Real Life Experience, Applied

I’ve written here many times about my opinion that the best judges are people whose life experience is broader and deeper than the ordinary high school-to-law school-to-DA’s office-to-bench career track.

I’ve also mentioned my friend Kevin Fine before: he’s the guy I called when one of my friends was in Deep East Texas trouble; Kevin didn’t even hesitate to get into a car with me and ride to the rescue of this person whom he didn’t know.

What I didn’t mention is that Kevin is a guy who is highly schooled in “the hopelessness and futility of addiction”, as he says, not because he’s met people with drug problems but because he is a recovering cocaine addict (Chronicle article).

There’s little as dishonest as an addict . . . unless he’s in recovery, in which case there’s little more brutally honest. How many other Harris County judges would admit (to Brian Rogers) acts constituting felonies?

Kevin has had his ass kicked by the world, which to my mind is better preparation for dispensing justice than kicking other people’s asses as a prosecutor would be. I expect that he’ll be one of the great judges in the Harris County criminal courthouse.