Mentorship, Legacy, and Law: Insights from Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:00:14

Hello, Franklin County. We have another episode of Talk of THE County. I'm Kenneth Wilson, your county administrator. And I'm honored today to be with the judge Laurel Beatty Blunt to be here to discuss the law legacy and sprinkle in some of the judge's wonderful personality. You're going to learn about the law and may have a few laughs in between as she break it down as only Judge Laura Beatty Blunt can. So let's kick this thing off. Let's talk about your journey into law as it relates to your strong family legacy. Talk about how family legacy, which I know is important, led to you pursuing a legal career.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:01:25

So my family originated from Kansas and Oklahoma. And then my grandfather, my grandmother and my great grandmother moved to Columbus and opened a restaurant that was called the Novelty Food Bar that was off Long Street. And at the time, there were only two restaurants in Columbus that black people could dine in. And my grandparents 24 hour restaurant was one of them. And then my great grandmother, Mamie Moore was also very, very, very involved in the civil rights movement. And so my father grew up working, peeling potatoes, being a busboy, whatever, in the restaurant and helping his grandmother do things for the civil rights movement. So while I joke and say that my family believes in child labor, I in turn grew up working in my father's law firm as well as by then I was in first grade when he was elected to the Ohio legislature. And actually he was term limited when I graduated law school.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:02:44

So that tells you how long he was in politics. So just like my dad did, I grew up in a family family business, politically and civically involved. And my kids know that they will also be working in a family business and be politically and civically involved.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:03:04

That made you almost serious from kindergarten on.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:03:09

Yes.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:03:10

One of my first T shirts, A mission.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:03:14

Yes. And that expectations of me were high because I was given a lot. But I also make it a point too, Ken. You know, we are so blessed to even have a picture of my great grandmother right almost right beside Martin Luther King at one of his speeches. But I want to make sure that everyone knows that, you know, while everything started for my family with my great grandmother Mamie Moore, and, and that has been a blessing and a legacy to my family, it doesn't mean that it can't start with you and your family. So just because mine started a couple generations ago and maybe in another family's, it didn't. But it has to start with somebody. So just because theirs didn't start in the 30s and 40s like mine did, doesn't mean that it can't start in 2025 for their family.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:04:16

And, I mean, my knowledge of your family is a couple decades old, but when I think about your legacy myself, personally, I think about it as doing well and doing good.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:04:32

Yes. Yes.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:04:33

Because I just remember as a young man working in the state legislature.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:04:42

How.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:04:43

You know, your dad was just approachable and willing to just sit down and, you know, have a conversation with me. I remember bumping into him one time at Kroger's, and he was like, don't get the ribs today. That sounds like they're a little tough today, the ribs. Because they had the food court area. Yes, that was, you know, he knew.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:05:12

The rib people at Kroger's and at city barbecue on Tuesdays.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:05:16

Yeah, I never forget that. He came up to me, like, serious, log it out. So I went, so I make the right decision on what to eat for lunch that day. But, you know, it was just, you know, that's why I'm such. Every day I say how important mentorship is.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:05:34

Yes.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:05:35

Because it's about as much as you try to accomplish, as much as you can, and, you know, have a positive legacy, but you fall short if you not lifting up other people and opening the door for other people to do great things.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:05:54

And, you know, Ken, I also had the experience that sometimes it's even just your presence. It doesn't even have to be a formal mentorship. There was a woman, Professor Christy McCrae from Otterbein, shout out, that was a juror in my courtroom when I was in common pleas. And she asked me to come speak to her class at Otterbein. And so I have been going to speak to her 8am class for probably the past seven, eight years. And one day I got an envelope from her, and it was the Marquette Law School, like, not newsletter, but magazine. And turned out they'd done an interview with someone that said, when I was an undergrad at Otterbein, there was a black female judge that came to my class, and that's how I knew that I could be a lawyer. And there she was at Marquette Law School.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:07:02

So sometimes it's just showing up that lets someone know that they can do it.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:07:11

Yep. It's just. I mean, it's just. It's so powerful, you know, just taking your aspirations around you in a circle and trying to be beneficial to the community at large. And, yes, it's a part of public service, but other people do it more exceptionally than others. And those. Those folks that are. That really stand out, that really Go out of their way to be extraordinary when it comes to helping other people become leaders and open the door.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:07:51

Not having a. A selfish attitude.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:07:54

Right, yeah.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:07:55

Towards influence and towards providing opportunities.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:08:03

Or that attitude, Ken, where it's like, you know, I had to suffer through, you know, fill in the blank. And so now it's your turn. And so now you do, too. You know, the way to uplift for future generations is to say, I went through this hardship, here's what I did, that was a mistake, or here's a way that you can avoid it. And that's how you create building blocks, in my opinion.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:08:33

Yes. You know, influence is a temporary thing in many cases, and it's wasted if you don't fully leverage it.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:08:44

Yes, yes.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:08:44

For the benefit of others.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:08:47

And I think, you know, one really easy way to do it is if you have any kids around you, whether it's your kids, your nieces, your nephews, your grandkids, kids next door, kids you coach, wherever. Making that investment in future generations, I think can actually be a low cost, low effort way to have influence because you might be around them anyway. So why not pour into them?

