The Kiss of Death?

I first mentioned Judge Mackey in this blog in September 2009. At the time, I happened to be in his courtroom randomly, evaluating a prospective attorney, when Judge Mackey, sua sponte, sanctioned attorney Chester Lockwood for, if I recall correctly, being tardy filing some papers. Oh, if only that would happen more often. And not just when attorneys are tardy.

From what little I was able to observe during a wicked woman's divorce, Mr. Lockwood, her first attorney, was somewhat sloppy with his paperwork (ever hear of spell check, Chester?) and the sanction was deserved.

Since then, it appears Mr. Lockwood fled Yavapai County and is now working in Pinal County (Apache Junction). Check out his disciplinary record on the AzBar website. He was suspended for a while. Here's a page from the Arizona Supreme Court. (Thanks J & S for the latter!)

To be fair, while I think Mr. Lockwood was somewhat of a scummy lawyer, in that he suborned / elicited horrible affidavits from a family's children, pitting the children against the father without investigating any of mom's allegations but assuring the court it was all true (all for a buck) and forever tearing a family apart, he was often very reasonable when it came to negotiating with dad, restraining wife's very unreasonable demands. (She once called him to try to get him to prevent a family friend from seeing their children on father's visitation day!) And I applaud his candor about what an angry woman she was. (Chester, she claimed to be a Christian, but was not. Please don't base your assessment of Christianity on that evil woman.)

At the time of my post, I was worried that mentioning Judge Mackey on this controversial blog might be the "kiss of death." a career ender. (Not because I have any power, but because, at the time, with the press coverage of former judge hinson's lies, the blog was popular.) Thankfully, it wasn't the kiss of death since he's now been made the presiding judge in Yavapai County.

Now, first impressions are hard to change, and as I said, I was impressed with Judge Mackey for sanctioning Mr. Lockwood. Hopefully, unlike the former presiding judge, judge Brutinel, Judge Mackey will also sanction judges who break the rules as Mr. Lockwood did.

Still, I heard some grumbling from one pro se litigant about how Judge Mackey screwed up their case by forcing out of order witnesses. (If I recall correctly, the pro se plaintiff wanted to get the defendant on the stand first, to set him up so a second witness later would prove the defendant had lied.) Since I don't have reason to believe Judge Mackey was malicious (but maybe insensitive), I'll hold my tongue on whether he is a good presiding judge or not. To use a metaphor, the jury is still out.

See, I wrote a letter to Judge Mackey in late January, asking him to look into something there in Prescott. But as of this writing, haven't received a response from him. I don't know if he's taking the time to investigate (I hope) or if he blew me off. Time will tell.

In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment with your experiences about Judge Mackey as a judge and as a Presiding Judge. If he's a good Presiding judge, we should commend him for that. If not, then maybe someone will start a kiss of death blog.

You can remain anonymous when you comment. But I do ask for some specifics so I can verify your claims, especially if negative. If your specifics are too specific, you'll have to trust I will keep you anonymous when I tell your story.