Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Chief Magistrate Judge Cassandra Kirk created a Court that "Informs, Engages, and Empowers" our community.

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Chief Magistrate Judge Cassandra Kirk created a Court that "Informs, Engages, and Empowers" our community. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to money Making Conversations. It's to show that she
0:07
Speaker 1: is the secrets of success experience firsthand by Marketing and
0:10
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
0:13
Speaker 1: advice on many occasions. And in case you didn't notice,
0:15
Speaker 1: I'm not broke. You know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs,
0:19
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision make because it's what he likes
0:22
Speaker 1: to do, it's what he likes to share. Now it's
0:24
Speaker 1: time to hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money making Conversations.
0:28
Speaker 2: Here we go.
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Speaker 3: My guess she's on hole. I'm ready to introduce her.
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Speaker 3: My guess is Chief Judge Magistrate Cassandra Kirk. Over her career,
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Speaker 3: Judge Kirk spearheaded the creation of two accountability courts, Juvenile
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Speaker 3: Drug Court and Misdemeanor Mental Health Court. Her mission with
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Speaker 3: Magistrate courts to increase accessibility and create a court that informs,
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Speaker 3: engages and empowers our community. It's really important. Putting people
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Speaker 3: first requires a substantial change on how to court functions
0:58
Speaker 3: and Judge Kurkrive have to tackle each obstacle. Please work
1:02
Speaker 3: with the Money Making Conversation Masterclass. Chief judge Magistrate Cassandra Kirk.
1:07
Speaker 3: How you doing, Judge?
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Speaker 4: I am wonderful. How are you today?
1:11
Speaker 3: Well, I tell you right now your energy is up
1:13
Speaker 3: there and I love it. First of all, being a judge,
1:17
Speaker 3: I gotta you know, you know, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Matthis,
1:23
Speaker 3: you know, Judge May beer Leine. I've interviewed a lot
1:27
Speaker 3: of judges. They are all celebrities. And the reason I
1:30
Speaker 3: have to ask this question because you are a judge
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Speaker 3: and people see things on TV. Now do they come
1:35
Speaker 3: to do you have to deal with that television judge
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Speaker 3: atmosphere in your real courtrooms?
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Speaker 4: So I think people would like to believe they get
1:45
Speaker 4: to behave the way people do on TV. They don't.
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Speaker 4: So I just think when you say do we have
1:51
Speaker 4: to deal with it? We have an opportunity to help
1:54
Speaker 4: people understand that this is not TV and it is
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Speaker 4: real life.
2:00
Speaker 3: When you say so, when you say that meaning that
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Speaker 3: there are people who come in there are quote acting
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Speaker 3: silly or acting like unprofessional and you have to check
2:09
Speaker 3: them right or you know, hit the galvel a couple
2:11
Speaker 3: of time and let them know you're in a real court.
2:14
Speaker 3: There are no cameras in this room. If we're gonna
2:17
Speaker 3: say cut, we're gonna go to We're gonna go to
2:20
Speaker 3: out that door and go into jail. You have to
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Speaker 3: remind periodically. But it's not all the time.
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Speaker 4: Right, it is hardly ever, But every once in a
2:28
Speaker 4: while people are a little more dramatic than they believe,
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Speaker 4: Like just real life needs the needs for them to be. So, yeah,
2:34
Speaker 4: you know, you deal with We like people to be themselves.
2:38
Speaker 4: We also like us to be able to conduct court
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Speaker 4: quarterly and in some manner of where people get some justice.
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Speaker 3: Now, this is an educational call for me. Okay, okay, okay,
2:48
Speaker 3: you have are you do you deal with small claims?
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Speaker 4: We do. That's in fifteen thousand. That's exactly one of
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Speaker 4: our sweet spots.
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Speaker 3: Okay, fifteen thousand, that's pretty fifty's that's a real small
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Speaker 3: claims number there. So if somebody has any any judgment
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Speaker 3: against somebody that's up to fifteen thousand, they can come
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Speaker 3: into your court.