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:09:19

Yeah. I mean, that's why representation and inclusion are so paramount in society. Because you need to see as many examples as possible of all the different opportunities there are in life. Because when I, when I came up, it could set somebody back. If they didn't make the seventh grade basketball team, they figured, it's over. I'm not, I'm not going to make. I'm not going to make the varsity. I'm not trying out again.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:09:50

And athletics are one of the few avenues that people saw. But there are many different things that individuals can be. And I think that as many opportunities as we have to show the youth in Franklin county that there are many different things that they can be.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:10:12

Yes, yes, I take that for granted. I do wonder if we have pushed too many people to college and forgotten about the military and the trades as good, honest careers where you can still do well. You know, you and I, in our county jobs, we think about that when something goes wrong with our plumbing and we got to pay somebody $200 just to walk in the door.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:10:47

Right. You can make a lot of money. And in the trades, you can be entrepreneur.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:10:54

Yes, yes, you can.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:10:55

You can be your own boss, you can set your own hours, and you don't have a cap on your earrings.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:11:04

And it's not dependent upon you not breaking a leg or getting caught by the police or whatever other avenues you may have been pushed into to make money.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:11:19

Yeah, because, you know, everybody. I believe everyone has a superpower. They just don't in some cases have individuals around them to help them identify it.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:11:31

Yes.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:11:32

And they spend their whole lives, in some cases doing things that they don't enjoy because no one took the time to help them develop that one thing that God gave them the unique ability to do at an exceptional level.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:11:50

Yes.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:11:50

Nobody invested that time.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:11:52

Agreed. Or someone told them what they were going to do and never bothered to ask what they really wanted to do.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:12:00

You can spend years and years and years, you know, just earning a paycheck. Especially with, you know, I say generation, Generation X, they just, they just didn't. Being happy at work was a plus. Now we hear these, these newer generations, you know, millennials and up, they looking for purpose, they looking for all these different things. But I don't know what it. 60s babies, late, especially late 60s we came from family sizes, were smaller, assassinations, all of these things. You know, even back to the rougher part of the civil rights movement, it was more babies born. And then the late 60s, the late 60s, everything was different.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:12:52

Right.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:12:53

And I think that kind of was like part of our DNA in certain extent. I agree.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:13:01

I am definitely that Generation X was home for two or three hours between when school let out and mom came home hyper independent, didn't talk back to your elders generation.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:13:18

You're serious. Like I said, you probably were serious because you knew what you had to do and it wasn't really no way around it right when the bar is set. That's why I believe that it's always pressure can be positive when applied appropriately.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:13:40

That's true. That's true. One thing I would say, though, about the younger generation, though, Ken, is that I appreciate how much more aware they are about their mental health and protecting their peace. You know, especially as a Gen X woman, you know, I was still in the generation where, you know, if someone wanted a hug, I was supposed to give them a hug. You know, not even having domain over my own body as a young woman, where I'm very glad that that has changed because, you know, if you ask a young person that now, they will tell you, no.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:14:22

I'm not hugging you. Yeah, I'm not. And just, yeah, venting emotions, all of those things where you were told how you were to handle yourself and such. So you've had a varied career. You've been in the Court of Common Pleas, General division. You've been in private practice, you've been now Court of Appeals. Talk about how those experiences have differed. And other than being a lawyer, what drew you to the judiciary versus another form of elected office? Like you said at the beginning of this conversation, you knew that you would be civically engaged, you knew that you would be giving back.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:15:04

But what led you to a black robe?

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:15:08

Well, you know, with the law. So when I say that we grew up working in my dad's law firm, Ken, I mean, like, we're in high school, working 40 hours a week. So the law was very comfortable to me. It was, you know, what I had largely known, and then when I actually practiced with my dad was when I really started looking at the judiciary. Because when you are in a smaller firm, you are in court a lot more, and you are seeing just how the law impacts people's everyday lives. And so one of the things that I try and talk to people about is that, you know, everything can be focused on federal courts. And there are some very, very, very important things that go through federal courts. However, if you just look at the general population, Ken, the state courts are the courts that you are most likely to interact with.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:16:17

And those two courts are domestic relations. And what in our county is municipal court or whatever the court in your state is that handles the landlord tenant, the traffic cases, the DUIs, things like that, Those are the courts that are most likely, if you come in contact with court, they are most likely to be the ones where you are. And so practicing in those courts really, really made me see that and really made me see just how much judges impact people's lives.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:16:55

Yeah, to that point, a lot of people don't fully understand what judges do, Especially at the appellate level. You don't understand the different courts. People talk about it on the news. You know, presidents get to make all of these appointments. People run for different levels of the court. Can you. Can you talk about, you know, why is that commonly misunderstood? What judges do, let alone what the role of prosecutors and how important county prosecutors, county attorneys, you know, how important all of these roles are.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:17:33

We could have a whole other show, Ken, and I could explain to you how, especially if you're interested in criminal law, there's more touch points through a criminal case where the prosecutor touches than where. Than where I touch. So who the prosecutor is, I mean, I think we're seeing this around our state, around our country, the prosecutor's philosophies and impact your community significantly. Significantly. But if you picture the. The justice system, the court system as a triangle, you have your trial courts at the bottom. So that's common pleas, that's municipal Court, since we're in Columbus, that's court of claims, where there's a claim against the state in probate court, where you have your adoption, your will contests, things like that. So then if you are unhappy with what happened.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:18:40

Well, I shouldn't say unhappy. If you think a mistake was made in that bottom layer of the triangle, then you can appeal up to the court of appeals. The biggest things to note, though, are that in the court of appeals, it's not like it's a do over. A lot of the things that happened in the trial court are established and what we in the court of appeals have to work with. So we're not hearing testimony, we're not taking exhibits. All of that is already done in the court of appeals. What happens is that you write a brief, the judges read that brief, and then each side for oral argument only gets 15 minutes. And one of the biggest differences I notice coming from trial court common pleas up to the appellate court is that there is no free legal service.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:19:45

So in my opinion anyway, I'm dealing with a lot more pro se litigants in court of appeals. Pro se means representing themselves than I was in common pleas. Because, for example, in a criminal case, you have the right to have an attorney, right? You also have the right in a criminal attorney to have in appeals and in the Supreme Court, but that's only criminal. So where, you know, maybe someone could have afforded to pay a lawyer for their divorce or for their contract dispute, they may have run out of money by the time you get to court of appeals. And so they're either eating what happened or they're trying to represent themselves. Then when you get to that top layer, the Ohio Supreme Court in our instance, the biggest difference there, Ken, is that they get to pick which cases they hear, right? So you can file a case in common pleas court saying that the sky is green. And I'm suing Ken Wilson because he says it's blue, right? That judge has to do something with it. That judge has to issue an opinion.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:21:03

