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Show Sun Advocate I K. 7 Wednesday, March 5, Section B 1980 Bunnell preserves law, orderer in the region really guilty of crimes are released because of technicalities in the law, Bunnell said, Its seldom that those who get to trial really get off if they are guilty. By CHUCK ZEHNDER Freelance Writer Its not often that our dreams come true. But for Boyd Bunnell the dream did happen and right here in Carbon County. Some 55 years ago Boyd Bunnell was bom about a block from where he lives on Carbon Avenue today. He didnt go very far if one talks geographically, but he has come along way in his chosen Bunnell career. Considered by many to be one of the best judges in the land, Boyd Bunnell sits in the Carbon County courthouse as judge of the Seventh Judicial District. Common expressions about his work would include fair, honest, outspoken, animate, etc. When Boyd was a young lad of six, his family moved to Helper where his father owned and operated a garage. Boyd grew up in Helper and learned how to help his father in the garage making automobile repairs. But I knew by the time I got in high school, I wanted to be an attorney, Bunnell said. And he set out to do what he wanted. He studied hard and kept his grades up through high school so there would be no problem there when he , went to college. And I wanted to live right here when I finished my schooling, Bunnell said. Ive never wanted to live anywhere else. I was in the Army Air Corps during World War II and traveled all over this country and Europe. I always thought this was the best place to live and raise a family, he added. After high school, he went to the old Carbon College, now College of Eastern Utah, then I went to law school at the University of Utah and got my degree Supports penalty Bunnell believes that Married Dorothy I always said I wouldnt get married until I had finished my schooling. I was graduated on June 7, 1949 and married Dorothy Miles a week later, the judge said. In January' 1950, he started his practice in Price. In 1953 Judge Bunnell ran for Price City judge and was elected. He held the position for about three years. After that he ran for district attorney. The district then included five counties; Carbon, Emery, Grand, San Juan and Sanpete counties. I had to prosecute all felony cases in those five counties then and carried on my civil practice, since the district attorneys position was not considered e a position. Judge Bunnell held that position for the next 16 years until 1972. For the next five years, Bunnell aided in prosecuting local felony cases and maintained his civil practice. Then in December 1977, he was appointed as judge of the Seventh Judicial District. This district includes Carbon, Emery, Grand and San Juan counties. Boyd Bunnell had his first experience with felony crime when he was home from law school one year. He was called upon to sit on the jury in a first degree murder case involving a man from Mount Pleasant who had shot the town marshal. It wasnt so much a case of whether the man was guilty or not, but a question of whether the jury would recommend leniency or not. The man was quite old and the leader of a group of people who were quite different religiously, he said. The evidence was all in and the jury was sequestered. Bunnell said he would never forget the opening statement of one of the jurors, a Greek immigrant who still spoke Greek and broken English. full-tim- 98 percent sure Im tellin you guys I tink dat sonovagun, hes a 98 per cent guilty but two per cent, I dont know ! The jury did recommend leniency knowing that Judge Keller probably wouldnt follow it anyway, which he was not bound to do and which he didnt do, Bunnell said. Judge Bunnell said that most of the criminal cases he hears are men who have been convicted of crimes before. The ones who demand all of their rights, a jury trial and all of that, usually have been involved in criminal activity in the past. First offenders usually come in and plead guilty, the judge said. When asked how often people who are capital punishment should be used very sparingly and only in aggravated cases. I think society should have the right under certain circumstances to take a persons life if thats necessary. I think its a deterent although there is no way of measuring deterrent. I believe some people consider the crime they are planning and may even say to themselves, If I use this gun and happen to kill somebody, they might kill me. But how do you know when a person says that to himself. There is just no real way to measure it, Bunnell said. Any punishment is a deterrent. What happens when you are driving down the road and you see a police officer in a patrol car alongside the highway? You check your speed, make sure you are on the right side of the Its a deterrent! Bunnell said. A fairly new program which Judge Bunnell has been using very effectively recently has been sending first-tim- e offenders up to the state prison for a ninety-da- y evaluation period. Its been very effective on young men who have come in on their first offense as an adult, he said. They will actually check them into the prison where they can be kept for ninety days. Its quite a shock for some of these young men to see what it is really like, he added. Judge Bunnell does get involved with people who come before him. It is not uncommon to hear him lecture someone who stands before him. He did that just a short while ago. There was this young man who came before him for some vandalism in East Carbon. Judge Bunnell told this young man in court, We need to get your attention and what I would like to do if the law permitted is just get off this bench, get a two by four and hit you right up side the head just as hard as I could swing it. This statement from the judge startled the young man, to say the least. But Judge Bunnell really cares and really wants to help the people who come before him. If were possible, he would counsel everyone who comes before him in that courtroom. People need to realize they are responsible for their actions. They need to know we are not going to hold them by their hands and turn them over to some soft probation system he said. So this shock treatment of letting them know what it is like to be locked up behind bars, sitting in a cage like an animaL.it has a deterrent effect and we need to use it, Bunnell said. We havent lost one of those yet that we have sent up to the prison on the ninety day program. Not that we wont, because we probably will, the judge said. Judge Bunnell said that he tells these young people when they come back after that ninety-da- y evaluation period that if they will put all this in the past and straighten up, there will be no problem. in 1949. . most with agrees criminologists today that generally convicted felons should be incarcerated rather than put on some type of probationary rehabilitation. It just doesnt work, Bunnell said. Now Im speaking in generalities. You can always find exceptions. The idea that we can change someone and rehabilitate