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Speaker 4: They absolutely can. They can file in our court. They
3:12
Speaker 4: can represent themselves. We call them self represented litigans. They
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Speaker 4: can come look at our pamphlets, look at our videos,
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Speaker 4: come talk to our reach clinic attorney who will help
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Speaker 4: navigate them through the process. Absolutely, they can if they
3:24
Speaker 4: cannot afford an attorney. We want them to be able
3:26
Speaker 4: to represent themselves.
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Speaker 3: So so you're telling me that in small claims you
3:30
Speaker 3: can have an attorney represent you.
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Speaker 4: You could if you had, Yes, if you had that
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Speaker 4: kind of money you.
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Speaker 3: Out well at fifteen thousand dollars, I think that's that's
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Speaker 3: a that's a number right there. That means that you
3:44
Speaker 3: can bring somebody in to talk for you, because that's
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Speaker 3: a big number. My court that come from Houston, Texas,
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Speaker 3: I think I think when I went into small claim
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Speaker 3: it stopped at maybe five thousand dollars. You know, that
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Speaker 3: was the most at the time, you know that was now,
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Speaker 3: so when you say fifteen thousand dollars, I'm going, wow,
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Speaker 3: that's a huge number. And so so you're telling me, Judge,
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Speaker 3: and I'm really getting this when I heard just clar
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Speaker 3: because I want anybody. You say you have videotapes of
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Speaker 3: videos that people can watch that can help them.
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Speaker 4: So we have absolutely yes, they're absolutely. Didn't mean to
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Speaker 4: cut you off. We do. On our website magistr at
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Speaker 4: Fulton dot org, we have a section that is called
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Speaker 4: our Visual Information Center. People can find a couple of
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Speaker 4: things on that they can find videos that actually, oh,
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Speaker 4: I guess, there are links to videos that tell them
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Speaker 4: what court is about, what's going to happen in that section.
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Speaker 4: And we have pamphlets so everyone's not a visual learner.
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Speaker 4: Some people need to read it for themselves. We've got
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Speaker 4: pamphlets and if you get to our website, we have
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Speaker 4: a chat box that's down at the bottom that will
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Speaker 4: help you navigate our website. We want to make it easy.
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Speaker 3: Well, you know the thing about it. You know, when
4:52
Speaker 3: you're dealing with law. You know, I've had I've had tickets.
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Speaker 3: So I've had a couple of tickets where you know,
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Speaker 3: I failed O and I shouldn't have not gotten a ticket.
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Speaker 3: Do you deal with those? You know, when you go
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Speaker 3: in and say.
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Speaker 5: We do not do traffic tickets, that's a different traffic
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Speaker 5: that's a different court, and so I apologize.
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Speaker 4: Yep, Nope, that's fine. It could either be City of
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Speaker 4: Atlanta or whatever the municipality is traffic court, or it
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Speaker 4: could be a state court citation.
5:19
Speaker 3: But it's not okay, cool, So let's get it down.
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Speaker 3: I gave you this title, Chief Judge Magistrate Cassandra Kirk.
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Speaker 3: What does the magistrate court.
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Speaker 4: Do absolutely, and so my title was chief magistrate judge anyway,
5:35
Speaker 4: not just court. That's okay, not to court.
5:37
Speaker 3: You change that right now because I don't want to
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Speaker 3: say that bad again, because you know you are a judge, okay.
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Speaker 4: But I am also a person that I'm good right,
5:46
Speaker 4: I'm good with the factor. I got my first name
5:48
Speaker 4: and my last name. I know who I am. So
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Speaker 4: we do criminal as well as civil, and I want
5:55
Speaker 4: to talk on our criminal side. People might know the
5:57
Speaker 4: first half of what we do. Kind of criminal, I say,
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Speaker 4: that's kind of our triage lane. So we do search
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Speaker 4: and arrest warrants twenty four seven, three sixty five. Then
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Speaker 4: we do warrants, then we do first appearance six days
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Speaker 4: a week. So that's kind of the criminal that everyone knows.