Then say the judge in trial court says, Kane was right, the sky is blue. Well, that person is like, no, they got it wrong. I'm going to appeal. Our court still has to do something with it. We still have to issue an opinion. And say. We say, yes, Ken was right, the sky was blue. And then they want to take it to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:21:27

The Ohio Supreme Court does not have to take it. And for that reason, a lot of times, then what happens in the court of appeals is the end of the.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:21:39

Case does The Chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court make determination as to which cases they picked or as a vote amongst the panel as to which. Which cases they take.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:21:51

They vote. It's actually an extra process where they have to write a memo to the Supreme Court saying why the court should even take it in the first place. And then the judges vote. And then if they vote to take the case, you may have heard the term they granted cert. That's what that is. That means that the Supreme Court took the case, and then that's where the briefing process and the oral argument process starts. From there.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:22:28

What do it mean? Most people talk about a court being conservative or a court being liberal based upon West. How can you, in layman's terms, talk about how that, in theory, plays out?

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:22:44

Normally that happens. Okay, we're with my triangle still. That happens in the top at the Supreme Court, or it happens in the middle at the court of appeals. And the reason why they're saying it is that those courts, the judges sit in panels, Right. So, for example, in court of appeals, we sit in three judge panels. And so I joke and say it doesn't matter what I think unless one of my colleagues agrees with me. Right. And that's how you get an entire court that can be characterized as conservative or liberal.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:23:23

It's because you have a group of people and the type of decisions that they are issuing might skew a certain way.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:23:34

Group think. And then that's when you have the minority opinion wrote, right?

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:23:40

Yes, yes, yes. On that first layer in the trial court. You know, in domestic relations, you will hear, though, that some judges favor husbands, some judges favor wives. In court of common pleas, general division, you might hear some judges favor defendants, some favor plaintiffs, or some in the civil context or in the criminal context, some judges favor favor defendants, and some judges favor the prosecution. And those are just people's opinions of how the judge consistently rules.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:24:25

Do you ever. Could ever see yourself teaching at a law school?

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:24:29

Yes, I taught already at the University of Michigan.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:24:36

Okay. I think I read that somewhere.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:24:38

But I actually was in the public policy school. And that was also. Also very interesting because I thought it was a really good thing. And my students actually agreed with me. You know, in law school, oftentimes you have to know both sides of the argument or actually be able to argue both sides. And so I thought that it was very important for policy students to also understand both sides of the argument. And so we did a lot of that in my classes. And they really liked it.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:25:16

I really liked teaching. You know, as you Said everyone has their superpower, Ken. I think that my superpower is that, you know, I can take something pretty complicated and just boil it down in non legalese, regular people language and make them understand either a concept or why someone, or why something is important or whatever.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:25:42

What, what area of law you enjoy learning about practice and seeing an application the most.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:25:55

I would say, you know, the ones, unfortunately, the cases we see where people are doing the worst to each other are also the ones where lives are impacted the most. And that's criminal and domestic. And so that has oftentimes been where my job satisfaction came from too.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:26:23

Okay. You know, sort of. Corporate attorneys also have to defend situations to where some company has a defective product and they determine that it's better for business to keep selling their product then to stop selling the product. Talk about the ethical dilemma sometime that you can face in the field of law. Oh, wow.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:26:59

It can be pretty apparent and it can show up in almost any area of the law really, because, you know, when you start talking about ethics, you start talking about, you know, throwing things away improperly or doing just, you know, really sneaky things. And I think like your instance, the instance you brought up, as well as I think what a lot of criminal defense attorneys get to, you know, people automatically think that because of where they work and what they're doing that they might be unethical. But in the criminal context, you know, our Constitution guarantees that people get a defense attorney and you can defend without being unethical, you know.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:27:54

Exactly. But, you know, that's exactly kind of where I'm headed. Everybody has a lawyer.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:28:00

Yes.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:28:02

In any given instance, you have. And so they gotta find somebody to the defender. Sometimes it's harder. Sometimes even people that have a lot of money will have trouble finding representation because it's like, nah, I don't want to touch your case. I don't want. Because everybody that does anything or accuse anything has the right to representation. And if you can't afford representation, the life of a public defender, you gotta, you know, you pick numbers and you represent these people.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:28:37

Right.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:28:38

And you get to know them during the time you represent them. And then some of your perceptions may change.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:28:43

But like, for example, Ken, I know you know this case because it impacted the county as well as the whole state. You know, if you remember the Goolsbee case that eventually led to the Reagan Tokes act, when Diane Menashee, who in that case, the case is over, I'll always be fair and impartial just to get that out. Her closing was one of the best I've ever seen. And what she did, Ken, she was up front. She said, I'm just trying to save this man's life. It wasn't like a defense attorney is going to get up there and automatically try and get someone off that they know is guilty. Do you see what I mean?

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:29:27

Yeah.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:29:28

She was. She was just. The evidence was what it was. It said what it said. And so she was honest, and she just said, you know, everyone is entitled to a defense, and I'm just trying to save this man's life.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:29:41

So.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:29:42

But, you know, when she's out in the general public, someone might say, oh, you're a criminal defense attorney. You represent all these horrible people, so you must be horrible, too. No. Just because she's doing that work doesn't mean that she's unethical. And also, remember, attorneys have licenses, and I know for many of them, there's no way in the world it would be worth risking your license doing something unethical.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:30:13

No. And then, you know, ethical is, you know, in the way that. In the way people may see it differently.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:30:22

Oh, absolutely.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:30:24

When you think of moments in criminal. In the history of criminal law, the late Johnny Cochran said, if the glove don't fit, you must. It's a quit.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:30:33

Yeah.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:30:34

Mm.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:30:35

But you know what that goes to, Ken? That's another thing that a lot of people don't appreciate is that when a jury is making a determination, Kennedy, they are saying guilty or not guilty. They're not saying guilty or innocent. Do you see what I'm saying?

