Judging LaJune

On November 2, 2004, perennial candidate Kevin Kolosky will achieve something that few, if any Minnesota lawyers ever have: He will have run for judge nearly as many times as he has argued before a jury. Starting in 1994, literally weeks after passing the bar exam, Kolosky started campaigning, opposing whatever hapless soul he believes is the weakest judge in the herd. In 2002, five elections later, he came within eight percentage points of toppling African-American judge Harry Crump. This time, he has set his sights on Judge LaJune Thomas Lange. Interestingly, all but one of Kolosky’s five previous opponents have been females or minorities. Given Kolosky’s growing name recognition and Lange’s challenged rankings in recent lawyer preference polls, the “underwhelming” Kolosky, in the words of one judge, just might bag his prey.

Every lawyer has the opportunity to “strike,” or remove, a judge from a case, no questions asked. Over the years, lawyers have come to use the resulting statistic as a barometer of a judge’s effectiveness. Lange, appointed by Gov. Rudy Perpich in 1985, was a relatively popular choice. In her first ten years or so on the bench, her removal numbers were consistent with other Hennepin County judges.

Recently, however, her numbers have gone dramatically south. In fact, a third of all lawyers slated to appear before her in the past year have struck her from their cases. Some trace the spiral to 1995, when a group of Hennepin County District Court judges publicly accused Lange of lagging behind in processing juvenile court data. The Minnesota Board of Judicial Standards, which then investigated Lange for “undermining public confidence in the judiciary,” eventually exonerated Lange and even paid her legal fees.

Lange is not the only judge who finds herself targeted by certain constituencies—onetime criminal defense attorney Jack Nordby often gets booted by prosecutors who think he is too soft on bad guys. But no one gets struck from cases nearly as frequently as Lange. Some of the lawyers who diss her claim that she relies on her clerks too much and is not “engaged” enough with the litigants in her courtroom. Her supporters, on the other hand, such as campaign co-chair and former Republican state senator Wayne Popham, say she gets high marks from crime victims, cops, and many county prosecutors, who appreciate that she is tough on criminals.

The judges I spoke with, even those who are not big Lange fans, overwhelmingly support her over Kolosky. However, at least one judge believes much of Lange’s support would evaporate if “a Don Lewis [a well-regarded African-American trial lawyer] or someone equally respected” were to run instead of some non-entity with “baggage” like Kolosky. Said “baggage” stems from an incident during Kolosky’s first campaign, when, in addressing a debate question about combating domestic assault, he admitted that he had hit his wife. Asked to explain his comments, he said, “Yes, I was arrested for domestic assault. My wife and I both hit each other and a neighbor called the police. I am sorry that I did it and I do not think it should disqualify me from being a judge.”

Unlike Lange, who has a number of endorsements ranging from the Minneapolis Police Federation to the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Minnesota, Kolosky boasts that he has none because he is not out there “kissing any butt.” Kolosky concedes that he has virtually no trial or appellate experience; he claims his strongest qualifications are his pro bono work and the hours he has spent watching “good judges.”

Kolosky declined to comment on Lange’s abilities, saying he was not “going to dish any dirt on her.” He says he chose to run against her because her judicial evaluations indicated certain “vulnerabilities.” Race, he adds, “has nothing do with it.”

Maybe Kolosky believes that. Several Hennepin County judges and lawyers with whom I spoke do not. According to one judge, who declined to be named, “Race has a lot to do with it. Judge Lange is revered in the African-American community as a role model and leader. She has served the international legal community, for example, helping out South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Kolosky has done little but make a career out of running against women judges and black judges. Replacing her with Kolosky would be a real shame.”