If you want to talk about Leon County history, you've got to talk to Dave Lang. Dave Lang joined the clerk of courts office as second-in-command way back in the late 1950s. He'd win election as THE county clerk in 1992 and hold that job for 2 terms. And he's been involved in all kinds of community causes, organizations and activities. He's slowed down a bit since a recent cancer diagnosis and the future is uncertain. But there's no doubt this guy loves talking about everything he's seen and experienced during his long and remarkable tenure.
Tom: Dave Lang, you have become in the past 4 or 5 weeks another Leon County superstar like you were for so many years at the courthouse. I've seen newspaper articles, TV clips, all kinds of fun stuff harkening back to the accolades that you've received, especially from the Tallahassee City Commission in their 1st meeting of the New Year. They went ahead and named a street after you that goes right by the courthouse, your old stomping ground. Were you surprised at all that outpouring of honor?
Dave: It was a tremendous honor and I so much appreciate it! I never expected it; never looked to see it and never looked to have it. But I've always considered myself a public servant from the get-go. I wanted to make our office a public office, available to anybody who wanted it. I wanted to make it as friendly as I could. And fortunately I was able to bring on board some very talented people. We were the first clerk's office in the United States to put their public records on the Internet. I was very proud of what we succeeded in doing.
Tom: Well I remember hanging out in the old Leon County Courthouse, the building that immediately proceeded the one that we have now - the one that had the clock on the front as I remember - and in the courtroom where the Ted Bundy trial was going on, which really put a spotlight on this town, you made sure that the media had access to that mezzanine that looked down onto the courtroom floor so there could be coverage of the trial. That was something new and different!
Dave: I've always looked at the media as the arm that would keep the public informed and I've always tried to maintain good relations with the media because they represent the public.
Tom: Well there were so many things NOT to hide during the 42 years that you served. That does not seem possible, Dave! But coming on as the assistant Leon County court clerk, way back in the day, your stint in the army, you were in Germany and then got out. How did you get into Leon County government? What motivated you to do that?
Dave: My mother-in-law (laughs.) I'd just gotten out of the army. I'd enjoyed that. I went to FSU and I thought, I've got the G.I. Bill, I'm going to go to law school. So it was too late to go into that semester when I applied, so I started the second semester. And during summer break I came home and said, 'Dave, you're got to have a job.' So they had just formed the new (Florida) Division of Corrections. It was the time they'd merged the Road Department's road camps and Agriculture Department's state farms under one head. And that was Richard O. Culver. They brought him in. He was an old, retired, tough Marine colonel who was the head of disciplinary barracks for the Marines. I was fortunate enough to meet with him. He hired me. Fortunately that summer, I met my wife. She had just gotten out of high school. Boy, when we met, it clicked on both sides. I fell deeply in love with her and she did with me. We knew where we were headed. She started out as a freshman at FSU. I went back to law school and we started a series of 525 love letters. Second semester of school started that fall and I got the Asian flu. At the end of the semester after the last exam, I went straight to the doctor's office and he said, 'Dave, you've got mono. You're going to be in bed for a month.' So when I finally got up from that, I couldn't start back to school. It wore me flat out! So I called Mr. Culver and told him I had to have a job, because we were planning to get married in July. So he said, 'Dave, let me check.' He called me back shortly and said he only had one job that he thought I'd be happy with. I said, 'I'll take it!' And I asked, 'Where is it?' and he said, 'Raiford.' So I went down there as a classification officer. I enjoyed the work, I got us a little house over in Starke. I had that all fixed up and ready for Mary Alma when we got married. But Momma wanted her little daughter back home. So every job opportunity that came open in Tallahassee, Momma would let me know about it. Finally, Hoyt B. Fryar who was under the Clerk Dot Crawford, her chief deputy, he retired, so she told me about it, I came up and Dot hired me on the spot. That got us back to Tallahassee and I stayed with the clerk's office and the court system since then.