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:30:58

Because that whole reasonable doubt.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:31:00

And, you know, in a criminal case, the prosecution has what's called the burden of proof. So it's the prosecution that has to show that the defendant is guilty. Right. And so what not guilty can mean not guilty can mean innocent. Not guilty can also mean they just didn't prove it. After jury trials, a lot of times, the judge goes back and talk to the jury, and there were numerous times that the jury said, we thought the defendant was guilty, but the prosecution didn't prove it. And so that distinction is an important one.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:31:41

Mm. Mm. Talk about being a black woman in the judiciary. And like many fields, there's many times where during the course of your career, you were the only one in the room.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:31:58

Absolutely.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:31:59

And how did. How did you overcome that? What life experience is, you know, you had an inner personal, inner confidence, for sure, of just how you were built from a child all the way through an adult. But elaborate a little bit on that.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:32:22

I think that what has allowed me to endure that I'm not going to say that it's been easy, but my knowing my family history and knowing history at all, I think really helps me, Ken, because I'm so aware of what someone else did so that I could even be the first. Right. And then I'm very aware of what I can do so that whoever behind me doesn't have to go through the same battles that I did. It goes back to that philosophy that we were talking about earlier in the conversation. You know, there have been plenty of judges, especially new judges, where I've said, oh, I did this. Don't do that. And that is how I think ultimately, things will be different for my daughter leah, who's only 12 now, you know, so even for example, when I was appointed judge, there were three consecutive days of bad press about it, and you have not really seen that since. And I would like to say Judge Jiza Page was received differently because I had been there.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:33:49

Do you see what I mean? And then likewise, you know, as you know, Judge Paige has this magnificent camp that she does about the law at the law school that my daughter goes to.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:34:03

Yeah.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:34:04

Do you see what I mean? And so that is what gives me faith. That's what keeps me. Keeps me going. Because at one time, when I first took the bench, I would say I didn't know what ism people were approaching me with. I didn't know because I was 34 at the time. So I didn't know if it was ageism, if it was racism, if it was sexism, or because I come from a political family. And at that point, my dad had been in the legislature, and then my stepmom was appointed to his seat. So somebody could have been mad about something that they did and taking it out on me.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:34:46

So the best thing for me to do was to not get hung up on trying to prove these people wrong. With my words, the best thing to do was to prove them wrong with my work. And so I was appointed in 2009. I put my head down and did the work. So then in 2010, I went with 68% of the vote.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:35:12

Nice. Impressive.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:35:15

And also, you know, back to my family, too. You know, people thought, oh, you know, you're automatically going to get it. You're a baby. You're a baby. But what my family and I were talking about, Ken, was that they had been in the legislature, which was a small sliver of the county that was almost all black and almost all Democrat. And so me running countywide was a very different thing. So what people perceived from the outside. That it was going to be this easy walk in the park for me was actually not even what my family was saying.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:35:57

No, no, it wasn't easy at all. We all remember Franklin county was much different 15 years ago than it is now.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:36:07

I mean, in a very unexpected place. I had my worst campaign experience where I had a bunch of black teenagers that were volunteering for me at a parade, and we had tennis balls thrown at us, and people were screaming the N word and showing and saying, you know, show us a real judge. And the worst part about that for me was that was their first experience being politically involved. And I was so scared that that was going to shape their perception and their willingness to be involved. I was really, really, really worried about that.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:36:59

And it probably charged their involvement.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:37:02

Yes, it ended up charging it. But then also what they told me, too, was they were very closely watching how I handled it.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:37:14

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, you know, people will. Will try to just discourage you. There's, you know, I never thought I would hear, you know, fake news grab so much of the country's attention to where when you hear something that is factual, you say that you've been conditioned to just ignore the facts right before your eyes. You talked about somebody suing because they said, no, Ken's wrong about the sky being blue is green. We've seen this play out in real life.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:37:52

Oh, absolutely. And then I would also say in my branch of government is influenced heavily by the fact that so many people's opinions and knowledge is shaped by television, which can oftentimes either be inaccurate because it's for entertainment, or what you're seeing is just a snippet, you know, and that's in civil and criminal. So in civil, you see, oh, well, they settled. Da, da da, da da. That means they did it. Not necessarily. Not necessarily. There's a million trillion.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:38:37

Just like the reasons why people get married and people get divorced. There's a million trillion reasons why people settle a case. And then what I see on the criminal side is someone is at their arraignment, which is very, very, very early in the process, and they plead not guilty. And everyone's like, oh, my God, there were fingerprints. There were DNA. There was this, there was that. And they pled not guilty. That is because pleading guilty at arraignment is almost like taking the first offer when you're buying a car.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:39:15

Do you see what I mean? Like, you have to let the system play out a little bit. And actually, the system really isn't even set up for someone to plead guilty.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:39:25

At arraignment, you just can't throw you. You hear people that are picked up at the scene of a situation and admit to murdering their child or whatever. And you just said the system's not even set up to take you at that point and take your plea.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:39:42

Ed, I don't know if you remember, it was several years ago, Ken. There was a guy, there was some like, YouTube channel where people were confessing things, and this man confessed that he was drunk and hit someone on this YouTube channel. And he pled guilty at arraignment. And it was like a shock to the Matrix because that doesn't happen very often, because even with the system playing itself out, things might come up that could even be considered at sentencing on the back end. So it usually is better to let it go ahead and play out.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:40:26

Let it play out. You heard it. You recently started a social media series where you share legal facts with people who might not know how the law works, what inspired that, and how folks have responded to it.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:40:44