them just doesnt work. If they want to change and they want to assume that responsibility.. .then they can be rehabilitated. But to the one you say, Im going to put you on probation, you go to this school and theyre going to teach you a trade and the guy is going through it just to stay out of prison and doesnt have any real motivation to change. Hell never change, Bunnell said. change themselves then I will just have to put them in a cage and throw the key away, he added. The biggest social change we have seen over the years has been in the area of domestic relations," he said. Our divorce rate has really gone up. There isnt that committment to stay married the way it used to be. There are a couple of reasons that I see for that. One, is that economic independence of women has removed the need for them to be dependent upon the man as the breadwinner. Any kind of a little problem comes along and she can break off and say, Well, I dont have to live with this, because economically I dont have to depend on you. And our social services has come to the point where people can go to them and get immediate economic aid.. .even to supplying funds for attorneys fees in divorce cases, he said. Kjipyy lip Times change Before, when the woman was more dependent upon the husband, it created an atmosphere in which they would be much more likely to try and work out their problems and not run into court so fast. Now they can get help from social services to pay legal fees so immediately its in court. There isnt that committment to try working out the problems of the family that there used to be, Judge Bunnell siad. Second, divorce doesnt have the social implications that it used to have in that it is socially acceptable. There isnt a stigma to it anymore, he said. We have had a change in our whole moral structure in that there is much more promiscuity which is socially acceptable. Like people living together without the benefit of the law. This is really illegal. Bunnell believes that because of this type of lifestyle being presented all the time through television and the movies, younger people have come to the conclusion that it is socially acceptable. habitation and adultery. Another one we dont see anymore is willfull failure to provide, he said. The welfare program is conto this problem, Bunnell tributing said. We have built up a bureaucracy that is so eager, it seems like, to pass out money to people. He added that they do try to collect reimbursement but they never turn them down in the first instance. Bunnell said they havent had a single case of a husband being prosecuted for failing to provide for his wife and family in years. The most difficult thing I have to deal with is child custody cases, Judge Bunnell said. Bunnell said that part of the problem in this area is a result of the womens liberation movement. It used to be the theory that the man worked and supported the wife and family. The mother...stayed home, raised the children, took care of the house and those were the roles that were assigned. Problems created The whole idea (of this kind of lifestyle) is creating all kinds of problems for us. There is no law really to cover those kinds of situations. People that come in who just live together and have children and accumulate property, we cant treat them like a business partnership. If they can prove a business partnership, then I can do something about it, he added. But otherwise there is no law, because it is an illegal situation (to be living together, but not married), he said. This is clearly against Utah law but Bunnell said no one looks at it that way anymore, even to the point where it is ever enforced. I dont know of a single adultery complaint that has been filed in this court in the past 10 years, Bunnell said. There used to be many cases of moral law violations prosecuted in the local courts. Roles change Well, as those roles have broken down, a lot of it by pressure from women saying, We dont want that role anymore, theyre still going to have to have the children since biologically there is no way the law can change that. But as they break down that role situation to where she goes to work and he goes to work, the kids are with a baby tender anyway. So there isnt any presumption that she should have custody anymore than Adultery prosecuted When I was first prosecuting, used to prosecute for illegal times, a large library of legal statutes and decisions is maintained in his office at the Judge Boyd Bunnell, Seventh Judicial District judge, must rely sometimes for judgements on past cases and similar instances. For those we co- - courthouse in Price. he should have custody. So we are getting many more custody contests in divorce cases, he said. He said there never used to be any chance of the husband getting custody of the children in a divorce. But that has changed drastically in recent years. In most cases of custody, there just isnt an adequate solution, Judge Bunnell said. The adequate solution is for them to stay married and have a household and have both a father and a mother in the house. Bunnell added that the fault usually doesnt lie with one partner or the other. There is fault on both sides, he said. Its hard to say which one really triggered the problem. One of them is stepping out, but why are they stepping out. There just isnt one at fault. In most cases it is a twin fault. And when those kinds of facts enter into a custody hearing, problems develop. Perhaps both (parents) are competent to have custody of the child. Or the children ought to be taken away from both of them, which I usually dont have the authority to do. So there isnt an adequate answer, Judge Bunnell said. These are some of the reasons why it was such a problem for courts to determine what to do with the child, Bunnell said. You just try to do what is best for the child. This is the hardest problem I have to deal with and Im getting more of it all the time. Divorce attention Our biggest contested matters are divorce and domestic relations problems, Judge Bunnell said. If people have the time to do so, they should go to the courthouse occasionally and watch the judge at work. It may help residents understand the community has so many different segments represented and so many problems portrayed. Dont expect to find a sleepy judge sitting with eyes closed as though deep in thought about another place and another time. You wont find that in Judge Boy Bunnell. But you may find him at his animate best as he lectures someone who stands before him. "Wfow! My Big Boy Hamburger, French Fries & Cqke-$J- 9. THIS COMMERCIAL IS BEING BROUGHT TO YOU THOSE GOOD GUYS AT PHONE DIRECTORIES CO. Derlin Newey and Jerry Thompson are now in the area renewing your book. ( Protecting citizens I have to protect the people in this community against the kind of behavior they have undertaken here. If they wont change and arent willing to try to nDClM M2SI you Block people make an error, you pay the Interest and penalty? I shoulda come here last year. 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