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Speaker 4: Us for the other parts of criminal that we do
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Speaker 4: our warrant applications, where citizens in the State of Georgia
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Speaker 4: can actually come in and say, hey, I believe that
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Speaker 4: someone has committed a crime against me and I want
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Speaker 4: to apply for a warrant. So this is not the
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Speaker 4: police officers applying for a warrant. This is citizen on
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Speaker 4: citizen applying for a warrant. So we have hearings for those.
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Speaker 4: We also do pla right judge.
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Speaker 3: Okay, so you're telling me I can go in and
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Speaker 3: say and get somebody arrested. Apply, that's what you said.
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Speaker 4: You have some evidence. Apply, you have to have some
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Speaker 4: basic information.
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Speaker 3: What is evidence? Pictures, injuries? What is evidence?
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Speaker 4: Absolutely, you need to be able to tell us that
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Speaker 4: it happened in the jurisdiction where we fit. So for us,
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Speaker 4: it would be somewhere in Fulton County that you have
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Speaker 4: the individual that it was committed against, that there is
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Speaker 4: a crime that has been committed and you can identify
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Speaker 4: the person that did it. And so if you have
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Speaker 4: those in some sort of form, it can be video,
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Speaker 4: it can be writing, it can be testimony of other people.
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Speaker 4: If you've got evidence, we will consider that evidence, make
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Speaker 4: a determination whether there is probable cause to believe that
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Speaker 4: the individual you are accusing actually did that offense, and
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Speaker 4: then we will move forward with a warrant that means
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Speaker 4: that person may be taken to the jail if it
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Speaker 4: is a finger printable offense. So, yes, we do hearings
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Speaker 4: on that. Yeah, probably twice or three times a week.
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Speaker 3: Wow, that sounds I've heard of citizen's arrest. Now that's different, right.
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Speaker 4: So this is not a citizen's arrest. The system does
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Speaker 4: not actually arrest the person. What the citizen does is
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Speaker 4: come and file an application for the individual to have
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Speaker 4: a hearing to see if they will be arrested. So
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Speaker 4: the citizen does not have the authority to grab somebody
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Speaker 4: and take them somewhere. That's not what this is.
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Speaker 3: This is a.
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Speaker 4: Due process hearing where people get noticed, you show up,
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Speaker 4: you can defend yourself or you can at least hear
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Speaker 4: the evidence against you before an arrest warrant is issued.
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Speaker 3: Okay, I have this question that just came in. What's
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Speaker 3: the difference between filing a warrant and a police report?
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Speaker 4: So a police report, so there's two different things. The police.
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Speaker 4: The citizen warrant application process is citizen on citizen. There
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Speaker 4: are no police officers involved. Generally you may be able
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Speaker 4: to bring a police officer as a witness, but that's
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Speaker 4: not where If the police officer is filing it, they
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Speaker 4: are going directly to our electronic warrant system, So that's
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Speaker 4: our connection with the police officer. So that's different. The
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Speaker 4: filing of a police report has absolutely nothing, is not
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Speaker 4: really headed to us it's necessarily maybe something people are
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Speaker 4: doing for their runs or something, but that's not necessarily
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Speaker 4: coming to us. It can come to us as evidence
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Speaker 4: if someone gets it put in correctly, but not ordinarily
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Speaker 4: like that's not where they come. And if it's the police,
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Speaker 4: support is probably going through the electronic warrant through the
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Speaker 4: regular system. Does that make sense?
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Speaker 3: It makes sense because, like I said, the whole world
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Speaker 3: of you know, the judicial system because you are an
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Speaker 3: elected official, you know, because yeah, I always just think
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Speaker 3: a right, So you are elected official? Okay, how does
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Speaker 3: that process work? And let me ask you this, if
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Speaker 3: you're an elected official, how does that? How does that
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Speaker 3: you know? The judicial system because you're supposed to be impartial,
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Speaker 3: how does that work? You know, in being that you're
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Speaker 3: seeking elections? Are you I'm just trying to make sure
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Speaker 3: I'm not saying anything wrong, but it seems like it
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Speaker 3: seemed like the Supreme Court, you know, they're there for
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Speaker 3: life and so they're put in the position to not
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Speaker 3: be tainted. Of course, we've heard a lot of room
10:00
Speaker 3: was about Judge Clarence Thomas and what he doing was
10:04
Speaker 3: so he may be bringing a lot of rules, but
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Speaker 3: we can't remove him in your case. You have to
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Speaker 3: get out there and as they say, rally the votes correct.