Tom: That was in 1959 I believe, wasn't it?
Dave: That's right. It was income tax day, April 15th. And I'll tell you something else. Every April 15th, I got a bouquet of roses at the office from my mother-in-law for bringing her little daughter back home! It's been a fantastic experience, Tom. You just can't imagine all the change that I've seen, all the personages I've run across and so many of our judges. For example, Ben Willis. Ben was such a gentleman! He accumulated his own children there at the courthouse. Fortunately, I was among them. Loretta Perdue, she was his secretary and she became like his own child. Dozier Allen in the clerk's office, myself, Jane Sauls to a degree. Our little group called him 'Gentle Ben.' There could have been no more a perfect man to come into some of the things that he handled. For example the civil rights movement that we had here in town. He was the perfect man to handle that. Just like Tobias Simon was the perfect attorney for the civil rights movement that was going on at the time. And it was Tallahassee Theatre v Due that became part of the circuit court system. Toby Simon was their attorney and they couldn't have had a better man. We struck up a great friendship. At one time, he even brought me a pair of shoes and he said, 'These are marching shoes and I want you to get up there and march with us.' (laughs) And we've seen so much. Besides Bundy, we had the 2000 election that turned this town into a circus. That was my last hurrah. What a way to go out! But so much happened there, so much transition from the time I came into office until I retired, here was tremendous court transition. We were all a family group initially. Our initial group of judges; May Walker was here by himself until Ben Willis came on. Ben opened it up, so Ben Willis, Hugh Taylor, Guyte McCord and some of the others that came on after him. They would all meet in the clerk's office in the morning because we had a coffee room down there. We would go to work at 8:30 and they stayed there for the next half hour until they went to work at 9:00. And they would sometimes compare notes, discuss cases to each other. I thought that was a great thing for them to do! So we were a family group.
Tom: In the old building's day, didn't you have essentially all the constitutional (officers) and all the functions right there in one spot?
Dave: Did we ever! You name it, from the supervisor of elections to the sheriff's office and the school superintendent. Everybody was under that one roof. And I'll tell you a funny thing that happened. Most of the office holders had their wives as secretaries of something. I'll give you an example. When Bill Joyce was sheriff, Bill had his wife, his daughter, and his son Billy, all employed by the sheriff's office. They were all good people. I'm sure they did good work there. But that's the kind of life that we had. Andy Coles had a sister on the payroll for the supervisor of elections. But nobody ever saw the sister. People would ask and they'd be told, 'She works from home.'
Tom: Before it was in vogue.
Dave: That's right! But I'll tell you one funny instance that happened. I walked out in the hallway one day. They sheriff (department) is at the back end of the courthouse, the last office on the left. I walked out one day and there were a couple of deputies peering out the back door. The courthouse was about halfway to the back of the block and behind that was parking for the employees. Below that was a big band shell. And they would hold political speeches back there and even the KKK. Everything took place in the band shell behind the courthouse.
Tom: Even a Klan rally!!!
Dave: Yes! All kinds of things happened in those days. So I went out in the hall and looked. There were a couple of deputies peering out the back door, looking around the corner. Another deputy appeared in the hall and I said, 'What the heck is going on out there?' He says, 'The sheriff's back there in the car. He went with one of the deputies to pick up a woman to take before the judge because she's considered insane.' So the sheriff brought her up in the back seat of the car. He was in the front seat with his deputy. And when they pulled up to the back door of the courthouse, she pulled a pistol on them. They didn't search her! It took an hour for him to talk this woman out of that pistol.
Tom: Well, I hope she had a concealed carry permit. And I remember in county commission meetings when at every single meeting, one of the first things after the consent agenda, would be a list of applications for concealed carry permits that the sheriff would have to approve, every single one of them, before they'd be granted.
