The Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast Episode 48 with Guest, Honorable Judge Alison Breaux
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Justin Alan Hayes founder and executive
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today's guest is a presiding judge in
the Summit County Court of Common Pleas
she is the founder of Hope Court for
felonies
and she will also be presented with the
2023 Voices for Voices ambassador of the
Year award at our annual a brand-new day
charity gala and fundraiser in October
13th at the Leona Ferris Lodge in Stow
Ohio
so please join me in welcoming to the
show today Judge Allison Breaux
welcome and thank you for joining us you
bet thank you thanks for having me
absolutely so for our listeners our
viewers will be on TV as well as all
audio platforms can you share a little
but maybe about your background and
how you became interested in the legal
profession
sure
um so move to Summit County just before
high school and went to high school in
Summit County at Hudson High School
um I we had moved around a lot as when I
grew up and so I was bound and
determined to never live in Ohio because
I just you know it just it was it wasn't
cool enough for me when I was you know a
14-year-old so after graduating from
high school I moved to Texas, and I went
to TCU for one year but honestly, I
couldn't escape the fact that I had I
had somewhere along the line I'd turn
into a Midwest girl I found my way back
to Ohio and then started transferred to
Kent State University where I graduated
from and then after Kent State I went to
the University of Akron for law school
um you know when I was in high school
when I was in college I was always
really interested in social justice I
was always interested in law but I don't
know if I'd really considered it
seriously as a career until I was
nearing the end of my college career and
um you know my dad made the suggestion
you know you're really arguing have you
ever thought about going to law school
and you know it just kind of struck
stuck with me and so I said well I have
I haven't not necessarily terribly
seriously so I decided that I was going
to take the LSAT which is the entrance
exam for law school and I was going to
kind of say hey if I do well on this and
I get accepted to law school based on
those scores then maybe it's something I
should pursue and so that kind of just
how things organically happened and then
I went to law school
so what was the hardest thing about Law
School
oh of everything it was
really tough
um
all the beginning all of the
assignments you know just the vast
amount of cases and case law that we had
to study every night it was very
different from undergrad for me it
required a lot of my time a lot of my
attention it didn't come easy to me
um so I really, I really had a hard time
in law school it wasn't you know I
didn't just Breeze through
um so but I did I still loved every bit
of it just was really tough
so the public speaking part of being a
judge and going through in the law
school up until this point I know
there are some viewers and listeners
that maybe more of an introvert and
might have also have that interest of
illegal profession are there any maybe
tips or tricks of how somebody can
practice to be comfortable speaking in
front of people speaking and interviews
so you know the law is so versatile
there's so many things that you can do
with a law degree just because you have
a lot of degree doesn't mean that you're
going to be in the courtroom trying
cases and doing that trial work
there are millions of other
opportunities to you and then you don't
even have to practice so just having a
law degree is a really great
degree to have it makes you
um very marketable so you can go
into a lot of different areas and also
you could definitely then also pursue
going into practicing and then you know
representing clients so there's
there's just a number of things you can
do if you're interested in social
justice if you're interested in politics
if you're interested in entertainment
into sports into litigation I mean you
name it you can do anything with a law
degree and you can have any degree
prior to going to law school okay so you
know my daughter is in college right now
and she's a freshman and she's you know
kind of waffling she doesn't really know
what she wants to do and a lot of the
majors that they offer and there's so
many different options now than
certainly when I was in college and but
it's very individualized so if
you're going to go into this bracket
then these are the classes you have to
take and then you know you feel like
you're kind of pigeonholed well I
wouldn't say that's true with law so you
can be an English degree you can get a
zoology degree you can do a million
different things and still go into law
school so it's really versatile
so maybe so I just have a personal
interest you know the
Society there's so many different shows
about law and trials and all the
just all the facets of the
proceedings what do you think may
be the biggest misnomer about somebody
who sees a television show that might be
a half hour an hour versus
how things really go for maybe a Time
perspective and how involved it is it's
not just something to make a few phone
calls and go through that process right
I mean it's for entertainment purposes
right so are there bits and pieces that
are probably true yes for sure for sure