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Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely, And so I was appointed in twenty fourteen
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Speaker 4: by Governor Nathan Dial and that gave me a four
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Speaker 4: year term. In twenty eighteen I had to actually run
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Speaker 4: for election, and then in twenty twenty two I had
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Speaker 4: to run for re election. And you are correct. It
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Speaker 4: is a matter of being in the community and asking
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Speaker 4: for votes, not just asking for votes, but also asking
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Speaker 4: for money, support, endorsements of the very same people that
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Speaker 4: may come before the court.
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Speaker 3: Cannot make any I'm sorry for laugh at bit. That
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Speaker 3: sounded really funny. You know, you know people out there
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Speaker 3: you asking for money. Next day, you know, he's sing
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Speaker 3: in front of your court. Now has that happened? I've
10:52
Speaker 3: just got to ask that question. Has that happened?
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Speaker 4: So it has not happened to me. I do know
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Speaker 4: that in Georgia there are certain classes of courts where
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Speaker 4: there are where the judges are elected. So not all
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Speaker 4: the judges in Georgia are elected. Our Supreme Court is elected,
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Speaker 4: our Court of Appeals is elected, Our Superior Court judges
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Speaker 4: are elected, our Court of what is it? Our State
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Speaker 4: court judges are elected, our Chief magistrate judges are elected,
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Speaker 4: and then we in turn a point. However, many judges
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Speaker 4: are circuit sustains and so Enfulton for me, that's thirty judges.
11:25
Speaker 4: I get to a point. Municipal court judges are appointed
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Speaker 4: in at city of Atlanta through a retention election. In
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Speaker 4: other cities there's a different formula. So it just really
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Speaker 4: depends on what type of judge you are for the state.
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Speaker 4: But you're correct. Our federal judges are appointed for life
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Speaker 4: up and down the state, up and down the jurisdiction,
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Speaker 4: and so they don't they missed that piece of the fund.
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Speaker 3: Okay, let me ask you this. So I got it
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Speaker 3: because you got me diving in. I came off with
11:55
Speaker 3: a little levity talking about you know, I never interviewed
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Speaker 3: a real judge. I've only interviewed celebrity judges and all
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Speaker 3: these things. But the reality is the court system is important,
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Speaker 3: and it's important to understand you going in there and
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Speaker 3: getting the right justice that you deserve. Now doing COVID.
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Speaker 3: During COVID, we all I had a couple of cases
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Speaker 3: that got just pushed off and just got pushed off.
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Speaker 3: And then because you delaying justice or delaying relief, because
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Speaker 3: I wasn't going to court because I wanted to go
12:26
Speaker 3: to court. We're going to court to try to get
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Speaker 3: a remedy, to get money to recover. How did that
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Speaker 3: impact your judicial environment trying to you know, get people
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Speaker 3: in because it was you via zoom all the time?
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Speaker 3: How did that work?
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Speaker 4: So COVID was a unique situation. COVID was probably one
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Speaker 4: of the rare situations where our state Supreme Court as
12:51
Speaker 4: well as the Governor, stepped in and basically said, look,
12:53
Speaker 4: we're in a state wide judicial emergency. We are going
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Speaker 4: to ask everyone not to bring people in the courts.
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Speaker 4: Not something where you can get some you can get
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Speaker 4: a summons and kind of decide not to come, right,
13:05
Speaker 4: we send people with guns to bring you if you
13:07
Speaker 4: choose not to come. And so that gave everyone an
13:11
Speaker 4: opportunity probably three months to figure out how we were
13:14
Speaker 4: going to be able to come back. And so when
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Speaker 4: Fulton County and the Magistrate Court and most of the
13:18
Speaker 4: courts in Fulton County, what we did was we started
13:22
Speaker 4: having court on zoom. We had court on zoom until wow,
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Speaker 4: there are we are still having some courts on zoom.
