Kristi Hagood on Justice, Law & Leadership

Blair Castro and Thomas Jenkins sat down with Kristi Hagood, candidate for Baldwin County Circuit Court Judge, on this episode of The People’s Voice podcast, for a real conversation about her background, experience, and what led her to run.

Hagood shares her years in the Baldwin County courtroom as a prosecutor, handling serious cases and the perspective that comes with that kind of work.

They talk through her approach to the law, the responsibility of serving on the bench, and what it means to make decisions that impact people’s lives.
And, as the conversation unfolds, they take it a step further—getting into the bigger question:
What is justice, really?

Take a listen and hear directly from the candidate.

Learn more at kristihagood.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, welcome to WFUZ TV, the People's Voice Podcast. I'm Blair Castro here with Thomas Jenkins, and we have Christy Hagood, who's running for Baldwin County Circuit Court Judge, with us today.

unknown 0:11

Ms.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Haygood, thank you so much for coming. Well, thank you for having me. What in your background sort of propelled you to run for judge?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Well, I guess what propelled me in my background was being an attorney. I've been practicing law for 25 years now, and 20 of those years have been as a prosecutor with the Baldwin County DA's office, the Alabama Attorney General's office, and the Louisiana Attorney General's office before that. And so I guess because I've practiced for so long, I know and I practiced in front of judges all over the state of Alabama and Louisiana. I know how important the judge in the courtroom is. The judge is like an umpire. They call balls and instead of balls and stripes, they decide what evidence comes in, what evidence stays out. I know that the judge sets the tone in the courtroom. And uh being in front of juries and a lot of juries here in Baldwin County, I felt like with this new judgeship coming to Baldwin County because of the population growth, it was really important uh to put myself forward because I believe I had the experience that it takes to do the job well.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

So, can you talk a little bit more about your background? I know you said that you were a prosecutor in several different jurisdictions. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Okay, well, let's see. What do we want to go back to the beginning? I guess. Yes. Start with the beginning. Okay. So I grew up in Jasper, Walker County, and I went to college at Birmingham Southern, where I majored in political science. And uh then I went to law school at the University of Alabama. And you know, I can talk more about why I decided to go to law school. But um, I met my husband. We were the product of a blind date. We uh he was in his third year of medical school. I was in my third year of law school, my best friend Ann got married, decided it's time for me to get married. So she so she uh put us, uh she introduced us and we've been together since. So, how did that play out in my career? Well, um because he had his medical training, we wound up going to several different places. So when I first graduated, I went to work for the Alabama Attorney General's office. And my job there was doing criminal appeals. And that basically means after someone's been convicted of a felony and they've been sentenced to prison, they want, you know, they want to appeal their case, they have to uh file an appellate brief. And so I would respond on behalf of the state. And so I did that with regular uh criminal appeals, and then they transferred me into the capital litigation division. And so that's the division that works on the death penalty cases. And so I worked there for two years doing criminal appeals, arguing cases for the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the Alabama Supreme Court. And when Lanier and I got married, we um he was already doing his residency in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So I moved to Baton Rouge, I took the Louisiana bar and I went to work for the Louisiana Attorney General's office. So once I was there, I was doing recusal cases all over the state of Louisiana. Uh anything, I I joked about this the other night, literally anything from uh selling crawfish without a license to first degree murder. And those were cases all over the state, and we that was a great experience uh doing trial work and appellate work. Uh but then uh Lanier had uh to do, he wants he's a gastroenterologist at Baldwin Hill. And so to do his training in gastroenterology, we moved to Shreveport, Louisiana. And by that point, we had a baby, and that baby had ear infections a lot. So I needed a desk job. So at that point, I went to work for the Second Circuit Court of Appeal for the state of Louisiana. So at that point, I was back doing appellate work, but this time I was working for judges. I was in that neutral position where I would read the trial transcripts and I would read what the plaintiffs or the state said, I would read what the defense said, and I would draft an opinion for the judges to review and sign off on. And so we worked there. I worked there uh for, you know, till Lanier finished his uh his fellowship in gastrology, and we came back to Alabama at that point. We wanted to be closer to family, so we were living in Montgomery for about a year and a half, and at that point I taught at the law school in Montgomery. And that was a lot of fun. I was teaching legal research and writing, and one thing that I think is so important about that job is no lawyer and no judge, and you can attest to this because you know you're a lawyer too, nobody knows everything about the law. But we have to know how to look it up, how to read it, how to apply it. And so I was actually teaching that subject to law students. And I did I taught three semesters there, and the Linear's practice brought us to Ballin County in 2009. And so we moved to Baldwin County. We had a four-year-old daughter at that point, uh, and our family grew. Uh, but when I we first moved here, I actually I did a few things. Um I tried my hand, I I you know, I did some mediation training, I did uh I took some classes and uh some postgraduate class law classes just because I, you know, I'm a lifelong learner. I love that. But I actually went back to work for the attorney general's office again here in Alabama, and that was great because I had the opportunity to uh do most of my work from home but go to Montgomery when I argued cases. And then in 2017, when Judge Wilters became DA Wilters, I went to work for the DA's office here in Baldwin County. And since I've been there, I've been primarily doing child victim cases, I child uh child, child abuse cases, chemical endangerment, uh physical, sexual abuse, internet crimes against children. And I've also worked in the I helped get a unit off the ground doing white-collar crime, uh, elder abuse, and financial exploitation of the elderly, and now I do a little bit of all of those things. Wow. So there's uh 25 years of practice, uh, I'll summed up.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

