Former Wayne County Judge Dennis Kehoe has no plans to stop working after being forced to retire at the end of last year due to a New York State law that requires judges to retire when they reach 70 years old.
Kehoe sat down with the Times of Wayne County last week to reflect on his 20-plus year tenure as county judge and discuss his future plans, which may include a run for district attorney in November – a position currently held by acting D.A. Christopher Bokelman.
What are your plans now?
I plan on taking the next couple weeks to relax and get the sense of where I’m at and what I’m doing. I have about a week to go before I’m approved as a JHO, which is a judicial hearing officer. That means I can do hearings, assigned by the court system.
I’m considering running for [district attorney], but I haven’t decided that I’m going to do that. I need to get a sense of how that impacts my status as a JHO. I assume that if I decide to run, then I would have to resign as a JHO. I have had a lot of encouragement to run for it. I’ve done a lot of trials.
I’ve always believed that in order to do trials, you need to be good at it. And in order to be good at it, you’ve got to do them. I’ve always volunteered to do trials above and beyond even the ones in Wayne County. I’ve done a lot of them. I’ve done trials in Westchester, Steuben County, Jefferson County, Monroe County. I’ve also done other non-criminal trials in other counties. I’ve done a lot of trials.
I have a background as a state trooper for four years before I went to law school. Then I was in the D.A.’s office for 11 years. So, I’m intrigued with the thought of running for D.A., but I haven’t decided that I’m going to do that yet. A lot of it depends on who comes out of the woodwork, so to speak. We have a lot of capable attorneys in Wayne County who could run for that. I’m going to wait and see who.
Part of my concern is that people are kind of sick of the political process for a little while; it was a long, long, long season for the presidency, obviously. So, I think the committee people, and people in general, would like a break from that for a little while.
I haven’t done anything as far as going out seeking committee support, but if it makes sense and I decide to do that, that is what I’ll be doing. The election is a long way off. I don’t have a lot of time to decide if I’m going to run, obviously. I’ll decide sometime in the next month, I expect.
I’m sure that age will be an issue. But I look at it this way – we now have a president that is six months older than. Wayne County carried him by about a two to one margin. I don’t think my age is an issue. People would like you to have experience and they expect you to have good judgment. I’d like to think that my years as a judge have demonstrated that I have the ability to do the right thing. Time will tell.
So you have no intentions of relaxing and enjoying retirement?
I won’t be relaxing, the question is what will I be doing?
If I run for D.A., it won’t be for the money. In fact, I’ve already done a little checking into that. If I run for this position, it will actually save the county thousands of dollars. If I do it, it’s because – one, I think I’ll be good at it, and two, I think you need somebody who’s good at it, and three, I think I have the background and experience to do it.
And I like working. I love my job as a judge. I wish that I could’ve continued, but I understand the process and it’s not going to change for me. Although they limit you by age for judge, they haven’t limited you for pretty much any other job.
Looking back on your career, what were some of your most memorable cases?
The judgeship, in addition to dealing with criminal cases, also deals with family court cases. A lot of the cases involve child abuse, child neglect. You could do a lot good by deciding cases the way that they ought to be decided. I’ve done so many trials that it’s for me to pick out one and say, ‘this trial is more significant than others.’
What led you down this career path?
My brother Paul became a lawyer when I was just a kid. Three or four years after that he ended up moving to Wayne County; this would’ve been back in 1962. He shortly thereafter became the D.A. There are a lot of people in my family who are lawyers. I had gone into the state police originally. Then I decided that I wanted to go to law school, so I resigned from there.
What did you find most rewarding about being a judge?
Doing the right thing, making sure that people receive their day in court, making sure that wrongs were righted and bad people who were found guilty were punished appropriately. The people who weren’t [found guilty] were free to go about their business. It’s a good experience being able to help with the process and make sure that people’s rights are protected. That’s not just the rights of the defendant but the rights of the victims.
How has crime in Wayne County changed over your career?
I have always contended that Wayne County ought to take out a promotional ad, ‘If you want to avoid crime, move to Wayne County.’ Wayne County has crime like everywhere else, but it’s a pretty nice place to live. Our crime rate, I think, is lower than most places, at least in our area. It’s much lower than Monroe County and appears to be much lower than Ontario County. Wayne County is good place to live. It has been good to me and my family.
How do you feel that Rick Healy will fill the role?
I think Rick will do a great job. He’s going to have a learning curve in family court simply because he hasn’t done it. But he will pick it up fast. It’s a process that you have to learn, you have to learn the rules. Just like rules of evidence, he was good at rules of evidence. It’s about learning the rules, and he will pick them up very fast. He’ll do a great job.
Do you think that you and Healy have similar philosophies?
He and I both want to make sure that people who are found guilty pay the price that the law provides for. At the same time, those people who are found innocent are not prosecuted. I think he and I have similar philosophies – do the right thing by the people who are in front of you.”
What did you find most difficult about being judge?
Listening to testimony. Rick and I just did a trial recently where this man had pimped out his stepdaughter to several different guys. And to listen to this girl’s testimony is something you have to do, but it’s hard to listen to people tell the story of how they have been abused. I find that hard, but I understand that somebody has to do it. Rick had to ask the questions and I had to listen to the answers. I’m sure it was also tough for the jury, people are not used to listening to stories about people who have been abused by other people. The courtroom is a different world to most people.
Is there anything else that you’d like to add?
I just plan on taking two or three weeks [to relax], going out to do a little JHO work hopefully and listening to the counsel of some other people on deciding whether or not I’m going to run for D.A. I’ll keep an open mind. In the meantime, I hope to enjoy myself and enjoy my family.
The post 20+ Years on the Bench: An Interview with retired County Judge Dennis Kehoe appeared first on Times of Wayne County.