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Speaker 4: I can tell you that from January one, twenty nineteen
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Speaker 4: until I have numbers from October third, twenty twenty three,
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Speaker 4: we had over three hundred and twenty eight thousand cases
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Speaker 4: filed in the Magistrate Court of Fulton County. As of
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Speaker 4: October third, which was a month ago, we had closed
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Speaker 4: two hundred and ninety thousand of those cases. So we
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Speaker 4: have been working in person as well as on Zoom.
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Speaker 4: Those cases that are not hearings, we've been working on
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Speaker 4: Zoom so that we can actually get more of our
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Speaker 4: cases closed and have people continue to be safe. So
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Speaker 4: right now what we are looking at is whether or
14:06
Speaker 4: not that next wave of COVID is going to cause
14:09
Speaker 4: us to again return to all calendars on Zoom. And
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Speaker 4: for me and I just really want to be able
14:17
Speaker 4: to see people when they're in court. I don't really
14:19
Speaker 4: want to see people on the screen. It's hard to
14:21
Speaker 4: judge credibility, it's hard to judge it's just kind of
14:25
Speaker 4: hard to judge what people are telling you looking at
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Speaker 4: a screen. Right And so it is my desire of
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Speaker 4: my passion that our court have all of our hearings,
14:33
Speaker 4: all trials actually on in person. I think it gives
14:38
Speaker 4: everyone a better sense of what's going on, and it
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Speaker 4: lets people truly be heard.
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Speaker 3: Wow, I'm talking to Keith Magistrate Judge Cassandra Kirk. I
14:48
Speaker 3: got it correct right, because you we're not going to
14:50
Speaker 3: do judges. Come look look after me.
14:52
Speaker 4: Thanks Donald, Yes, sir, thank you very much.
14:54
Speaker 3: When we come back, I want to appreciate you. We'll
14:56
Speaker 3: come back. I want to hear more about your model informs,
14:58
Speaker 3: engages and empower. We're speaking to Chief Magistrate Judge Cassandra
15:03
Speaker 3: Kirk and you're listening to Money Making Conversation master Class
15:06
Speaker 3: and we'll be right back.
15:15
Speaker 2: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
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Speaker 2: with Rashawn McDonald. You are now tuned into the Money
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Speaker 2: Making Conversations.
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Speaker 2: Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashaun
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Speaker 2: McDonald on the phone.
16:57
Speaker 3: She's still here. My questions always been about the reality
17:02
Speaker 3: of the legal system because the legal system. Judge Kurk
17:06
Speaker 3: always gets a bad rap. It also has to deal
17:08
Speaker 3: with what people see on TV where there's Law and
17:11
Speaker 3: Order and all these different judge shows and all hell
17:14
Speaker 3: and these things. So does that And I kind of
17:17
Speaker 3: start off a little bit early a part of it
17:20
Speaker 3: talking about the you know, the court judges, the small
17:22
Speaker 3: claims court judges, that the will popularize it, but it's
17:26
Speaker 3: still the judicial system kind of gets plagiarized. Can I
17:31
Speaker 3: say their word a lot by film and television? Correct?
17:36
Speaker 4: I say they make comparisons.
17:40
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, Now does that frustrate you or it
17:44
Speaker 3: doesn't bother you at all this part of the.
17:46
Speaker 4: Process, not at all, Not at all. And so I
17:48
Speaker 4: would say I would hope that it brings in more
17:51
Speaker 4: people to the profession. And I think it makes it
17:55
Speaker 4: kind of accessible for people to say, like, if this
17:57
Speaker 4: person can do this, certainly I can do it. And
18:00
Speaker 4: so I would hope that it brings more people into
18:03
Speaker 4: the profession.
