SILVERTON
When San Juan County Judge Lyndon Skinner took the bench seven years ago, he was unfamiliar with basic legal terms such as “Rule 404(b),” the statute that describes when previous crimes or wrongful acts can be used against a defendant.
“There were times that I would openly ask, ‘OK, what are you talking about? What does this mean?’” Skinner said. “It almost seemed like the attorneys that were tossing this stuff out were testing me.”
Skinner’s unfamiliarity with the law is easily explained: He has no law degree.
He is one of seven county judges in Colorado without a law degree. They are known as “lay judges” and possess the same powers as other county judges.
State law allows lay judges to serve in 36 of the state’s 64 counties, generally the least populated ones where, in some cases, no lawyers reside.
Skinner plans to resign June 30 – not because he is tired of the job or overwhelmed by the law, but because Colorado judges are forced out of office when they turn 72. He turns 72 in early July.
Serving as a lay judge has been an eye-opener, Skinner said. A judge’s job may seem simple to the casual observer: The judge listens to the case and makes a decision. But the reality, Skinner found, is different.
“It has caused me to reach to a deeper level in my thinking processes – a level I didn’t even know I was capable of – and I’m so thankful for that opportunity,” he said.
Deputy District Attorney David Ottman, who has been appearing in Skinner’s court for three years, described him as a thoughtful person who pays special attention to fairness. He’s always willing to research a point of law he’s unfamiliar with, Ottman said.
“We’ll miss him; he’s been an asset to San Juan County,” Ottman said. “It’s just always a treat to be in his court.”
Why Silverton?
Skinner was born in El Paso, Texas. He remembers visiting Silverton as a kid and vowing to someday make it his home.
“Why? I don’t know. The scenery, I guess. It was majestic,” he said.
Before becoming judge, Skinner had a long career with the Colorado State Patrol. He started in 1971 in Pagosa Springs. Soon after he was hired, one trooper was fired and another was forced to resign, leaving Skinner the lone rookie trooper in Pagosa.
“It was a good learning experience,” he said. “It was like jumping in the deep end.”
He transferred to Durango in 1975, and in 1979, the State Patrol created a one-man post in Silverton, where he has lived ever since.
At 9,300 feet elevation, the summers are short and the winters are long in this old mining town nestled in the San Juan Mountains 50 miles north of Durango. With only 690 full-time residents, it is the least-populated county in Colorado.
“I have not regretted it, even though it’s been tough in some respects,” Skinner said.
He retired from the State Patrol in 1997 and a month later became the town’s municipal judge, which also doesn’t require legal training. He helped formalize procedures and cleaned up some of the town’s outdated ordinances.
In 2006, Todd Risberg announced plans to resign as San Juan County judge. (Risberg now is district attorney in Durango.) Skinner heard that a few residents planned to apply for the judgeship, but he didn’t think any of them would make good judges.
“I was thinking San Juan County can do better,” he said.
During his 26 years as a State Patrol trooper, Skinner made at least 1,000 court appearances, which he said would prepare him to some degree to serve as judge.
“I had watched judges do their jobs over the course of all this time,” he said. “Not that that meant I knew their job, but I knew what it was all about.”
He also thought he could take what he learned in municipal court and apply it to county court.
So he asked around town to gauge people’s reactions to him applying for the job. Most residents knew Skinner from his years as a trooper, and that worried some – even though he didn’t consider himself a hard-nosed traffic cop.
“They thought I would be a hanging judge, and they didn’t want a hanging judge in nice, tranquil, remote Silverton,” he said.
The negative reaction only emboldened Skinner.
“That kind of caused me to believe that maybe they had something to be concerned about, so I decided to go ahead and apply,” he said.
A representative for then-Gov. Bill Owens interviewed Skinner, and a few days later he was given the job. He began serving in February 2007. Voters retained him in 2010.
Once a month, or more
It is a part-time judgeship in which he holds court once a month and more often as necessary. He does so on the second floor of the county’s courthouse, built in 1907.
Tall windows provide breathtaking views of the tiny town juxtaposed with the massive San Juan Mountains.