So what I would ask as a voter, uh, just here here's been my experience, the one time I've had to deal with a judge in the Baldwin County court system. She came bursting into the courtroom like a Timu judge Judy, just yelling at lawyers, uh, not listening to people when they were trying to plead their case, and being very dismissive. And I didn't appreciate it one bit, and I didn't feel like my case was treated fairly in the slightest bit. What is your, I guess you could say, bench side mirror?

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Well, probably pretty similar to what you're seeing right now. Um, the way I I believe that judges have to avoid the appearance of bias. I think it's important to treat all of the attorneys and all of the parties with respect. Even if you're in a situation where I mean, a judge has to make decisions. I guess 50% of the people are gonna leave unhappy. Uh and but even so, you can still be respectful. Uh now there are times when judges have to be stern, they have to take control of the courtroom. Um, there was a a warden in uh oh gosh, it was Angela Prison. He used to have a saying, I'll be as nice as you let me or as mean as you make me. And I mean, I think that judges have to take control of the courtroom, but I also think that we're that I can't say we yet because I'm not there, but I do think that judges as public servants have to be respectful of the public.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Absolutely. And I I say that coming from a law enforcement law enforcement background. I was actually uh trained out in Hopstreet Parish at Lake Charles. And uh Okay, yeah, and so I spent a year in Elton, Louisiana, and they have a now defunct police department. It was absorbed by the parish, but uh for a time I worked over there. Okay. Got a little bit of you know, I I full and will understand what you mean by having to be able to neutralize hostile situations.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Oh yeah. Um I think I have to um I can be high energy when I need to be, but I think I'm pretty good at at calming things down when I need to, also.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

So a nice baseline.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

That's what I'll that's what I'm aiming for.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

So I have a few questions. I'll start with the legal research and writing point that you mentioned. Um so that is, I think, the subject people need probably need to learn the most of just formatting and being able to properly like submit things. I teach undergrad law at Pensacola State, but when I was in law school, I won, not to brag on myself from many years ago, but I won the book award for legal research and writing, and I would have the highest, like we had competitions, blue book competitions and stuff, and I was all on it. I was like, oh, perfect citations, like I was that person. And it wouldn't, you know, I'm 38 years old. When I went to law school, I had to go shepherdize the old school way, like with the books in the law school library.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Like I so for people who may who are at home, shepherdizing a case means you're looking it up to make sure that this case is still valid law, that there hasn't been another case that came along to overrule that case, so that you are citing good law to your judges and arguing the good law, you know, good applicable law on behalf of your clients. And so um, when I taught legal research and writing, uh the first assignment we would give to our law students, and maybe you can appreciate this, it was a 500-word essay on what is the biggest risk you've ever taken besides going to law school. And the part of it, the assignment was there were like 20 different formatting rules, like you had to put your name on it, you had to staple it, you had to have a word count, um, had to have certain margins. And that may seem, and we would tell them at the beginning, if you don't comply with every single one of these rules, it will not be accepted. It'll be handed back to you. And half of them still got it wrong. But the reason we did that was because when you're filing documents in court, there are formatting requirements, and you could end up in a situation where you are under a deadline to file something and the clerk of court doesn't accept it because you didn't comply with their filing requirements. And so, you know, it's really important for uh for lawyers and law students to learn how to follow directions. But going back to talking about having to do things the old school way, we taught how how to do legal research the old school way because if you go into a law library and you understand where to find the things you do that you need when you go to use, like say one of the online resources, you can understand what it is you're doing online because you physically have walked the library doing the same thing and you understand kind of what you're doing. What well doing it online, you know what it is you're doing online because you've done it physically walking through the library. Does that make any sense? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