Dave: Yeah, right. Jury service was another big thing. We actually had a jury box that was kept in the possession of the clerk's office. The only key was kept by the sheriff. And when a new jury was called, the judge would call both the clerk and the sheriff and say, 'Come on up. We're going to draw a jury panel.' But the jury box was filled once or twice a year by the county commission. They filled it with names of people who they considered to be good citizens. And we'd get a long list. The clerk's office would chop them up into individual names, put 'em in that box and then when a jury was needed, somebody from the clerk's office - usually me - a deputy sheriff with the key and the judge, we're start drawing names out of the box.
Tom: You mentioned Judge Ben Willis, and Judge Guyte McCord and some of the other folks. Who were, to your way of thinking, Dave, some of the real characters in the courthouse?
Dave: Well let me tell you about a couple of the characters that used to come TO the courthouse. His name escapes me, but he used to pick up trash around town. Everybody knew him. He would come to the front door of the courthouse, open the front door and yell, "Soooeeeeee!" like he was calling pigs. Then he'd go in the offices and he'd go, "Come here, crook!" For example, Buddy Holmes who knew every land transaction in the county. And he yelled at Buddy, "Come here, crook!" I'll tell you one story, it was (North Florida) Fair time. There was a case where somebody who worked for the fair committed rape on a very small child. And that case came before the court. Don Hart was appointed the attorney. This is before Don became a judge. And it came before Judge Ben Willis. Don opted for a non-jury trial. That meant a trial before just the judge. Judge Willis heard the evidence, and when it came time to pronounce sentence, Ben Willis imposed the death penalty. That was a stunning thing! Ben had a heart of gold, he was a wonderful Christian and had no heart for anybody who would harm a child. And by golly that sentence was carried out. I had to sue the county commission 3 times to get my budget.
Tom: Now I know the City (of Tallahassee) used to sue the county and vice-versa at the drop of a hat. But you had to sue your own county commission?!
Dave: I certainly did. There was such shenanigans! They wanted to take over the office and they had planned to do so had somebody else gotten elected. But that did not happen. I suffered under those guys. But I had to sue them 3 times. I got my budget flat out the first 2 times. The third time, we had a judge...I think the Democrat came out in favor of mediation. Well mediation always ends with your having to give. So that's exactly what turned out because the judge was very much aware of the press and wanted to be seen that way. So we went to mediation and of course I had to give some. I went through some tough, tough days!
Tom: And in 1980 when the very popular and scandal-free Wilma Sullivan was Leon County's supervisor of elections, there was much speculation about who'd be brave enough to run against her in that year's election. As the filing deadline neared, Lang's boss suggested they take a stroll.
Dave: "It's almost 12 o'clock. Let's walk down to the supervisor's office and see if anybody new comes in." And so, about a minute until 12, Wilma says, "Well I've decided not to run." And then as soon as those words came out of her mouth, her son Johnny says, "Well I'm going to run for supervisor." Oh, that left a bad, bad taste in the public's mouth.
Tom: Your best memory, though. You talk about some of the people, but what stands out in your mind where you go, "I remember that and I wish I could experience that again."
Dave: Yeah, I really think the best memory is the 2000 election. This town was upside down! We had tents put up all over the place. We had correspondents from all over Europe here. There was not a vacant room to be had anywhere. I remember now the vans that I could see coming down Apalachee Parkway that would come to my office with all of those ballots from Dade County and Palm Beach County and the others. The trials that we had with Dexter Douglass and the other attorneys. Everything took place right there in the Leon County Courthouse. And we got 13 or 14 big (law)suits, but the main ones were those involving the presidential candidates. Because this was the site where everything was decided; the final decision for the entire nation and I was proud to be a part of it. And that was the end of my career, a few days after that.
Tom: Dave Lang, I can't imagine being in the presence of anyone with a greater way of looking at the world as you do. And I don't even have to walk down your street. I can just think of you and that gives me a boost.
Dave: Well, I couldn't have asked for a better career.