When. So I've been on, I've campaigned four times now, and you really see on the campaign trail just how much people don't understand about the judiciary. And so really, after I had children, I couldn't be here, there and everywhere, like I used to educating people. So I just started a video series. Me, my phone, and sometimes my 12 year old. And people, even lawyers, have received it very well, because what happens, for example, is that, you know, say you've been a real estate lawyer for 20 years, you might not remember anything about probate law. You know, and so what I do, I just have an idea of things that I see that people don't understand or things I think people should know. And I just do a video about it in two minutes or less.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:41:50

So, for example, with the Diddy trial, I did a video that was about the difference between human trafficking and domestic violence, because that was a big debate around his trial. I had a neighbor that was screaming at people that parked in front of their house because they didn't understand that people could park in front of your house. And so I did a video on that too.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:42:22

I did public right away.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:42:23

Yeah, I did a video. I went Ohio Black Judges association, had a civics day, and we went to different high schools around the state. And I was paired actually with two magistrates from domestic court. And we spent almost the whole time, Ken, talking about sexting because those kids did not understand what it was and how much trouble you can get in for doing that. So I already knew that from my experience at that high school. And I did a video on it. Right now, at my age, I have a lot of friends that are sending kids off to college. So when I leave here, Ken, I'm going to go do a video about some of the paperwork that you should have before sending your kids off to college, such as powers of attorney.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:43:22

Because they're 18 now. You know, your parents are used to dealing with their children as minors. So because they're minors and they're parents, they can get access to all types of information. That stops when they're 18. And so can you imagine dealing with a child, especially a child that chooses to go out of the city or out of the state? And you don't have access to certain things, But I'm going to do a video to tell them, you know, on top of dorm room decorations and choosing classes for first semester and all of that, there are some things that the parents need to do, too.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:44:02

They think they can just, like, call like they used to. They've gone to the principal's office for 12 years. They've gone to parent teacher conference. And then when the child goes to college, they try to get information. They're like, we need your child to make you a proxy.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:44:18

Exactly.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:44:18

And they be like, what the bleep. You mean a proxy? I'm paying tuition. It don't matter that you paying tuition. They gotta give you permission to see their grades and what's going on. The information. Mm, mm.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:44:33

So, again, just having my eyes open and seeing a need and then doing something about it.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:44:41

How to keep. Yeah, how to keep people. Because if people don't understand the law, you can get in trouble just by not even understanding the law.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:44:52

Absolutely. And where you see that, a lot of times are people not understanding that when something goes down, Ken, a lot of times it's everybody that gets in trouble. And again, I mean civil and criminal. So, for example, I remember a case where there was a guy who had a D1 football scholarship. His friend said, hey, let's go to the movies. Okay, cool. We going to the movies. The friend says, oh, make this stop with me real quick.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:45:33

And they went inside this house and it was a trap house, and a shootout happened. Everybody's getting arrested, Ken. Everybody's getting arrested. Everybody's getting charged. And then it's the process that kind of filters it out. You know, it's not at the. Necessarily at the indictment or the arraignment stage where it comes out this person was not the shooter. The process brings that out.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:46:03

Do you see What I mean, What I mean. And then at the same time, say, for example, like a medical malpractice case, the hospital's gonna get sued, the doctor's gonna get sued, the nurses are gonna get. You know, everybody that was there is gonna get sued. Do you see what I mean? And so, yes. It can just be that you were there.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:46:26

Yeah, yeah. You know. You know, being a parent, you know, you have to try to educate your kids to have an awareness, because you could get in the car, in the wrong car with some guy, and you don't know what's in the trunk.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:46:46

Right.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:46:47

Or in the glove compartment.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:46:48

Right.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:46:49

And you become part of a conspiracy to deliver X amount of cocaine or whatever the drug may be. Mm. Mm. And you were on the passenger side.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:47:01

Yes.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:47:02

And the law won't necessarily take under consideration that you just met this guy two weeks ago.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:47:08

Right. Or. Or king, you're riding in a car, the gun's in the center console. So whose is it? Do you know, Unless somebody fesses up, both of us are gonna get arrested. You see what I mean?

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:47:22

Mm. Yeah. It's just people. Not. That's why it's so valuable for you to be providing these short educational videos just to prevent people from getting in trouble. And they had no intention on getting in trouble.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:47:40

Right. And, you know, another. You know, another area where that comes up, where, you know, people are gone, but they care, is in probate. You know, people think a lot of times, Ken, that you have to be rich to have a will. And if you have anything at all that you care about, you could have a penny collection that you are super passionate about. But if you don't have a will, you don't. You're not having a say. And where that penny collection goes, you could have a shoe collection.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:48:17

You could have a stamp collection. I mean, you could have a house that you want to go to one particular person or whatever. But, man, not having a will will really confuse that process and make it much, much longer.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:48:33

Right. And everybody taking that. People take everything they can try to take for the probate court, even know they got it.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:48:40

Yeah. Or the instance can, where, you know, divorce is expensive. Right. So sometimes what happens is people just split up. They just never get divorced. But if one of those people dies without a will, that person that you haven't lived with in 20 years is still your wife.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:49:00

They swoop in and get it out.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:49:02

Yeah. And it will be legal.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:49:04

And people don't feel. People don't feel guilt about cash and resources. The fact that they haven't been there.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:49:10

Well, especially because you're gone. There's no accountability necessarily.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:49:14

Yeah, there's that. That is just all of those things, you know, is valuable. But people don't know what they don't know. Some people don't get interested in the law unless they favorite celebrity is involved. And then all of a sudden, they watching and reading as much as they can from their resource to figure out what's going on with that case.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:49:36

Right. But where the problem comes in, too, for me, Ken, is that they're watching entertainment Hollywood or something. You know, it's hard for the media unless you're in there every second of the trial. It's really hard to know everything that goes on.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:49:55

They watching it all, you know, it's.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:49:57

Hard to know and it. And it's hard to understand.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:50:01

Yeah, they trying to learn, though.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:50:03

Yeah, yeah.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:50:04

You know, the midday judge shows are extremely popular.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:50:10