So PSA for anyone watching, I'm going to interject my own opinion. Chat GPT is not legal research, okay? It is very inaccurate. You are not going to type it in and learn you're not a lawyer because you looked it up on Chat GPT. Please go seek professional help.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Well, one thing that was really uh when you walk into a law library, they're huge. And they're huge because every state has their own set of statutes. Uh so you got 50 different states with 50 different sets of statutes and 50 different sets of case law on those statutes and administrative regulations, and so does the federal government, and that's why it's so vast, and that's why it's you know it's not possible for every lawyer and judge to know everything, but it's really important that we know how to look it up.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Definitely. So uh wanted to also touch on your you said you did some mediation.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Uh well, I I did a couple of mediation cases and I did some mediation training. Um, and it was good, but it was hard to being brand new to Baldwin County when I was doing it, it was kind of hard to break into that because that's the sort of business where usually it's very referral-based. And so um, while I was in the process of trying to do that, I wound up going back to work for the attorney general's office.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

So I uh I love mediation. I am like a mediation person. If I um I went overseas actually and did a semester abroad in Israel where I did was at the Hebrew University and I did religious conflict mediation and I got certified there, specifically in Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And I thought that was such a cool skill to have. And then I moved, you know, I came back home and I was like, I will never use this certificate ever in my life. But if anyone out there needs somebody to mediate your Israeli-Palestinian conflict here in Baldwin County, I'm your girl. That never arises. But I I like mediation a lot. Um, and I uh don't like family law very much, but I did um serve on the collaborative law board in Pensacola as the on the mediator side. Um, and I just couldn't couldn't uh deal with family law in general, but I I do like mediation.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Well, um no, I I think that mediation is a great option because it gives the parties the chance, probably the most control they're ever going to have is in a mediation. Because once they go into the courtroom and an order comes out from the court, then they have to follow the order. Mediation gives parties an opportunity to try to uh come up with the result that fits them best.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

So I have another random question, and I'll preface it a little bit with a story. Um, the thing that got me interested in going to law school, I was always interested in politics, and I thought like poly side, pre-law, let's do the dual tract, let's go to law school, let's do that. Well, when I was 18, I went through something kind of traumatic and I had to be a witness to a homicide trial. And um two people were killed. One of them was kind of an acquaintance, and one person or one person was killed, one person was almost killed. It was murder, an attempted murder. And um, a very big law firm out of Pensacola was defending the accused murderer, and we all, the witnesses and friends and family, all got pulled into trial. It was old school, there wasn't recording on the depositions, it was just like typewriter style, and my deposition didn't match what I had said in person when I got the written copy. And then there was a lot of other procedural errors in this trial, and we were all like 18-year-old teenagers at the time. I was like, Well, this isn't right, something's not adding up. Um ended up being a mistrial because of all the procedural errors. So we had to go repeat it all like a year later, traumatized the family and friends again, and like he got found um guilty in life in prison both times. But it was just crazy to me that we had a mistrial because of these procedural things, and I felt very wronged the way I was treated by the attorneys, and then seeing my depot and seeing knowing what I said and it not matching, and it felt like there's some things not connecting here. Um, so my question would be what is justice? Because I think people, do you think justice is served when there's you know procedural errors, but the result is still the same, or in your mind is justice more of a substantive thing and not a procedural thing?

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Oh, that's a deep question. Let's see, let's see if I can break it down. Okay, so on the appellate side, okay, so defendants are owed a fair trial, but the US Supreme Court has said that no one is entitled to a perfect trial. Okay. And the reason for that is any process that involves humans is going to be subject to some errors here and there. And so when the appellate courts are looking at a trial and reading a transcript and looking at things on appeal, they are looking at, okay, is this an error that would have made a difference in the outcome? And so that is primarily what they have to look at. Like a mistake may have happened, but is it is it a mistake that could have changed the outcome of the trial? And if it is, then the person is owed a new trial. Uh if it's not, if it's a mistake than what they call harmless error, meaning the mistake took place, but it would not have changed the outcome of the trial, then that's a situation where the courts they'll acknowledge, okay, well, this is a mistake, but it didn't change the outcome of the trial. This was not like this wouldn't have changed the outcome of the trial. So the the defendant's not entitled to a new trial at that point. And so I don't think that justice is going to be perfection for that reason, but I do believe that that the the it's important that if there was a mistake made in the trial that would have changed the outcome, then I I do think in those situations a defendant's going to be entitled to a new trial. Um and sometimes those mistakes can be really frustrating. Sometimes those mistakes may not be anyone's fault, but or not the defendant's fault and not the state's fault. It might be sometimes you have situations where a juror went home and did research, even though they had been instructed not to do research on their own. Or you might find out later on that a juror didn't answer questions during jury selection, honestly. And those have been some situations that have led to having to do new trials. And it's very frustrating for everybody involved. It's in it's frustrating for the victims and their families and the witnesses. But, you know, in the interest of justice, you know, we we have to make sure that big mistakes don't happen. We have to make sure that mistakes that would affect the um the jury's verdict aren't taking place.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