18:04
Speaker 3: In reason, I say that I brought that up because
18:06
Speaker 3: your mission is to increase accessibility. When you use the
18:09
Speaker 3: words accessibility to the court system, what is that? Because
18:13
Speaker 3: let's be real, from the minority community, the judicial system,
18:18
Speaker 3: the police system has always been a red flag that
18:21
Speaker 3: we walk in there we are not. I will tell
18:23
Speaker 3: you my good friend, my good friend, Benjamin Crump, He's
18:26
Speaker 3: always told me this, Weshan, if you sit in the
18:29
Speaker 3: back room of the court, you will see two legal systems,
18:33
Speaker 3: and one for people of color is not the same
18:37
Speaker 3: as people who are not. And that has always been
18:40
Speaker 3: the disturbing motto that has been in our community, people
18:45
Speaker 3: of color, especially African Americans. That's something you've been an
18:48
Speaker 3: African American judge, have to deal with. How do you
18:51
Speaker 3: deal with that?
18:53
Speaker 4: So the great way that I deal with that is
18:56
Speaker 4: when I first came. So this court was created in
18:59
Speaker 4: twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen by the state legislature. So this
19:02
Speaker 4: court is a brand new court. And so the good
19:05
Speaker 4: thing is that means that I get to set the
19:08
Speaker 4: policy for this court. I get to set how it
19:11
Speaker 4: is we interact with the community. And I have an
19:13
Speaker 4: amazing group of judges that work with me and all
19:16
Speaker 4: believe in giving back, Like that's kind of how you
19:19
Speaker 4: get to be on our bench. It's not that you
19:21
Speaker 4: are a wonderful, fantastic legal mind, and many of them are,
19:25
Speaker 4: but it is also that they are connected to the
19:27
Speaker 4: communities that we serve. And so when I first started,
19:30
Speaker 4: I told you about the things that magistic Court is
19:33
Speaker 4: required to do. I talk to you about those case types,
19:36
Speaker 4: but there are the things that Magistate Court in Fulton
19:38
Speaker 4: County gets to do, so the things where we get
19:41
Speaker 4: to connect to our community. We have a Misdemeanor Mental
19:45
Speaker 4: Health Court which gives those individuals with misdemeanors and opportunity.
19:49
Speaker 4: And that's with other justice agencies, with our solicitor, with
19:52
Speaker 4: our public defender, with our behavioral health that gives us
19:56
Speaker 4: an opportunity to give those individuals with misdemeanors and that
20:00
Speaker 4: have mental health just a little collateral support so they
20:03
Speaker 4: are not dropped backed down on the street hoping that
20:05
Speaker 4: they don't pick up a new charge. We have created
20:08
Speaker 4: a Reach Clinic Rapid Education Assistance Court Help Clinic. It's
20:11
Speaker 4: a consumer clinic that provides small claims, garnishment and warrant
20:16
Speaker 4: application assistance for individuals coming in. Because remember our court
20:21
Speaker 4: is a court where there are a lot of self
20:22
Speaker 4: represented litigants. I believe people ought to be empowered with
20:26
Speaker 4: information in order to be able to move their cases.
20:29
Speaker 4: So we have a senior staff attorney that helps people navigate.
20:33
Speaker 4: We have law students that are volunteering in that clinic.
20:36
Speaker 4: We are going to open it up to the public
20:38
Speaker 4: to help us just kind of deal with the volume.
20:41
Speaker 4: But that is one of the things. One of the
20:43
Speaker 4: other things we are doing is our Magistrate Court one
20:45
Speaker 4: oh one, where we are actually going and bringing our
20:48
Speaker 4: court into the community and teaching with the library systems support.
20:52
Speaker 4: We are teaching in our local libraries about sorry about
20:57
Speaker 4: small claims, about garnishment, and about our warrant application cases
21:02
Speaker 4: we have and we've been working with the Atlanta Volunteer
21:04
Speaker 4: Lawyers Foundation to make sure that there is a tenant
21:07
Speaker 4: clinic on site for those individuals that have landlord tenant matters.
