Shortage has area judges filling in at Springfield court

By JAMES F. LOWE Staff Writer

Published on September 05, 2008

NORTHAMPTON - A shortage of district court judges in western Massachusetts is prompting court officials to do some creative scheduling.

Presiding Northampton District Court Judge Richard J. Carey said starting Oct. 6, district courts in Northampton, Chicopee, Palmer and Westfield will each send one judge every week to handle a morning session in Springfield District Court.

"Everybody will end up having to work a little harder to compensate for it," Carey said in an interview. In addition to being presiding judge in Northampton, Carey handles scheduling for district courts in all four western counties.

The scheduling move is aimed at providing sorely needed judges in Springfield, which Carey said has the state's busiest district court. Ideally there should be seven justices on duty there each morning to handle arraignments and other matters, he said, but on a given day lately there have been only four or five.

Four western Massachusetts judge positions are vacant. Carey said the vacancies were created by Berkshire County Judge Alfred A. Barbalunga, who retired in 2006; and judges Robert L. Howarth and William W. Teahan of Hampden County and Herbert H. Hodos of Franklin County, all of whom retired this year.

Deerfield attorney Maureen E. Walsh was selected in July to fill one of the vacancies, and is expected to sit primarily at Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown, another very busy court in the region.

Carey said he's optimistic the remaining three vacancies will be filled in the next few months. The state's Judicial Nominating Committee has finished accepting applications for these slots and two others in eastern Massachusetts, according to its Web site.

<strong>One less judge</strong>

In the meantime, the new scheduling plan will deprive Northampton District Court of a judge every Thursday morning. Judges will be drawn from Chicopee, Palmer and Westfield on different days.

The selected judge will begin the day sit in Springfield in the morning, then return to his or her home court for the afternoon session, beginning at 2 p.m.

Northampton Police Chief Russell P. Sienkiewicz said at first he was concerned the scheduling change would create undue delays for urgent matters like emergency restraining orders. Luckily, he said, court staff will be able to facilitate these hearings over the phone with judges in Belchertown.

In the judge's absence, the court's clerks will move ahead with some regular business, such as arraignments. Carey said clerks and probations officers have been instructed to schedule for the afternoon business that requires a judge's presence, such as bail arguments, probation violations and motion hearings.

James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.