I did want to ask you a little bit about your prosecution in terms of child predators and predators in general. So that's something I also I think we all care about that and are passionate about. And I feel like in Baldwin County, I've brought forth ideas. I had a whole plan when I ran for city council about predator-proofing paradise. And I had people tell me there's no predators in Baldwin County. That's not a real issue. I wish it were true. That's a fantasy. Yes, it there absolutely are predators everywhere, and there's plenty of loopholes where they can get around the registry or are transient or are living in a temporary type mobile home or hotel, especially here on you know Gulf Shores. We hear about trafficking happening at you know different organizations or businesses on the beach.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

So what's the moniker that they use for the ones that they can't fund?

SPEAKER_02 19:16

The transients or the um un I guess unregistered uh like they're moving around. I forgot. I thought transient was the word, but I think that's the word. I think oh unmappable, unmappable offenders.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

So there's unmappable offend offenders on the loose side there.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

There's a bunch. There's like 5,000 in the state of Alabama. Um and that's there's way more. That's just the ones they know of. So I guess my question w about the predator situation would be how big of an issue do you really think that is? Is it just me thinking that it's more than I've been told, or it what's your opinion on that?

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Well, I don't have numbers on that. So you might know those numbers better than I do since you've looked into it. Um I know that the that our different, like our sheriff's office and our different municipal police, uh, police agencies, their sort the Sorna, I'll use the it stands for Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Uh their Sorna compliance is very aggressive, but you're right, it does come down to the ones that they know about. And I know that uh they'll go out to addresses to make sure, because I mean the there are a lot of rules. Like you have to give them your current address, your current workplace, your current car. If you leave town for more than three days, you have to get you have to notify them that you're leaving and where you're going. And you have you depending on where you're going, you may have to register with them temporarily while you're there. And they will go out to people's addresses and they will go check, they'll take across the door and take pictures and go back multiple days. And if they find that someone has left town without giving proper without letting them know, they will absolutely bring charges against them. So I know that our enforcement is vigilant from the ones that we know about. But in turn, but you're right, okay, if we have people that move here that didn't register, I think part of that breakdown is probably coming from uh what whatever jurisdiction out of state they came from, whether or not they follow up with whether or not they register in their new location. I think that that's probably where the breakdown happens. But in terms of numbers, I don't really know. I do know that sometimes we'll have a case where, or I'll have I don't I'll I'll get a case where I'll find out, oh, this person was convicted of a sex offense in another state, but they weren't registered. I mean, we do from time to time see that.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Another thing from a law enforcement standpoint that I had trouble with, Louisiana specific, was it really Is a revolving door for criminals there. I uh have a vivid memory of working a call where there was a physical battery and uh person went to the hospital and I wrote a$500 citation, no arrest, no jail. And uh if I did take someone to jail, they were either released hours later or the next day, and they were just repeat offenders, and it's just in and out all the time. I don't know where where does Alabama stand on that and where do you stand on that?

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Well, uh so Alabama has has strengthened their laws on some of that. Now, everybody is entitled to bail according to the Constitution. Everyone is entitled to bail except for capital murder. And then Alabama came back a few years ago and passed Anias Law. And ANIAS law, I'm very happy about it, added to some offenses for which uh the DA's office can seek uh a no uh an order of no bond, saying, okay, because there are no bond conditions that can keep the public safe from this person or guarantee their uh appearance in court, uh if we can meet that, if we can meet that threshold and show that to a judge, then they can find that the person can be held without bond. Okay, so those those are kind of situations where a judge can hold somebody without bond. Now, in terms of okay, maybe that doesn't qualify, maybe bond if they are eligible for bond. Okay. So I really think we need to go back and update the there's a statute, uh, Alabama Rule Criminal Procedure 7.2, and it sets bond amounts. And so it says like for certain misdemeanors, this is the bond range, for felon certain felonies, this is the bond range. And that hasn't been updated in a very long time. And so I think that we need to update those so that judges feel comfortable issuing higher bonds for more serious cases.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

I was gonna say, so that's gonna be a fee scheduling issue.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

