaries and horribly the rapist took advantage of that. The parents of the victim have been by her side throughout this horrible situation. The mother has fought for her child. The rapists took a 13 year old girl, got her drunk and raped her. What kind of adult would be sexually attracted to a child? What kind of parents would raise men who would gang rape a child? We have to stop blaming the victims of crimes. The Justice for Children Committee has given this victim some hope–that the judge might have failed her, but her community will not.
These men were guilty of rape. Just as Tyrone Edwards was guilty of rape. Ronnie McPherson was guilty of attempted murder and kidnapping. David Locke was guilty of taking obscene pictures of a 16 year old mentally disabled girl. These cases are not the fault of the victims.

Moderator: We’d like to thank both Karin Drees and Becca Booth for taking the time today to chat about the judge retention issue. And we thank those in our audience who participated for their questions.

Becca Booth: Thank you very much for giving us this opportunity. If you would like to find out more information, please visit our website at www.geocities.com/justiceforchildrencommittee. On November 2nd please vote with your informed conscience. Vote No to retain Paula Martin.