News Photo by Julie Riddle Judge Alan Curtis, right, addresses defense attorney Ron Bayot in Alpena’s 88th District Court on Wednesday.

ALPENA — In a courtroom, fairness rules, said Alpena’s newest judge.

Alan Curtis, who has presided over Alpena’s district and probate courts since early November, has sat at both tables in a courtroom, pressing charges as a prosecutor in Colorado and making impassioned arguments as a defense attorney in Alpena.

Now, he sits on the bench, appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October upon the departure of retiring judge Thomas LaCross.

Curtis will serve as Alpena’s probate and 88th District Court judge for a partial term, through the end of 2022. If he wishes to serve the remainder of LaCross’s term, through the end of 2024, he will have to run for election in November 2022.

Combining the perspective from both sides of a court case, Curtis now, as judge, no longer fights vigorously to be heard. Instead, he is tasked with looking below the surface of attorneys’ arguments, listening for the truth with deliberate neutrality.

“That’s the job,” Curtis said. “To sit up there and listen.”

Attorneys have an ethical obligation to zealously represent their clients, Curtis said, discussing his first months of judgeship in the 88th District Court courtroom on Wednesday.

The word “zealot,” often used in the context of religious fanaticism, captures the intensity with which an attorney should work on behalf of their client, Curtis said.

That passion, he said, often makes its way to the courtroom, but a judge has to look past passion and listen for the information needed to make a just decision based on the law.

“You don’t get swayed by the show or how loud they are,” Curtis said.

Attorneys who fight for their clients show they care, he said. But those sometimes-showy arguments don’t change the words attorneys say or the laws judges must use to decide what to allow, what to exclude, and how to respond to any given defendant.

A vigorous debater himself before his appointment to the judgeship, Curtis knew he wouldn’t always sway the judge, and he didn’t always get his way in court. After all, he said, an attorney’s argument is their commentary on what they believe to be true – but, “that doesn’t mean they got it right.”

The attorneys he practiced alongside in the past now appear before him, pleading their cases and hoping he will rule in their favor.

State law mandates an automatic, but waivable, conflict between a judge and clients represented by a law practice for which the judge worked, with that regulation lasting for two years after a judge’s installation.

Especially in a small community, judges and attorneys and other people in the criminal justice system may know each other beyond the workplace, sometimes moving in the same social circles and forming friendships.

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Non-work relationships with the other players in the courtroom don’t change the facts and laws that drive a judge’s decisions, however, Curtis said.

“Everyone’s a professional,” he said. “It’s not personal.”

Nor, he said, can a judge’s personal feelings about crime in general impact his or her decisions.

“I want a good, safe community,” Curtis said, stating that he won’t automatically rubber stamp cases to move through court just because someone is accused of a crime. “I’d rather not have those crimes in our community. But I’m not going to rule that way just because I don’t want it. I’m going to rule in the way I believe the evidence and the law dictates me to.”

When appointed to the judgeship, Curtis anticipated the flow of criminal cases, mental health petitions, landlord/tenant complaints, and civil complaints over which he presides as district court and probate judge.

More surprising to the new judge were the guardianship and conservatorship cases, many of which bring tears to his eyes as family members volunteer to take care of developmentally disabled adults.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “Because the alternative is so bad.”

That part of being a judge lets him see a community full of people, he said, “who care just because they care.”

In deciding whether the court should order someone to take medications, whether a police officer’s testimony should be allowed, or whether a landlord can evict a tenant, a judge has to stay in the middle, making sure all who come into court are treated fairly, the law is applied, and people’s due process is protected, the judge of three months said.

“I’m not a prosecutor,” he said. “I’m not a defense attorney. I’m a judge. I’m just trying to be fair.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.