It is a fee scheduling issue. And so now I know our local judges actually recently increased the bond amounts on some of our offenses. And in terms of what um we call it preset bonds. Like I'll just give an example. If someone is arrested for possession of marijuana, you know, the preset bond amount is X number of dollars. I don't actually know the exact number off the top of my head. Um and if the person can make that bond, then they get that then they're up. And if they cannot make that bond, then they have a hearing, a 72-hour hearing where they um they go before the judge and the judge can set their bond higher or lower depending on the circumstances. So I do think for some of that to have higher bond amounts is it kind of comes down to the fee scheduling. I think that that needs to be adjusted for today's inflation or today's price, today, today's cost of living, so that judges feel more comfortable setting bonds at amounts that we as a society feel are more appropriate.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Yeah, we watched a video of a local uh business owner, I'll say. Uh it was a bar owner, and there was video of him assaulting his wife on camera, uh, full physical contact, very disturbing video to watch. He bought it out for$150.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

That's a shame.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Like pretty much instantly. But uh to my original question, are you hearing any instances of uh there just being a written summons for things like battery, like I described on my call? Because I was just dumbfounded.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Well, not in where police arrive and yeah, because that would be like I worked in Mississippi too.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

I would be taking someone into custody that when I was instructed to write a summons, I was no, I'm not really familiar with that being the case here.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Yeah, not for something that involves injury to someone.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Good.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

I I think that I think we do a better job of that here in Alabama.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Good to hear.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

So I think predators are a huge problem and believe we should crack down on them significantly in terms of upping the sentencing, upping the bond. And I think that we need to create a culture outside of the legal system itself, but a society where this isn't acceptable, where it's more out in the open and not so like hidden sometimes that we talk about it openly, that we name offenders and that we make it so that this is no longer an issue that people brush under the rug or refuse to refuse to acknowledge. So as a judge, um, what do you what are some things you might do? I mean, your signs say you're tough on crime conservative. So how tough are we gonna get on these repeat offenders or like subfenders?

SPEAKER_01 27:03

That as a prosecutor, that has been my passion is prosecuting people who drink kids. And oftentimes uh when we go to trial and we get a conviction, I'd say that we've been pretty successful with good sent with harsh sentences. Um I have had cases where uh you know there's had one uh one case where the defendant was convicted of sodomy in the first degree, and because the child was below the age of six at the time, or age six and below, and the predator was uh age twenty one, or he was over the age of twenty one, by statute, the judge had to sentence that person to life without parole. And I think it was absolutely warranted in that case. Yeah, absolutely. Uh I've had other cases where we had multiple, you know, multiple victims, multiple charges, and the judges gave them the max sentence. And then that because it was you know, they gave them 99 years for each charge, and it they sentenced it to as a consecutive sentence. You know, I've had defendants that were charged, you know, or that were sentenced to over 500 and 600 years because the judges took it seriously, and that's the kind of judge I plan to be.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Recently, uh Gulf Shores police had a multi, they had a multiple arrest situation. I can't remember if it was 18 or 23 uh teenagers basically, and they were possessing weapons and drugs and stuff like that. Where are you on those kinds of crimes with juveniles and between 13 and 18?

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Well, there's a lot to look at there. Okay, so um in a case like that, you have to look at each juvenile's culpability, like how involved were they? Uh were they in a situation where they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or were they the ringleader? You have to look at their age. One thing that has to be considered, especially if you're dealing with firearms, uh there um there are certain defences where if it's a if it's somebody who is 16 and above and it's a class A felony, or it's involving a firearm, those are automatic transfers to adult court. Okay, and then you have some cases where let's say it's a fifth maybe it's a 15-year-old. Okay, well, if it's a 15-year-old, or let's say it's a 17-year-old, then it's not a class A felony, but it's a class B felony. Okay, in those situations, uh the prosecutor can request uh and can request transfer to adult court. And so I think a lot of that has got to be case by case specific. Um you know, I I I really think that what we need in the juvenile, you have to look at that uh, you know, it it's hard to say just off the bat what you should do for everyone. You have but you have to look and see what each juvenile's role was and look, you know, were there were there drugs involved? What you know, how big a plan was this? Um, you know, did somebody just get caught up in the wrong place the wrong time and go from there.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Going back to my what is justice question. Um I've been to jail before. I went to jail for getting in a physical altercation with a convicted predator who had possession charges, and I had brought these to him and said, You're going to be turned in for this. Ended up him trying to kill me and me fighting for my life. And then cops came and took me and not them. And then I ended up going to jail for battery. And then I ended up thankfully having a recording of everything and getting an apology from the state attorney in that they took the wrong person, and that person is a like 10-time convicted felon. And for some reason, in that moment, because I won the fight and they had more wounds, I guess, they decided to take me. And I really felt like it in the end there was justice because they quickly realized what had happened, you know, in the heat of coming on the scene. But I'm always gonna, as someone who had always been on the other side of the law and never thought that could happen to me, having that experience, going, you know, going to jail, even though it was not warranted and later, you know, completely taken care of, I was very appalled at how I was treated within that system, that it even happened in the first place. Like it really shook my belief in our justice system a lot. So in my mind, sometimes justice is served, you know, in that moment outside of the law, I think. And I understand that there are procedures for things, but also when someone commits these like terrible, heinous crimes and you're really like fighting for yourself or your children or your family, you know, I guess my question would be I was willing to take, you know, the mugshot over the obituary. I felt like that was what needed to happen. And I'm to this day, like I would do it again. I would do it again absolutely. And in the end, the system worked out for me. But how do we stop those little gaps? I mean, like you said, nothing is perfect. There's going to be things, but I really think if we crack down harder on the true criminals out there who are doing these things repeatedly, then we would solve a lot of issues. And the people who are getting kind of like smaller crimes that might have some sort of justification or might be an error, um, there wouldn't be so much of. So how do you balance um, you know, where the pressure should really be applied?