They are. I would love to have one of their paychecks too, Ken. But like, for example, when I was in common plea, he's still a trial court judge, the way that I would warm up the jury was I would tell them, you know, this is not Judge Judy. And as tempted as I might be to have a slick mouth like her, nothing's going to be resolved in 30 minutes. I would tell them that there is no person in a dark room surrounded by computers that's going to tell us that a speck of concrete is going to come from the southwest corner of Broadened, you know, like on csi. Like, that stuff does not exist. And then I would say, you know, I had been waiting for years for a detective to look like LL Cool Jeff, but it hadn't happened yet. You know, just to get ice T.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:51:05

Ain'T never walked into.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:51:06

Oh, some of them might look like that. But I was looking for somebody fine like LL Cool J. Come on now. And so, you know, just to try and manage the.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:51:17

Not the ladies love. I gotta stop.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:51:21

You don't like LL Cool J. I love LL Cool J. I just seen.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:51:24

LL Cool J a few days ago.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:51:26

Forget Oreos. Eat LB cookies. Yeah, I'm bad. Come on, now.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:51:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Run dmc.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:51:34

But that was how I knew TV shaped their opinions so much. That is how I would try and manage expectations.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:51:46

Mm. Dude, you know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Is it true that the criminal justice system treats attractive people better than people that may look a little differently? I heard that they said that research proves it.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:52:07

Judges are people, too. Judges are people, too. So for some, maybe but honestly, Ken, when you're a female judge, you're always going to have those good looking people that think that they can persuade you by complimenting or flirting or whatever. So you really should become immune to it pretty quickly.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:52:30

They, on the whole, you know, they try to, you know, play for the.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:52:33

Jury or, you know, can I do my community service in your yard? You know, that kind of thing, you know.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:52:40

Mm. Or lawyers try to leverage their charisma, too, in the courtroom.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:52:44

Oh, absolutely. And a lot of times these people are very charismatic and have gotten very far with that charisma, whether that's legally or illegally. But it's our job to be immune to that.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:53:03

Yeah. Otherwise, you know, you could come in the courtroom dressed. Lawyers dress up for a reason, and they tell their defendant. Most times try to look their best.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:53:12

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Or try and tell them not to look their best to try and garner sympathy. Or some defendants would bring their children, you know, as a female judge, they would assume, you know, not considering that in some instances, I would say, you have done X, Y and Z, you shouldn't be raising a child.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:53:40

Wow. They was mad after that. You wouldn't want to see them at the grocery store after you told them.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:53:45

That I signed up for a job where sometimes even the winners aren't happy. It just goes with the territory.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:53:54

See, that's messed up. It goes with the territory. It's like telling the defendant, you're a walking picture of why birth control matters. You shouldn't have had no kids.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:54:02

Well, I did slip at one time and tell somebody I wouldn't believe him if his tongue was notarized.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:54:11

Let's get to this. The point of safety now. Things are so tastic in so many ways. How do you feel about safety and your security as a judge, even at the appellate level?

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:54:27

You know, I had an experience, Ken, early on in my career where, and this was when I was single and living alone, I got a letter, a very explicit, very explicit letter from someone who had been convicted of rape that no one could find. It detailed a date we went on, the food I ordered, the outfit I had on, very, very detailed. And from that, that was my wake up to the danger of my job. So that there are certain establishments that I miss but can no longer go to. And then after that letter, I received. The good thing was that I realized how much I liked my job. But I did, after that, become a gun owner. I had never contemplated owning a gun before, before that, but I said, you know, if I'm going to own a Gun.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:55:38

I'm going to be know how to own a gun responsibly. So the deputies got me, you know, CCWs were required at the time. And so the deputies from the Franklin County Sheriff's Office got me in a CCW class. They got me to a place. It's closed now, unfortunately. But I had a handgun that was made specifically for my trigger pull. And so that is how I protect myself is with my. My roommates, Smith and Wesson.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:56:17

Yeah.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:56:19

Because it's dangerous. To the point now where there is actually federal legislation that will being introduced that will protect even state court judges.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:56:31

Yeah.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:56:32

And I think what's interesting about too, the danger of that judges face. People assume that it's from a criminal docket. But if I recall correctly, the last judge shot in Ohio, that was about a foreclosure case.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:56:51

Wow.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:56:52

And since I've been around this county complex, the complex has been evacuated three or four times. And all of those, except for one. The time Kim Brown and Judge Fry were mailed a white powdery substance. But every other time, the threat came from domestic.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:57:17

Yes, I can see that domestic is. That's just a pressure cooker. How I leave an awful lot of officer involved shootings with an officer is fatally injured is those domestic violence calls.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:57:35

And how I explain it to people too, Ken, is that domestic court deals with love and hate. Money, property and children. It's anything anyone cares about.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:57:48

Yeah. Yeah.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:57:50

So, yeah, the feelings can go through the roof really quickly.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:57:54

Love and hate. That's what you think about Bobby Brown in that movie. Love and hate. But it's dangerous when you're a player. It can come back, bite you.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:58:05

Domestic court can make people who are otherwise completely rational people completely irrational.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:58:14

Yeah.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:58:15

It's just the nature of what they have jurisdiction on.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:58:19

Real life. Fatal Attraction. Mm. Mm.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:58:24

Oh, and those happen too, because I remember one time there was a protection order in front of me from a guy who'd had a extramarital affair. And I'd never read anything so close to that movie, Fatal Attraction, to the point where he's in the back of the courtroom with his wife. And I looked up and I said, sir, there's no way this was worth it.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:58:52

Right, right, right, right, right, right. Mm. Yeah. Wrong guy, though. It wasn't Bobby Brown was in the movie, but Martin Lawrence was on the. On the. On the. On the receiving end of the.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:59:01

Wait, Ken, are you talking about Radio Raheem that had the rings? Mm.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:59:06

Mm. Talking about the movie. It's a thin line between love and hate.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:59:09

Oh, Okay, I remember radio rocking.