21:12
Speaker 4: The landlord tenant cases are cases that move in about
21:15
Speaker 4: seven days. You have seven days from the time you
21:18
Speaker 4: are served to file an answer. That's a fast moving
21:21
Speaker 4: piece of the law. And Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation has
21:25
Speaker 4: decided to come on site. They've been with us now
21:27
Speaker 4: probably for about five or six years, and they provide
21:30
Speaker 4: that service free again, a navigation service for individuals. Our
21:34
Speaker 4: court has an intern program. We have always had interns
21:38
Speaker 4: and we are thankful because we are slightly understaffed. But
21:41
Speaker 4: we do interns, externs, we do high school, high school, college,
21:46
Speaker 4: law school. We've got them all. What else do we
21:49
Speaker 4: get to do. We get to do free weddings, right,
21:51
Speaker 4: So we do free weddings on Valentine's Day, We do
21:55
Speaker 4: free weddings on the holidays, but we also do free
21:57
Speaker 4: weddings every other Thursday, and there is the joy. We
22:01
Speaker 4: have a new program that is called Bang the Gavel,
22:04
Speaker 4: a court day lunch and learn program, and we have
22:06
Speaker 4: done that starting in March, where we have invited high
22:10
Speaker 4: school students into our court to interact with our judges,
22:13
Speaker 4: to observe court, to have lunch with us. So they
22:16
Speaker 4: get to meet our judges, but they also get to
22:19
Speaker 4: have that spark of look, it's she or he can
22:22
Speaker 4: do it. I can do it too. And so these
22:24
Speaker 4: last two groups that we've had, we just had a
22:26
Speaker 4: group of young men that came that were with us
22:30
Speaker 4: through the Department of Juvenile Justice, and one of them said, like,
22:33
Speaker 4: once he came up and started doing the mock trial
22:36
Speaker 4: portion of it, he was brilliant. Everybody was just absolutely
22:40
Speaker 4: taken aback. And he said this was something that I
22:42
Speaker 4: wanted to do, but I didn't know. I just didn't
22:45
Speaker 4: know if I could keep doing it. And so that
22:47
Speaker 4: was somebody we were able to encourage. And I hope
22:49
Speaker 4: that that is what we will continue doing. So I
22:51
Speaker 4: know that was a long way, but so we do
22:54
Speaker 4: what we are required to do. But I am thankful
22:56
Speaker 4: and grateful that I have judges that want to help
22:59
Speaker 4: us do more, judges and staff that want to help
23:02
Speaker 4: us do more than just the basics.
23:04
Speaker 3: Well, you know, you know, you know, if I ever
23:07
Speaker 3: wonder why you have been re elected, you you told
23:10
Speaker 3: me right there, you know, articulate, you have a point
23:13
Speaker 3: of view, and that's all important. And I think they
23:15
Speaker 3: never and you have a sense of humor because in
23:17
Speaker 3: this world that we live in, it is such a
23:20
Speaker 3: you know, like you brought up COVID, you know, and
23:22
Speaker 3: and a lot of people think COVID is gone, and
23:24
Speaker 3: COVID is is, like they've said, has been on the
23:27
Speaker 3: rise in this country, not to the level that shut
23:30
Speaker 3: down this country, but it still is a problem. And
23:32
Speaker 3: but you are like, hey, with Sean, I will prefer
23:35
Speaker 3: not to go into the zoom world because in a way,
23:38
Speaker 3: that's really not giving the person the fair justice, you know,
23:42
Speaker 3: because it's a little bitty screen. You know, body language,
23:46
Speaker 3: all those things can play negatively on a little bitty
23:48
Speaker 3: screen because the person is disconnected too, because they're looking
23:52
Speaker 3: at a camera and it can't even really see you
23:55
Speaker 3: could look at the camera, look over there, see a monitor.
23:57
Speaker 3: So that way of justice is never going to work
24:00
Speaker 3: for anybody. But when you navigate through the system, and
24:03
Speaker 3: you talk about community's systems, let's talk about it. As
24:05
Speaker 3: we wrap up this interview, we probably say that inform
24:09
Speaker 3: engage and empower our community. Is it engaging through information?