but you know the longevity of a case
definitely takes a lot longer there's
lots of ins and outs that happen along
behind the scenes there's evidentiary
issues that come up those things all
happen behind the scenes so it's not
it's not the sexy TV show that
everybody's tuning into those things
highlight the most exciting parts of any
sort of trial or any sort of case so
that's definitely true but it's like you
know same thing with medical shows
so it's not always like that it's not
always like you know a really exciting
ER visit there's stuff that goes
on behind the scenes that's not as
interesting and definitely takes a lot
longer great
so hope core how did that come about
and how did your interest in social
justice Law School
turn into mental health advocacy and
then the hope court
so when I took so I ran for my
current position in 2016 I was elected
in November of that year and so I took a
bench in 2017 I was very eager to
start things and make some changes I had a wonderful Mentor he actually
now sits on the house Supreme Court
Judge Donnelly and we met early in 2017
and I said I really want to start a
mental health court it's not something
we have in Summit County we have
Municipal Court level mental health
courts but we don't have anything for
the felony level and I have all these
ideas and he said hold on you just got
here take some time you know do some
research and just work towards
that if you want to do that that's great
but maybe just get your feet wet a
little bit first and so I took his
advice and that was early in seventeen so it by
2018 by the spring of that year I had
already planned to meet with a number of
different agencies in Summit County that
um service individuals with mental
health issues and you know we had this
big meeting in March of 2018 and I said
this is my this is my vision this is
what I want to do you think that we
have a need for this and if so, would you
be willing to partner with us and if so
in what degree and you know everybody in
the room said yes, we need this please do
this and we will back you however we can
um so I had a lot of support from the
very beginning so that was great and you
know in that year of 2017 I was
definitely taking a look at my cases and
realizing that there was a huge
cross-section of mental health and some
in in criminal justice so many people
found themselves in front of a judge
because of their mental illness and
whether it was you know whether it was
like a first psychotic break for the
individual who was maybe very young or
whether it was something they were
struggling with for years and years and
years
um or if it was a result of trauma or
tragedy or things that had happened in
their lives you know it was very
very prominent in most cases that that I
was
um that I was seeing so I knew that
there was a need and so I just set out
to do it and then by the fall of 2018 we
had our first hope court status call
with our first participant so it took us
about six months to put all the
documents into place and get
everything started for it
fantastic can you talk a little bit
about the goal setting process how you
set goals and how you go about achieving
them you talked a little bit about that
with the hope court where you came
in and had a vision and then it took
sometime the old documents repaired
until it got implemented but even
outside of that just as an individual
that might be looking to do some
career and so they have a goal and start
a business go to law school the
different processes that they come with
it and then maybe the reality of I
want to do this today versus I want to
do is today and I still have the
interest today but it may take six
months it may take a year or two years
just to maybe give some courage to some
individuals to keep out what they're
what they're going after yeah you
know it's great to have goals it's
great to have dreams absolutely they
need to be realistic so I would
say you know I'll take a look at them
and be you know be honest with yourself
are those goals achievable and then
the best thing I think is to set some
time frames so set your expectations
make them reasonable but give yourself
deadlines for doing certain
parts like if I if I'm if I'm setting
out to do something you know, and I need
I need to complete five things in order
to do that well what's realistically how
am I going to do those things is it
gonna take me six months is it gonna
take me one year and then have and work
toward that deadline
um because I think a lot of times people
don't pick stuff up unless they're in
preparing for something that's coming up
you know we set pre-trials in all of our
cases and I know as a practicing lawyer
when I was doing litigation well oh I
have a pre-trial coming up I've got to
prepare have I checked I have to check
in with my clients is everything done
well where's my to-do list I do all of
those things so it's good to have those
deadlines to kind of keep you on task
great how important do you think
geography where somebody lives or
might have an interest outside the this
data of Ohio you mentioned it being a
brief time in Texas at TCU but maybe
somebody is going through their
coursework and they've grown up in North
Canton or Hudson or Stowe and they're
like I want to live in this city because
of this thing are there any maybe
cautionary tales before somebody makes
that leap of maybe not knowing anybody
