I strive to treat all who appear before me with courtesy and respect and to be fair and impartial in my decisions. With the remaining space available to me here, I'd like to invite each of you to come into the courts to observe how our justice system operates. When I was an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan back in the 70's, it was commonplace to have several observers sitting in the gallery area of the courtroom. Here in Alaska, it has been my experience that, with the exception of CourtWatch which reports to the public as a public service, the general public rarely comes to court to see for themselves how the justice system works. Instead, we Alaskans tend to rely on the news media to tell us what happens in court.
Court proceedings are generally open to the public.
I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to see for yourself how the criminal and civil justice system works.