SPEAKER_01 32:46

Well, okay, first of all, I think everyone has the right to defend themselves. And so you have a right to defend yourself. Yeah, absolutely. Um sometimes people are limited by officers responding to a scene or limited by whatever information they have in that moment. And uh it sounds like there may have been a delay in communication in terms of who needed to know what and when. And I'm so sorry that that happened to you. As far as how to solve it, probably in some way, how long ago was this?

SPEAKER_02 33:27

It was in 2022.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

Okay, so that was how long ago, yeah. Um there are things that I think contribute to that kind of situation. And one of the things that can contribute is when law enforcement is overworked. Um sometimes we we see this with law enforcement well, we see it really in any profession where you have burnout as a factor. Uh sometimes when burnout is uh a factor in there, people don't always make the best decisions under pressure. And so I think uh having um more resources for law enforcement and trying to have more and better training law enforcement I think goes a long way. You know, sometimes, you know, especially with you know different I don't think we have this problem in Baldwin County, but in other parts of the country, you see situations where law enforcement aren't respected and you'd almost have to be crazy to do the job. Okay. So then you get into a situation of okay, well, how do we recruit good people? Okay, if they're doing something dangerous with little community support, not the greatest pay, how do we how do we recruit more people? Good, qualified people. And then giving them the adequate training and access to information. I think those are the types of things that could go a long way in preventing what happened to you in that situation.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Yeah, I mean, he can tell you that when he was a police officer, the pay was not great. And that's like kind of the big deterrent there, I think, for quality people. If you're not willing to pay them more to risk their lives and to protect us, then the you know, pool you're coming from is probably not going to be as high as maybe you would like.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

I mean, as a society, I really do think that we've got to um c you know, I hate to say put our money where our mouth is, but but we have to support, we have to be willing to give law enforcement the support that they need to do the job adequately. If someone's putting their life on the line every day for the for the rest of us, they don't need to take a vow of poverty to do it. Right. And so um I think that that could go a long way in helping avoid situations like what you have.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

I think uh I mean, and maybe there is this because I've never worked as police officers. I don't know, but if they just had access to people's records, I guess before they're responding, like, okay, this person's I guess they can pull that up, but in that instance, it was like it didn't matter, and all that mattered was like, this is what this looks like, this is what this looks like, and none of this past stuff matters, but I feel like it should matter. It gives you context as to what you're walking into.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

Well, you know, I had a case um several years ago where um a mother found out that her child had been sexually abused by a family member. She didn't know that was gonna she knew that this person had a history, but she didn't know he was gonna be at the house when her child was there. And when it happened, she beat the stew out of him. And she I backed somebody at the house called the police on her, but and and they called her and she said, Well, you can arrest me at the hospital because he did this to my child, and I'm taking my child to the hospital, and they didn't arrest her.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

Good.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

They did yeah, they uh got the other side of the story. Um I mean, hey, I'm not saying go out, I'm not in favor of vigilanteism, please please, please understand that I'm not in favor of vigilanteism, but in that situation, I know for a fact that law enforcement uh they took what she said and they they looked into it, and he was the one person that wound up getting arrested. So you know, I do think that um I know that misunderstandings can happen, but um, I I know in one situation I I I know that you know our local law enforcement did the right thing. That's good.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

I have had pretty um good experiences with I'm not from here, so those all happen in another county, but when I came here, I do think we have, you know, pretty solid sheriff's office, and uh I've been impressed with them. Um I know every city has sort of their different things, but the county as a whole is a pretty good idea.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

I I agree, Sheriff's Office. I agree. I think that we have a wonderful sheriff's office here in Bob County. I think we should be really proud of our sheriff's office.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

So I wanted to ask you too about jury trials because you mentioned some of that. Can you tell me a little about a little about your experience in terms of going in front of a jury? How many, I guess a rough like how many times you've done that, what are some um jury cases that you've worked where and what's something you've learned from doing that?

