Leon County voters will pick a new county judge during this year's election cycle.
The retirement of a veteran jurist has brought three candidates into the race to succeed him.
Judge Augustus Aikens, who was re-elected in 2012 and 2018, will be remembered long after his retirement as the Leon County Courthouse will be renamed in his honor. But before that, his seat will be filled by one of three candidates. They are: Cydnee Brown; Robert Churchill; and LaShawn Riggans. Brown is an Air Force veteran who went on to teach and then worked in the state attorney's office for three years. Churchill has been a Tallahassee attorney for almost 22 years. He provides consumer and small business counsel statewide. And LeShawn Riggans has been a lawyer for 17 years following her stint in the Navy, handling both civil and criminal cases. All three took part in a candidates' forum hosted by WFSU Public Media, the Tallahassee Democrat and League of Women Voters of Tallahassee July 16th. One of the questions was what each would do if elected to improve public access to the courts, along with better understanding of the process. Here's Cydnee Brown:
"Funding for agencies that provide pro bono services and educate citizens of their rights and exactly what services that are available to them to make accessing the justice system simpler."
Here's Robert Churchill's response:
"People who have money and resources are better able to retain attorneys of their choosing to handle their legal matters and some are not. So in the county court you see many, many people who are self-represented."
LeShawn Riggans had this take:
"There needs to be better education of citizens of which services are available, what their rights are and how to access those rights. And then the ability to get to the court system itself."
On most questions, the three candidates were in agreement. Such as how each would approach interpreting the laws passed by lawmakers. Here's Cydnee Brown:
"I don't think it's really my job to interpret, because there's so much out there that's already done so. In the county court, especially."
Robert Churchill had pretty much the same philosophy:
"It's not the role in my view of a judge to look behind how they got to the decision of what the law is. It's simply to read the law as it's written and to apply it as it's written. Usually that's not a difficult task."
LeShawn Riggans suggested an additional way to determine what the law means.
"The law is pretty easy to be interpreted as written in statute. Whenever there are issues as to the interpretation, they you go to the other courts and laws that have already been interpreted by other judges and you apply it in that aspect."
But there was also one major difference among the judicial hopefuls. The question was whether they saw any racial disparities in the local courts. Here's how Robert Churchhill answered:
"If the question's related to sentencing, no, I don't believe there are sentencing disparities. I believe each case is evaluated on its merits."
LeShawn Riggans echoed that viewpoint:
"No, I do think that the judges do apply the law fairly and equitably."
But Cydnee Brown wasn't so sure:
"I have to recognize that there is a disparity with law enforcement and who gets charged. Some may be charged with drugs and others get to go home. And then after they come, there's often a disparity or the discretion that's used and applied."
But one of these candidates will win, either in this month's August 20th primary or, if none gets 50 percent of the vote plus one in that contest, in the November 5th general election.