Kenneth Wilson [: 00:59:12

Yeah. But seriously though, you right, domestic violence cases, couldn't imagine being a judge, having a docket of those cases. Cause there's so much emotion.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 00:59:27

And you know what, Ken? I think another thing that we can't forget because I do believe that the social determinants of health are very significant. However, when you do that, sometimes it leads you exclusively to certain neighborhoods. But there are three areas, Ken, that do not see race, class or whatever. Domestic violence, substance abuse and mental illness. It doesn't matter if you are in a trailer or a mansion with those three things, they can happen anywhere. I will never forget when I was in law school and I volunteered at the YWCA domestic violence shelter down there. There was a woman that came to talk to us in our orientation and she was like, oh, maybe her husband was like orthopedic surgeon or a doctor that makes like a lot of money. And what he would do in the cycle of violence was that when he, he would do something horrible.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:00:34

And then when he would make up with her, he would do something like buy her a fur coat. But then when he got mad, he would have her hold the coat out like this and he would shoot at it. That's in their mansion to her fur coat that cost thousands of dollars. So that's my point, you know, and the opiate epidemic was all over our county, you know that.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:01:01

Yes. It didn't discriminate.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:01:03

And that's what I'm saying. Domestic violence, substance abuse and mental illness. Don't care where you live. Don't care if you're a man or a woman, you're black, white, Christian, non Christian, whatever those three things.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:01:16

See, people don't understand that. People don't understand that you can lose your mind with money.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:01:22

Oh, absolutely.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:01:24

When you've been broke and you've been on the come up. Because being, you know, being, you know, being broke is an economic condition though. But living in poverty is mentally debilitating. But people don't. Can't think of when they stuck in that situation how you can lose your mind with money. They say money is the root of all evil. More money, more problems. I guess that's, that's how you go to the other edge.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:01:52

I think that money can actually make it worse sometimes because you have the money for the drugs. You know what I mean? If you have an addiction problem, getting it and feeding that addiction is not a problem. You know, if you have. But particularly with substance abuse and mental illness are things that money can't necessarily fix. You can send someone to 25 zillion rehabs. You can send them to the most expensive, best rehab in the world, and it still might not work. Do you see what I mean?

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:02:33

Yeah. It's the tragedy around the lottery winners you hear about all the time. Yeah.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:02:37

Or, you know, if you have a substance abuse problem and you go get help and you go back to your mansion, that's still the place where you did your drugs. Do you see what I mean? And so that's still gonna be a challenge for you.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:02:52

Yep. What's your motivation for the future? What is Jesus, Lord, baby blood's gonna be next. I believe in the future.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:03:01

It's like. I don't know. I don't know right now, one. One step, one video at a time, just trying to perform a service for the public. And it really does, you know, I don't think altruism is gone, Ken. I'm just doing it just to do it, just because I want people. And they. If you also notice, it's.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:03:30

My videos are neutral, not just because of the judicial canons. My videos are neutral because I'm talking about things that I think that everyone has a right to know. I'm talking about things that will affect everyone's life, and I want to stick to that.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:03:49

Okay. Okay. Good answer.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:03:53

Thanks.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:03:53

What. What do you do for enjoyment? What does. What do? What do you enjoy doing?

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:04:02

I. I do a couple things. I act silly with my kids. We like to play a lot of board games and cards and stuff. And at the end of a really heavy day, coming back down to that, like, almost basic fun and basic innocence can really, really help me. I exercise and I go to church, and I very purposely go to a church where it's not tied to materialism. The church where I go really is just about learning the rules to lead.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:04:47

A good life where you just can go in and just be yourself. You can be Laurel and don't have to think about the rest.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:05:00

Yes. And the pastor, it was funny because someone asked me, how do I serve my church? And I was like, I don't. And they were like, oh. And I'm like, but the pastor understands. I just need one place to be anonymous. And Because, Ken, you know, like, the videos and everything are really just. Because I just want people to know what happens. A lot of times I've put myself out there, and then I get surprised when someone recognizes me.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:05:33

But I just needed that one place to just be anonymous. And What. What better place?

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:05:41

Ain't very many places you can be anonymous. And like you said, there's places that, you know, you just can't go no more.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:05:46

Right, right.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:05:49

And that's a sacrifice. So where do you, you know, vacation wise, what's your favorite spot?

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:05:56

I really like Aruba because I am a huge water person. And, you know, it only rains like, 16 days a year or something in Aruba, so you're almost guaranteed good weather.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:06:08

So that took away the beach versus mountain question.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:06:12

No, beach all day.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:06:14

Beach all day. Always ask everybody that on these topics, you know.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:06:19

You know, at the beach, Ken, where they have, like, the lines where you're, like, not supposed to go past there. I'm. I'm the person that's, like, holding on to it.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:06:29

Okay.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:06:30

So I do. I have some daredevil.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:06:32

The edge there. The edge. Got a little edge there.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:06:36

Yes.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:06:37

On the edge. Okay. Nothing wrong with. Nothing wrong with that. Okay. Yeah.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:06:43

One other thing that I. I forget in response to which question, Ken, but one thing I think that, that I learned from being on the bench that applies just to life in general is the appreciation of consequences. I think that there are a lot of people that come through courts not anticipating or appreciating consequences, whether that is in the criminal or the civil context. And so how that has actually changed my parenting is that because I remember one time there was a case where someone was about to plead guilty to stabbing someone, which, you know, is very personal because you have to get close. And I mean, he was sobbing for his mom in the. You know, it just seems inconsistent. You're. You're wailing, literally wailing for your mom, but you stab.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:07:44

You say you stab someone. And because that felt so inconsistent, I was talking to the defense lawyer about it, and she said to me, judge, this is the first time he's. That mom couldn't fix it for him. And being an empathetic person now, you know, I still sent him to prison, but it was not lost on me what it must feel like for the first time that you face consequences. You're in an orange jumpsuit coming into a courtroom to see a stranger that's in a black robe sitting way up here, and they're the ones that's going to determine your fate. How scary. How scary that must be.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:08:32

He probably cried all the way on the van or wherever he was going to, wherever he got sentenced to.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:08:37

Yeah.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:08:37

And hopefully he stopped crying. Hopefully you got to stop crying before you get out of a jail bus.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:08:43

Right.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:08:43

Going to a prison.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:08:45

And so how that changed my parenting, Ken, is I'm making sure that my kids are learning to appreciate consequences. Now I don't even want them to wait until high school. They're learning now in middle and elementary school.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:09:02

Wow. So the person, he was crying before you sentenced him or after you sentenced him?