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Well, uh a number I can't, I I don't know right now. Uh I'd have to sit down. Um, most of the jury trials have been major felonies, so I may not have a huge number, but I certainly have uh pretty good depth of the types of cases. Um what um as far as jury cases, um most mine have been uh sexual assaults of children. Um and I've had that's the majority of the ones I've done. And I've also done some financial exploitation of the elderly cases. Uh jury trials are uh nothing will make you more nervous. Um you do everything you can to prepare for them. And but once the jury comes in, for me the nerves settle down and I feel a lot more conf at that point I am completely focused on what's in front of me. And uh jury selection is really, really important to the process. Uh the process doesn't work without our jurors, and it's really important, you know. The way it works generally is you get a panel of 36 people, and the defense gets rid of the 12 they don't want, and the state gets rid of the 12 that they don't want, and then you have the 12 in the middle, and that's your jury. Uh, I would love to actually serve on a jury because I would love to see kind of the behind the scenes, what how do they interact? That's one thing I guess I'm I'd probably never get.

SPEAKER_02 40:12

Me too. That's like my dream. I want to be a jury foreman, but they're all like, nope, no way.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

One time I got called for jury service in Louisiana, and they I knew I wasn't gonna get selected, but they took it, they asked me all these questions. Can you tell the jury what reasonable doubt is? Can you tell the people what you know, what does this mean? What does that mean? And it was, yeah, okay, sure, I could do that. I did get a summons for jury duty here in Baldwin County, but I was also trying to case that terms. I didn't actually say no, I I didn't get to serve on a jury. Um, you know, as far as uh I think it's really important um when preparing for a jury trial, lawyers tend to speak in legal ease, and we have to present our cases in a way that makes sense to the jury. The state has the burden of proving that the person's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. And so we have to brainstorm, okay, what are the things that could cause doubt? And we have to make sure we're addressing those issues when we're presenting the case. And so um, you know, we give that opening statement where we provide a roadmap for what we expect the evidence to present uh to be. And then, of course, we put on all of our witnesses, and then at the end we give our closing argument where we try to tie it all together and hope to goodness that we did it right.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

Yeah. That's funny. I always wanted to be on a jury as well. I've been um in jury trials and people were saying, Well, it never goes to trial. I'm like, oh no, that seems like I've been involved in lots of stuff that's went to trial. Um, but I I remember the time I got called in for jury selection and I said something about it, it was a car crash, it was like a civil matter, and I was like, oh, so are you trying to argue joint and self-reliability? And they're like, what do you do? Get out of here. Like, no, you're not letting me on this.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

The question Do you is anyone here uh a lawyer? Anyone here have any kind of legal training? I always ask that question just to see if there's anyone hanging out there that I don't like in here that I didn't recognize or something.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

Can you tell us a little bit about your involvement in Baldwin County in terms of your family, groups you're involved in, civic engagement, and things of that nature?

SPEAKER_01 42:37

Okay, sure. So uh we moved here in 2009 and uh my children uh had, you know, my child, my daughter, Molly, she found up going to kindergarten that following fall. So I was real involved with, you know, like every young mom, I was involved in school and school groups. Uh we've been uh we've been active members uh uh in church here in Baldwin County. We currently go to Three Circle Church. Uh I I actually teach three-year-old Sunday school. Now that my kids are grown and I don't have little ones at home, I really miss little ones. So I enjoy uh I enjoy uh being there on Sunday mornings. Uh I've been on, I I worked with uh the Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation. Um some people call it FEAF for short. They raised money for the for the public schools there in Fair Hope. I was on their board for three years and a volunteer with them before and after that. Uh we've been involved, I've been involved in the uh in the Republican groups here in Baldwin County. Uh uh joined the Baldwin County Republican Party, the Eastern Shore Republican Women's Uh Club, the uh South Baldwin Republican Women's Club, the Point Clear Republican Women's Club, and the North Baldwin Republican Women's Club. And the reason I'm so passionate. about those particular organizations. I mean, I am a conservative. I am a Republican, but I think that it's really important to explain why conservative, why conservative leadership, how beneficial it is. I mean conservative leadership is why we have nice things with relatively low taxes and good law enforcement and common sense government. And so you know I'm a big believer in those organizations. I've had the opportunity to I'm a member of the Eastern Shore Medical Alliance. My husband being a physician, I'm part of that group and we raise money to uh for different programs here in Baldwin County. Let's see I I guess I've been mostly active like through church programs. We went to Fairhope United Methodist Church and I was involved with a lot of different uh um community programs with that. So between my kids' schools and everything, uh that's I guess that's where most of my involvement has come in. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:08