24:14
Speaker 3: Is it informing with information and empowering them through results?
24:17
Speaker 3: What does inform engage and empower?
24:20
Speaker 4: So inform the first part of that is making sure
24:23
Speaker 4: for each of the case types that we have something,
24:26
Speaker 4: and it is mainly our website. The first thing I
24:28
Speaker 4: did when I came on board in twenty fourteen was
24:31
Speaker 4: to create our website. It has gone through several iterations
24:34
Speaker 4: now thanks to grants from the National Center for State Courts,
24:38
Speaker 4: but our website is the first past for anybody that
24:41
Speaker 4: wants to know what's happening on our court. We have
24:43
Speaker 4: frequently asked questions we have what this case type is
24:47
Speaker 4: and again I mentioned the videos, the Visual Information Center.
24:51
Speaker 4: We have a newsletter that we put out, but it
24:53
Speaker 4: is the first part is the informing people what it is,
24:56
Speaker 4: and then the engage. We are on social media. We
25:00
Speaker 4: are on Facebook, we are on Instagram. We want to
25:03
Speaker 4: be on those places where people are looking for information.
25:06
Speaker 4: We are there right. We want to bring our information
25:09
Speaker 4: to people where they are. And then the empowers making
25:12
Speaker 4: sure that people have what they need in order to
25:14
Speaker 4: operate our systems. It is all for us about exactly that, informing,
25:20
Speaker 4: engaging and empowering our community, and that is the whole
25:23
Speaker 4: community of Fulton County, North, Fulton, South, Fulton, East West,
25:26
Speaker 4: the whole. I want to make sure that we give
25:29
Speaker 4: everybody what they need, and so I have to say
25:31
Speaker 4: that we also have a really great collaboration. We have
25:35
Speaker 4: doctor Rashad Ritchie who basically supports our pays for lunch
25:40
Speaker 4: for our bang the Gavel kids. That's the thing that
25:42
Speaker 4: his show does. We've got other community people that say, hey,
25:46
Speaker 4: how can I help. We had Partnership for Community Partnership
25:49
Speaker 4: for Community p SE Nathaniel Smith's group that provided us
25:55
Speaker 4: a place to hold weddings. This time we've had all
26:00
Speaker 4: the event center that has provided us space for holding
26:02
Speaker 4: weddings on Valentine's Day, and so like when the community says, hey,
26:06
Speaker 4: I've got space, you come there, it means a lot
26:10
Speaker 4: for us.
26:10
Speaker 3: Judge Kurk, I want to thank you for coming on
26:12
Speaker 3: the show. You're fantastic and you're pronounce a pronunciation of
26:16
Speaker 3: how this community can work for us all people of color,
26:18
Speaker 3: African American people. People are not people of color. This
26:21
Speaker 3: discord is for the people, and I want to appreciate
26:24
Speaker 3: you for educating me, having fun with me and also
26:27
Speaker 3: with my little levity moments, and most importantly, you know,
26:31
Speaker 3: keep doing what you're doing and don't change is important.
26:35
Speaker 4: It is my honor to join you. Thank you for
26:37
Speaker 4: having me and welcome.
26:38
Speaker 3: And you will definitely be back because I need education
26:41
Speaker 3: and my audience needs to hear your voice. Keep winning. Okay,
26:44
Speaker 3: this is Rushaw McDonald and you're listening to Money Making
26:46
Speaker 3: Conversation Magic Class.
26:51
Speaker 2: Let me tell you about the host of Money Making Conversations,
26:54
Speaker 2: Rushan McDonald. Rushan's a two time Emmy Award winner, three
26:58
Speaker 2: time naacp Immage Award winner, sitcom writer, stand up comic,
27:03
Speaker 2: and former IBM executive. Thank you for joining us for
27:07
Speaker 2: this edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations
27:12
Speaker 2: Masterclass with Rushan MacDonald is produced by thirty eight to
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Speaker 2: And always remember to lead with your gifts