in that particular City or maybe chasing
a title to too early maybe not having an
emotional tie to the job when they
get up in the morning that it's not just
all about that the paycheck that they
feel validated at the end of the day
yeah, you know I think it's great to be
brave and have courage and to take risks
I think that's
that's really
um admirable to be that way but it you
know it also goes on along the same
lines as having goals like make sure
that those things are realistic like you
know if you're gonna if you want to make
a move okay but you still have to you
know just jump on a plane you need to
consider certain things like what's the
cost of living if I'm going to move what
are the things I'm gonna have access to
what kinds of other you know will I have
family close by if I need them will I be
able to you know do they have a program
that is that's near and dear to my heart
or am I going to just move there because
the weather's great but then find myself
not necessarily pursuing the career that
I want because those resources are
closer to where I am now
um and just remember like not
everything is forever so you know a lot
of things you can make a decision and
you can oftentimes change that decision
or you can go back on it, and you know
sort of like my I'm staying I'm getting
out of Ohio and I don't want to live
here anymore and I'm going to go and I'm
going to be a Texan and then going well
you know what I'm not sure Texas is
really that's not really my thing so you
know just being open to you know life is
organic so you have to kind of pick up
what your what life is giving to
you and then you know mold your next
steps based on that but always be
realistic and don't be afraid to take
chances right the role of politics uh
just in general in in your life it'll be
in like getting on the ballot getting
elected did that come when you're in
law school okay this is the route I
want to take was that part of the
process and just knowing okay there
might be some things
uh maybe some administrative type of
tasks that need to happen to get to that
that goal and what would be maybe the
first step if somebody has an interest
of whether it's working towards being
a judge a another elected official a
mayor a governor
involved in politics I didn't grow up in
a super political family so when I
decided to run for a judge based on some
conversations that I had had with my
mentors it was really foreign to me so I
didn't really know what to expect I
didn't even I didn't really even
understand you know how local
government was made up I didn't know the
people that I needed to be talking to
and so that I was a really sharp
learning curve that I that I had to go
through in 2016 you know judges were
although we do belong to parties at
least in Ohio we try not to be overly
politicized because you know our job is
to look at cases
um and decide them based on facts based
on the law you know apply these facts to
the law and come to a fair and just
outcome so it should not
be influenced in any way by any sort of
politics it shouldn't be influenced by
you know just because somebody belongs
to one party or the other party we all
have personal views right but those
things should not come into our work on
the bench and so we should be able to
put all of that aside so you know it
it's an it's kind of it's
difficult for judges because we try very
hard not to be political even though we
still belong to parties right what
does maybe at a high level what does
maybe I know there's probably not an
average day for you but somebody
that has an interest like I wonder you
know how many cases or how much reading
a judge does on a on a daily basis just
to have an idea of okay I go through the
coursework and what's real life like
because I know going through my
marketing degree and coming out
I did one aspect of marketing that I was
like oh I want to do all these things
and then it's like oh wait I'm gonna do
this little sliver of that so it was
just a learning curve for me in in that
respect and then being an entrepreneur
and start an organization but maybe uh
you know what's a day in the life of a
judge like yeah so it varies a lot
from geographically just depending on
where you are certainly what state you
live in and also what county you live in
so Ohio is made up of eighty-eight counties well
some of our counties are very large
somebody County is one of the larger
counties in population we have about five hundred
almost 550 000 people living in Summit
County compare that to a very small
County like I think Holmes County maybe
has like 33 000 people so your docket is
going to very much be impacted by that
those numbers
um but a day in the life of the
Common Pleas Court so we so I'm in the
general division which means I have
civil cases and I have criminal cases
the criminal cases are all felonies
um so we carry a docket you know covet
has impacted our dockets
um but we typically would carry maybe
175 to 250 cases on our criminal docket
and then our civil docket is usually
about the same numbers
um but we're all trying to get you know
around four hundred cases right now but anyways
um so the civil cases are anything where
money damages are at stake so any
litigation that could be personal injury
like a car accident all the way up to
wrongful death medical malpractice cases
um and anything in between business
litigation you name it whenever people