“It’s kind of falling in disrepair a little bit, but it’s still gorgeous,” he said of the courthouse.
Skinner keeps an autographed photograph of Clint Eastwood on his desk next to a picture of his son, Marshal, who is wearing Middle Eastern dress and holding an assault rifle in Afghanistan. His son served in the Marine Corps and worked as a special agent with the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Skinner knew adjudicating traffic cases would be easy, thanks to his experience as a state trooper. But there were fewer of those than any other case, he said. Misdemeanors, civil cases and small-claims cases make up most of his docket.
“As it has turned out, this is a much more difficult job than I had ever realized,” he said.
The amount of time he has spent researching the law – trying to understand what lawyers are saying or how to conduct a jury trial – far exceeded his expectations.
“But that’s OK,” he said, “because if you take a judgeship, you have to do it the best you can, and you’ve got to fulfill that commitment to yourself, which I’ve tried to do.”
He added: “I thoroughly enjoy research.”
Skinner attended two orientation courses for new judges. If he has questions about procedures or case law, he consults with other state judges via a computer system. If he gets in too much trouble, he can call La Plata County Judge Martha Minot, which he has done on several occasions.
Minot said she enjoys working with lay judges because they tend to work hard. They have to learn everything from scratch, whereas people with law degrees typically are up to speed, giving them a huge advantage, she said.
“They really put the time in to try to understand the law and understand the legal principles that they’re going to be applying,” Minot said.
In defendant’s shoes
As judge, Skinner said he strives for fairness and objectivity. He is careful not to be swayed by prosecutors who may be convinced of a defendant’s guilt. He’ll listen just as carefully to the defendant’s arguments.
“I always put my feet in the shoes of the defendant,” he said. “That is me in the courtroom sitting as a defendant, in my thought.”
In a small town like Silverton, it is inevitable that Skinner presides over cases involving friends or acquaintances.
“I have had that happen on many occasions,” he said.
But Skinner said he is able to separate friendship from business, “and my business is to be fair.”
“What causes the decision is the strength of the evidence,” he said. “Everything has to occur in court. The evidence, or lack thereof – that’s the only thing that I tune into in a court case. Everything else – friendship, acquaintances, all the extraneous – is out the door. It’s easy to do. Maybe not for some people, but for me, it’s just a natural thing.”
He is married to Melody Skinner, who is a dispatcher and administrative assistant with the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office. They agreed years ago on a plan to allow him to stay neutral and unbiased.
“She doesn’t talk about her job, and I don’t talk about mine,” the judge said.
He plans to stay in San Juan County and pursue his hobbies: fly-fishing and woodworking. But the retired lifestyle won’t be easy: Skinner has worked since he was 16, with the exception of one day of unemployment, he said. During his seven years as judge, Skinner has overseen three jury trials, dozens of trials to the court (in which parties argue their case to the judge with no jury present) and hundreds of cases that are resolved through plea agreements.
His highest-profile case likely involved Keith Harper, a Durango outfitter suspected of groping three women while giving them a snowmobile tour during the winter of 2011. A jury found Harper guilty on two of three counts of unlawful sexual contact.
Skinner sentenced Harper to four years’ probation.
Jail time costly
The stiffest sentence he has imposed was for 90 days. He couldn’t recall the case or the circumstances.
He has to be thoughtful about doling out jail time, he said, because it costs the county $65 per day to house inmates at the La Plata County jail, which adds up quickly for a small county.
“The county is hurting financially,” he said. “Sometimes, even though they may deserve more time, you have to take that factor into consideration. That’s the reality of it.”
The general public has high expectations of judges. They are held to a higher standard and are expected to get it right. They also tend to be highly respected in the community.
But Skinner doesn’t relish the notoriety.
“I’m not looking for respect, whatsoever,” he said. “I don’t have that kind of an ego. As a matter of fact, it makes me very uneasy when people call me judge, other than in the courtroom when I’m doing my job in a black robe. Then it’s appropriate.
“I’m just going to go back to being ‘Hey, you.’”
shane@durangoherald.com