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:09:09

No, he was getting ready to come out to plead guilty, and he was crying. I won't say he was crying. He was sobbing, Ken. And the other thing that struck me about that, too, is that, you know, in the courtroom, common pleas courtrooms, you know, the lockups next to the courtroom only fits what, like three or four people or something? And so it was also not lost on me that he was sobbing like that in front of other men. To me, that said he was really feeling something. You know what I mean? So he was in a world of trouble just because he'd never had to face consequences before. Mom had always fixed it. And I'm a mom, too.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:09:55

I understand how tempting that is.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:09:57

Fix it. Mm. Don't let your child suffer. I'm just gonna fix it.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:10:02

Yeah. But it does not serve them well.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:10:06

Yeah. Cause the law don't allow you. Just have somebody come in and fix it all the time. Mm.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:10:13

And I'll leave you with this, Ken, for everyone to know. There's three things that a criminal doc is made up of. Guns, drugs, or some form of an unhealthy relationship. And the unhealthy relationship is your mind automatically goes to domestic violence, like we were talking about before. But an unhealthy relationship is also that friend that took his friend into the trap house. An unhealthy relationship is the woman I had in front of me one time that stole a bunch of money from her employer because she wanted to get her boyfriend some new rims. You know, there's lots of forms of unhealthy relationship. It's the mother that encourages her son to sell drugs.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:11:06

Do you see what I mean?

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:11:07

For the benefits.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:11:08

Yes. Guns, drugs, some form of unhealthy relationship. That's mostly of what criminal dockets are made of.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:11:17

And those that didn't have the healthiest relationships where they were ever told they were cared about their whole entire life. You see that when you see so many real live interviews of individuals that have become murderers or whatever, they break down and said no one never told them they loved them. No one never cared. Nobody never gave them any compassion.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:11:47

Unfortunately, from my experience, Ken, if I could wave a magic wand, I would give everyone good parents. And unfortunately, my experience, when I say good parents, from my experience, I just mean do no harm. I'm not even. I'm not even saying kiss Them and hug them and tell them their love. I'm just saying, just don't drag them down. No harm.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:12:17

Don't drag them down.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:12:19

Yeah. That's. That's all I would ask if. If I could change the world.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:12:24

Wow. Just do no harm.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:12:26

Do no harm.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:12:28

Don't try to be perfect. Just don't do no harm. Stay out the way.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:12:33

Yeah. You know, I think when you. When you've been involved with the justice system and you see what happens to some kids. Yeah, you're. The bar gets very low just to do no harm. Because when I was in common pleas and I was sentencing, a lot of times I felt like I was on the wrong end because the bench I was on dealt with adults, you know? And so what I came to learn is that there are instances where, for example, a woman has a drug addiction and she prostitutes herself to feed that drug addiction, and she gets pregnant by someone she doesn't even know or will see again. And, Ken, that baby literally has an uphill battle. When the sperm met the egg.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:13:33

When the sperm. From the very beginning, an uphill battle.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:13:41

Uphill with the wind blowing.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:13:46

Hurricane wind.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:13:48

With the wind blowing. Going up here.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:13:51

But at the same time, I am so appreciative that I live in Franklin county for two reasons. In Franklin county, we do have elected officials and people like you that support a lot of the things that influence the criminal and civil justice system. And we also have a very generous philanthropic community as compared to others. And so I'm so thankful when I would go to judicial conferences and I would talk to other judges that their sentencing options are jail, prison, or home. And that's it. I was always so, so, so appreciative of living in Franklin county, where we have a lot more options to deal with the people that we see. Because I don't think, Ken, that we live in a mutually exclusive world. There are people that deserve to go to prison that we need protection from, and then there are also people that just need some help and deserve a second chance.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:15:03

Both of those groups can exist at the same time. And as a judge, I was also thinking of using my resources in both ways.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:15:14

Yeah. The justice system has to make sense. And for the justice system to make sense, it deals with both populations.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:15:22

It absolutely does.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:15:23

In an effective, innovative fashion.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:15:27

But in our world right now, either you're A or you're Z, you know what I mean? And we don't think that they can coexist. And they can in some instances.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:15:37

Nope. But you just gotta say, you know, all things shall pass and be optimistic that we get to the right place. And Franklin county is fortunate to have individuals that have your legal knowledge, and you are committed to sharing that and putting the knowledge at a level where the masses can understand it.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:16:05

That's my superpower, and that's.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:16:07

That's very important for people to be dedicated. So you keep on putting your videos out there, and I'm sure people gonna keep on watching them. Okay. You keep on being a silent advisor in political races where you bring knowledge to the people and people don't even know that the judge had anything to do with it. You keep on doing all those things that you're doing for the good of the residents. And we all are fortunate to have you and willing to accept your calling, accept your legacy, and continue to grow it. We're fortunate for that. So we conclude this.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:16:51

Judge Beatty laying down the. Put your hashtag out there for me.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:16:54

I don't want to get Laurel laysdown the law. Hashtag Laurel lays down Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:17:02

Repeat that again for podcast listeners.

Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt [: 01:17:06

Hashtag Laurel, L A U R E L Lays down the law with a gavel bang.

Kenneth Wilson [: 01:17:14

Law lay down. Like I always conclude, do you? Because nobody else has time to thank you. Sa.