are fighting over money
um we get those cases
um and then our criminal cases is all of
our felonies so we have low-level
felonies like drug offenses theft
offenses fraud and then all the way
up to the more serious level first
degree second degree felonies including
murder rape trafficking in drugs robbery
burglary all of those things
um so we all have a docket where we set
things for trial so but most of our
cases don't go to trial
um that's just based on I think it's
almost like trending
um but so if we have a trial then
it'll go forward and then we're in trial
for those days and those are jury trials
um but when we're not in trial we have
um we call them call days at least in
Summit County where we are checking in
with all of our criminal cases we
have a prosecutor assigned to our court
and then we have criminal defense
attorneys who come in represent the
individuals who have been charged with
crimes and just work through the cases
are we close to resolution is there a
diversionary program that we can that
we can steer this individual into is
this going to go to trial and so things
like that and then you know our civil
and our criminal cases all involve a lot
of research and writing reading cases
finding case law that's applicable to
our cases we have a staff that supports
us that does a lot of that research and
writing for us but we are like the final
say in a lot of that so it's a lot of
paperwork it's a lot of research it's
writing it's sort of interacting with
the public so a lot of those things
book work and learning terms and
processes is one thing but being able to
network is another being able to get
that information and apply it in
whatever manner that is how important it
is networking have you found over the
course of your career for yourself
and somebody that's like okay I have
this book knowledge I did this
internship what do I want to do and like
oh I didn't need I need I need to talk
to this person or I need to reach out
and those types of things so that if you
want to speak on the networking aspect
yeah, I think networking is really
important it's part it's one of the best
things that happens as you campaign so
when you're campaigning, you're in the
community you're really learning more
about your community engaging with
individuals community members but
also you know people that run
organizations and agencies and just
kind of learning a lot of what's going
on more so than you would if you didn't
have to have if you didn't have to have
voters who are going to vote for you
um so I think that's a really huge
benefit of campaigning for this position
because you are learning what's going on
in your community what are people's
concerns and also what's going on that's
working what's going on that's not
working and just talking to people
so I think networking is really
important and I think that we just we
really, I think we as humans we find out
so much valuable information by accident
not necessarily seeking it out but just
you know when we when you sit down and
talk to somebody and you learn their
story or you learn what's important to
them you really can learn about oh
you know so and so oh I would love to
meet that person maybe they could
partner with me maybe we could do
something here we would work together
here maybe you know we can be a resource
for each other in some way
um so I think all of that's really
really important right how did and this
might be on Parallel pass but
being involved with Nami in a board
member just in the organization was that
just a natural fit with the work that
you
the interest and the work that you were
going kind of the social justice the
mental the mental health side yeah
definitely I love the work that Nami
does we have a pretty robust Nami in
Summit County
um Leslie Stoyer is the
executive director she does a wonderful
job and so I've been on the board for
almost maybe it's two years I don't know
I think I might be nearing the end of my
first term
um yeah, it's really great work and you
know it's almost like I know people who
know about Nami know about who Nami but
there's so many people who don't and the
fact that it really is a resource for
individuals who are touched by mental
health not just necessarily diagnosed
with a mental illness but for families
the support that they offer to families
is really important and it's
just it's so important to
understanding what that plight is like
um the so many pitfalls involved in
struggling with mental illness and Nami
gives so many resources for those
individuals who are touched by it so
it's a really great organization
absolutely I when I came out of my
five-day impatient stay in the psych
ward of Akron General and I learned
about Nami I wish I would have known
about them
prior to them but once I found out
about them and the tie-in to the family
which trying to explain how I'm feeling
to a counselor or therapist versus my
wife and in-laws and my parents and
people I interact with and might judge
based off of like oh okay well he has
major depression and anxiety so he we
can't trust him or whatever those the
stigma kind of goes along with it and so
I learned that Nami is one of one of the
best organizations and especially in
Summit County
speaking with other
leaders of other nominee chapters across
the country that the summit chapters
been recognized many times over the
years in the net in the National sense