So you guys are in Fair Hope.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

We are I forgot another organization I've part of Impact 100. Okay. Now Impact 100 that is a really great organization. It's women who their dues all go into one big pile and those and we give out these block grants to really great organizations all across the county. And so that's been a fun I've really enjoyed that group a lot also.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

Does that um Impact 100 just for Baldwin County because I know I used to be involved in one in another place but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

It is I guess probably nationwide maybe international for all I know but the the one here in Baldwin County I've been part of and that's been really uh I've I love seeing their work. Anything else we want to cover?

SPEAKER_00 45:58

I I don't have anything I have a question I just don't like it. It's just um well we'll just try it for it's we can edit it out if it's not so every other industry that we see these days is being taken over by AI. Uh how has AI affected uh what you're trying to do as becoming a judge or as being an attorney that's a great question.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

Okay so I have seen uh pros and cons to AI so on the pro side for example okay so police wear body camera okay and and and then they have to come back and watch the body cam and then transcribe everything. But now there are programs that can take the body cam and transcribe it for the officer now of course they have to go back and review it to make sure everything's correct. I would hope so but that is a huge time saver. Sure yeah so that that that's a benefit to AI another benefit to AI is okay so a lot of um a lot of investigations involve phones cell phones okay so uh if you have a case that involves multiple suspects with multiple phones they have programs that can help link up the communications between the phones that's is a huge time saver so there are things there are there are law enforcement and of course you have to go back and verify it but there are programs that there's some really good law enforcement tools. Now on the other side okay as you said earlier AI is not a replacement for legal research right there was a case it was in another state where this lawyer turned in a brief to a court that they had used AI to write I think we read about that cited cases that did not exist. Yeah so uh AI is uh so you there are pros and there are cons to it. And so I think there's definitely room but at the end of the day the thing about practicing law and being a judge is okay you're applying facts to law like fat uh law plus facts equals a decision. Okay and so I don't think AI can replace common sense.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Right I wouldn't think so.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

And so I think that you know now can it could maybe in the future AI might get better at legal research but even with legal research I think you could you'd probably agree with me on this is your interpretation of what a case means and what a you know what a statute means and what uh a case what a criminal or a some type of case law means you that still comes down to common sense. And so I think there's some parts of it AI can't replace the common sense the humanity side of things I don't think AI can replace that. But I do see some really good law enforcement tools that are available through AI.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

I think in terms of writing a memorandum or stuff there's formatting things it can help with but the analysis I caution friends of mine who are just I can't afford an attorney I'm gonna do all my own analysis with ChatGPT okay you can pull cases but that you need to vet but like don't rely on a robot to analyze and apply the law to help you reach a conclusion because it could do that for the other side and will do that just as well. And I think the analysis and the application of what they are pulling is more of a problem even if they're pulling the wrong thing or the right thing like that part you really shouldn't rely on that.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

Yeah you don't know if it's even pulling uh the law for your jurisdiction yeah and so that you know I I agree I think that we still need lawyers for that I mean can AI help us brush up our grammar sure a little bit a little bit maybe maybe not and then you start recognizing the same cadence in all these different posts and the same M dashes and the same like you can tell this happened this happened but did this happen is the same thing every time like okay I know how you wrote that but whatever thank you so much for joining us today can you tell everybody where they can find you online or learn more or follow you. Well thank you for having me and yes that uh you can find out more about my campaign at christyhaygood.com spelled k-r-i s t i h-g o dulce follow me on Facebook at Christyhaygood for circuit judge and on Instagram at haygood for circuit judge and as far as donating you can go to my website and there is a button you can click for donate now any contributions would be appreciated also if if you're looking for signs if you want to help knock on doors or if you want to host a meet and greet with your friends and family uh anything uh like that uh go to my website send me a message and we'd be happy to and I'd be very happy to help help help you help me with with my campaign.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

Thank you so much for being here in the election the primary election is May 19th yes please