{"id":990,"date":"2017-11-11T20:02:30","date_gmt":"2017-11-11T17:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=990"},"modified":"2017-11-29T22:06:46","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T19:06:46","slug":"19th-district-court-judge-gene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/19th-district-court-judge-gene\/","title":{"rendered":"19th District Court Judge Gene Hunt aspires to be \u201cthe People\u2019s Judge\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Interview with 19th District Judge Gene Hunt Sept. 26 2017\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tZg1Qh1vUpk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h6><strong>As a casual observer sitting in the 19th District courtroom recently, not a typical place we would find ourselves on a weekday morning, we were struck by how normal and calm the room felt.\u00a0 As we watched 5 people come before Judge Eugene Hunt one by one he showed firm strength, resolve but also tremendous graciousness and interest in truly making things right for the accused before him but also for the community at large.\u00a0 After the session ended, Judge Hunt opened his office to us for a few minutes and he elaborated on his perspective as he operates in the courtroom.<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">By Rasheed Alnozili &amp; Stephen Coats<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\nThe Yemeni American News<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>\u2018Second and third\u2019 chances<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nWe asked Judge Gene Hunt on his perspective on second and third chances. He paused for a few seconds and said, \u201cIt all depends on the situation.\u00a0 Sometimes 3rd chances are good if it helps people to learn. You get older and you get wiser and you see how your conduct is affecting the development of your life and at some point in time some people get it the first time, some get it the second time, some get it the third time, some get it the tenth time\u201d.<br \/>\nJudge Hunt then said, \u201cAs long as you get it, that\u2019s what I want. I do believe in second chances and if I think that I can help somebody with a second chance and I think that the circumstance is controlled enough.\u201d<br \/>\nHe continued, \u201cYou have to weigh everything but it isn\u2019t like everybody walks in here and walks out of here, that\u2019s not the case. I want to give people a second chance.\u00a0 I want them to get back on their feet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Election promises<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\nWhen we asked Judge Hunt about his election to the third seat of the district court and how\u2019s he holding up to the promises he made during the election cycle, he said he still believes he\u2019s meeting the promises he made in treating everyone the same and in all fairness.\u00a0 He pledged to help people who come before him in the courthouse and he said that\u2019s what he has been doing.<br \/>\n\u201cI protect the Constitution of the United States.\u00a0 I protect people\u2019s rights that come through here, it doesn\u2019t matter to me anything about your status.\u00a0 You come into court no matter your religion, your race, your sexual orientation, if you\u2019re male or female if you\u2019re old or young; it doesn\u2019t matter to me.\u201d Judge Hunt affirmed.<br \/>\nHe later adds, \u201cYou come in here and you expect to be treated fairly and with respect and that\u2019s exactly what I do with everyone.\u00a0 I try to help you if I can. I will give you the opportunity to try to help yourself.\u00a0 I\u2019ll put that in place but if you show me that you\u2019re not taking advantage of the break that I\u2019m giving you then I go to step number two. I don\u2019t like step number two but I\u2019m not afraid to go there if I have to.\u201d<br \/>\nTaking the defender\u2019s side?<br \/>\nWe told Judge Hunt the perception of him that we\u2019ve gathered in the short time he\u2019s been on the bench. It is worthy to note that then-Attorney Hunt was a defense lawyer for many years, he responded \u201cWhen you\u2019re a defense lawyer your job is to step yourself into the shoes of your client and do the best that you can do within the bounds of the law for that client as they would do for themselves if they had your experience and your knowledge.\u201d<br \/>\nHe adds \u201cBeing a judge is different you still try to help people as much as you possibly can but you don\u2019t step yourself into the shoes of the defendant, you step yourself into the shoes of the public. If I can help someone and that helps the public, which goes hand-in-hand, then that\u2019s what I do.\u00a0 If I need to punish someone to help the public then I punish them.\u00a0 It depends on the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Primary concerns in our community <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_992\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-992\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-992\" src=\"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/11\/Image-4-300x157.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" srcset=\"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/11\/Image-4-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/11\/Image-4-768x402.jpg 768w, https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/11\/Image-4.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-992\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>with Publisher<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p>With regards to the major problems faced by the community, Judge Hunt said \u201cThere are two problems that were facing.\u00a0 One\u2019s a little one and one\u2019s a big one.\u00a0 The big one is the opiate addiction that is rampant.\u00a0 When someone gets addicted on opiates what happens is they at first start taking pills.\u00a0 Either through a prescription that they received or they buy the pills off the street.\u00a0 When they\u2019re addicted to it they learn that heroin is cheaper and more readily available, they start doing heroin.\u201d<br \/>\nJudge Hunt said that once someone gets into that lifestyle it is extremely hard to get out of it.\u00a0 He said that he keeps a very tight rein on those who are addicted to opioids or cocaine. He mentioned that he tests them all the time and as opposed to just putting them on probation; he has them report to him once a month or every other month so that he can see their progress on what they\u2019re doing.<br \/>\nFor the smaller problem, Judge hunt said it\u2019s the suspended license cases. He said that the young people get tickets and don\u2019t pay the ticket.\u00a0 Once they don\u2019t pay the ticket then they get pulled over next time and it\u2019s a misdemeanor driving on a suspended license.\u00a0 These youth get the tickets for driving on a suspended license and they got to pay pretty hefty fines and costs here.<br \/>\n\u201c They\u2019ve got to pay the Secretary of State a driver responsibility fee and it just doubles and triples and quadruples things.\u00a0 It gets to the point to where they now make it almost impossible for them to get their license. That\u2019s a real problem. When you don\u2019t pay your tickets, your license gets suspended and you get arrested and put in jail for that.\u00a0 It just astounds me that they let that happen\u201d Judge Hunt adds.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Last Message<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nWhen asked for the last message to the community, Judge Hunt said \u201cI\u2019m doing the best I can.\u00a0 I am being very thoughtful in what I do.\u00a0 This job isn\u2019t about me.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t about my ego at all.\u00a0 It\u2019s about the people that come in front of me, seeing what their problem is and trying to straighten that problem out.\u00a0 That\u2019s how I try to conduct myself every day and I hope I\u2019m doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class='clear '><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a casual observer sitting in the 19th District courtroom recently, not a typical place we would find ourselves on a weekday morning, we were struck by how normal and calm the room felt.\u00a0 As we watched 5 people come before Judge Eugene Hunt one by one he showed firm strength, resolve but also tremendous [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1149,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions\/1149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}