and that makes me feel good being that I
live in Summit County to have an
organization in the branching out the
you're doing with more maybe
monthly webinars and those types of
things I think are also helpful too just
bring in experts that are already
involved with the organization it's like
hey why don't we just
set something up and chat about this
topic or a couple topics and I think
that's fascinating the evolution
I think that's occurring with Nami I
totally agree yeah, it's an enormous
asset that we have absolutely
great well that's all the questions that
I had
um is there anything branding wise
that you wanted to share I know the
election already happened from that that
standpoint but if somebody
wants to follow what you're may not you
individually but the office or the core
is their social media the Summit County
Court of Common Pleas has
yeah so, we have a Facebook presence
and we certainly have a website
um you know Summit County we are
sort of parallel to how great the Nami
organization is in Summit County also
too is
um the amount of resources that we have
in some way County when I talk to other
judges from other areas in Ohio the fact
that we have so many mental health
agencies is we are very lucky
um that we have access to resources that
we can steer people toward now
but it's not perfect and we there's
still so many needs that have not yet
been made and another great thing about
Summit County is that we have these we
have these specialized dockets that are
so great so I run the mental health
court as you know it's called hope and
it is for folks who are diagnosed with a
severe and persistent mental illness who
really just want to get their life back
and whose mental health has impacted
them in a negative way and force them to
be involved in the criminal justice
system so we want to change that path we
want to change that direction for these
individuals show them that in a lot of
ways they have lived in a place in
their world that they don't feel like
they are entitled to or should be
recipients of anything good right they
they've lived in a world of Shame
they've lived in trauma they've lived in
tragedy they've lived with voices in
their heads they've lived with
hallucinations they've lived with all of
this thing all of these negative things
for so many years and we want to show
them listen that's not that doesn't have
to be who you are and that doesn't have
to Define you or your future we want
folks to live independently get their
licenses back live stably financially
whether they're receiving benefits from
the government or they are working
part-time or doing a vocation and also
reuniting with their families and having
loving relationships and friends
and social
um you know access to social Arenas
where they feel safe and so that is like
the goal of some of our hope court
and I know that that's the same goal I
mean the mental health piece is a little
bit different with the other specialized
dockets that we have but we have a
turning point program that's a drug
court program we have a veterans Corps
we have re-entry core we have a domestic
violence court and a Valor Court that's
for veterans I think I've already
mentioned that but these specialized
dockets are there's such a gem for our
community because they only not only are
they saving lives but they're also
saving money because whenever somebody's
in the jail
the amount of money it costs to house an
individual into jail is astronomical
compared to letting them get Outpatient
Treatment Services and letting them live
in the community so that's my plug for
what we do no it's awesome it's
been a pleasure learning more about you
uh your background the work
that you're doing in the community
and I will get the information for the
October 13th event obviously over to
to your staff and get that and the
date and the time and location and in in
that just looking forward to just being
able to present an award to somebody
who's I think very important to the
to the community in in what you do
and wanting to
help people
regardless of kind of their background
that you know you apply the law but you
still have that emotional side it's like
okay let's look at the whole
person and I think that that's something
that is that distinguish you from
other people that were
kind of kind of interested in looking at
that the full breadth of what you
do and the interest and the Nami and the
mental health and the Outreach is
just awesome to have you in Summit
County as a as an elected official as
somebody the day in and day out Works to
the betterment of society thank you
thank you so much it's so kind of you
absolutely yeah so, I'll close out the
episode then we'll grab a couple
pictures leave with you on the screen uh
you know I'll send those over and then
uh we'll let you know in the episode is
going to air and be available and
and that and yeah, it's just been
awesome to be able to chat with you
day thank you so much Justin what a
pleasure absolutely and we want to thank
you for joining us our viewers our
listeners on this episode of the voices
for voices podcast and a huge thank you
to our guest judge Alison Breaux for
spending some time with us today
so until next time I'm Justin Alan
Hayes and I hope you have a great day
and be a voice for you or somebody in
need
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[Applause]
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