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Toddrick S. Barnette
Originally published in
the July/August 2006 issue.
Author:
Tracy M. Smith
His face resting
thoughtfully in the palm of his hand as he works his way through
a full docket of misdemeanor court appearances, Judge Todd
Barnette looks at home on the bench. He has been a judge for
only a couple of months, yet already runs his courtroom with
quiet authority.
Leaning forward and looking over his glasses
at a defendant he is conditionally releasing, Judge Barnette
tells him in no uncertain terms: “You can’t drive. You can’t
drink. Stay out of trouble. Take care of your kids.” To a
skinny young man who had missed a court appearance, Judge
Barnette asks: “Why’d you miss court?” Not getting a
satisfactory answer, he calmly repeats, “Why’d you miss court?”
Finally getting a response, Judge Barnette warns the man not to
miss the next time, because there might be a different judge on
the bench. Then, like he is springing a pop quiz, Judge
Barnette asks the man to repeat when he is next due in court.
The young man promptly recites the correct time and date,
drawing a smile from the judge.
Quick impressions of the judge in court are
confirmed by a longer interview: Judge Barnette is a thoughtful,
understated but confident man with an engaging sense of humor.
Judge Barnette was raised by his mother and
grandmother as an only child in the Anacostia neighborhood in
Southeast Washington, D.C., an area widely known for its
crushing poverty and devastating crime. While familiar with
both—“any direction you walked you could find drugs,
trouble”—Judge Barnette grew up in a tight-knit community on a
working class block. Most of the families had been there since
the fifties and formed a stable community in which everyone knew
everyone. If he “got in trouble on the playground, a neighbor
lady had already called the house” by the time he got home.
While individual families didn’t have nannies, “Nana” East, a
woman who lived across the street from Judge Barnette’s
grandmother, took care of all of the little kids on the block,
while the older kids spent their free time at the playground.
Judge Barnette’s mother worked at the local
recreational center, developing and running programs for
kids—“anything to keep people in the community engaged.” She
sent her son to Catholic school. He laughingly recalls how his
neighborhood friends would skip school to come tease him about
his uniform. But, Judge Barnette says, even these friends, whom
many might have considered to be bad influences, wanted him to
do well.
It was important to his mother that her son
learn that “there were things beyond Southeast.” She took him
to Saks Fifth Avenue in Northwest Washington, and she showed him
the beautiful fruits and vegetables sold at a market in
Southwest D.C. His mother also sent him to live with an adored
uncle in Hawaii for his sixth-grade year. While Judge Barnette
saw what the world had to offer, he also learned not to treat
people differently because of their means. His family had more
than others, and less than many, but in his neighborhood, he
says, those distinctions didn’t matter.
After high school, Judge Barnette commuted
from his home in Southeast to George Washington University,
where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and
sociology. At GWU, he was particularly engaged in the
Educational Opportunity Program, an enrichment and tutoring
program designed to foster students of color. Following
graduation, Judge Barnette considered pursuing a graduate degree
in criminal justice, but on the advice of mentors decided to go
to law school.
An acquaintance suggested the University of
Minnesota Law School. Judge Barnette applied and then came to
Minneapolis for a visit. He spent a nice sunny day in May
touring the city, walking around Lake Calhoun and Lake of the
Isles, and decided to move here for school. Several months
later, he watched in disbelief as four inches of snow fell, but
the Law School wasn’t closing, forcing him to race to class.
(Washington, D.C. is notorious for shutting down with an inch of
snow.) The 1991 Halloween snowstorm, which dumped almost 30
inches of snow on the Twin Cities, cemented that he had entered
a very different world.
During law school, Judge Barnette served as a
judicial extern to Federal District Judge Michael Davis. He did
not yet know what he wanted to do with his law degree, and Judge
Davis suggested he look at the Hennepin County Public Defender’s
Office. Judge Barnette not only took that advice, he, along
with Judge Davis’s law clerk, took from Judge Davis his unused
invitation to an open house at the Public Defender’s Office,
mainly to enjoy the free food and drink. At the event Judge
Barnette connected with the personnel director and got an
interview, and soon thereafter he was working as a law clerk in
the office.
After graduation, Judge Barnette joined the
Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office as a lawyer. Judge
Barnette handled a variety of misdemeanor and felony cases, and
he spent much of his time on cases in juvenile court. From 2001
to 2004, he was the senior attorney in the drug court unit.
After 14 years with the public defender, he
decided to try something new. Committed to remaining in public
service, Judge Barnette joined the Hennepin County Attorney’s
Office as a senior assistant county attorney in the Juvenile
Division. There, Judge Barnette prosecuted all types of
delinquency cases, and he had a special focus on certification
of juveniles as adults and “extended jurisdiction” cases. Judge
Barnette was also responsible for the Criminal Sexual Conduct
Team within the Juvenile Division.
When asked what he learned from moving to the
other side of criminal law, Judge Barnette responded that it was
not hard to switch from defending to prosecuting. In either
case, he said, the lawyer is an advocate doing his job. Rather,
what impressed him most were the “tireless workers” at the
county attorney’s office. As a public defender, he had
considered prosecutors to have endless resources and, he joked,
a “cushy job.” But he soon learned to appreciate the enormous
amount of case preparation prosecutors must do to be ready for
whatever the judge or the defense throws their way. Judge
Barnette was also impressed by his colleagues’ deep commitment
to public safety and victim rights.
Outside of his law practice, Judge Barnette
has been active in professional and bar activities. He is a
member of the Minnesota State Bar Association, Hennepin County
Bar Association, Minnesota County Attorneys Association,
Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers, and Black Prosecutors
Association, and he has served on the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers, Minnesota Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers, and Hennepin County Juvenile Advisory
Committee.
Judge Barnette’s volunteer work reflects his
interest in community and youth. He worked with the Restorative
Justice Peacemaking Project in North Minneapolis, which is a
community-based, nonjudicial program working with offenders,
victims, and community members to address crime and its impact.
Along with two colleagues, Judge Barnette co-taught a course in
self-defense through the Juvenile Gun Program run by Hennepin
County’s juvenile probation department. This course was not
“self-defense” in the traditional sense. Rather, it taught kids
that it is not self-defense to use a gun because someone treated
them with disrespect. Judge Barnette tried to teach the youth
to avoid violent reactions, to see that they “can walk away” and
“still stay alive.”
Judge Barnette’s life is made even busier by
his two small children, Morgan, 3, and Myles, 1. Judge Barnette
also has an adult son, Herman Mean. Judge Barnette is married
to Gretchen Hoffman, a lawyer whom he first met in his law clerk
days at the Public Defender’s Office. Judge Barnette and his
family reside in Maple Grove. Judge Barnette says that his
governing principle as a judge—for himself, for his staff, and
for the lawyers appearing before him—is that they must treat
everyone with respect. “We are going to get calls from someone
I sentenced, from that person’s cousin, and from the chief
judge,” he says, and he expects his staff to be respectful to
all of them. “We are going to be in the business of being
customer friendly.” He expects the same from the lawyers in his
courtroom. While the job can be stressful, and advocates can be
zealous, he insists that lawyers always remain professional. As
a judge, Judge Barnette also is continually aware of the need to
keep an open mind. People will surprise you, he says. Someone
might have a bad track record, but this time might turn things
around.
Judge Barnette’s philosophy echoes the lessons
he learned in his youth. His mother was not alive to attend his
public swearing-in ceremony on March 17, 2006. But his
grandmother was there, and she held the Bible for her grandson,
the new Hennepin County district judge.
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