1 e r o
Moving On
Retiring Circuit Judge Deborah Tyner eyes another arena of public service.
Judith Doner Berne
Special to the Jewish News
B
y many accounts, Judge
Deborah Tyner will be
missed when she steps
down Jan. 1 after 16 years on the
bench.
"We don't want you to leave,"
Chief Oakland Circuit Judge
Wendy Potts told Tyner before a
crowd of nearly 300 at a tribute
reception Nov. 13 at Northern
Lakes Seafood Company in
Bloomfield Hills.
"You are a valued colleague and
friend to all of us," Potts says. "We
wish you all the best. Whatever
you do, you're going to do it well."
Oakland County Executive L.
Brooks Patterson reminded the
crowd, heavily populated with
attorneys and judges, that as a
formef prosecutor he appreciated
"how tough Debbie Tyner was
when it came to criminal sen-
tencing.
"People came here to declare
their respect for you, for your
service to Oakland County and
to your profession. May your best
days of public service lie before
you," Patterson says.
"She's an excellent judge
and jurist in every respect,"
says Assistant Prosecutor John
Pietrofesa, interviewed earlier in
Tyner's courtroom.
"We have the lowest [crimi-
nal] docket numbers in the
courthouse Pietrofesa reports
with satisfaction. "She gets cases
resolved in a manner that's fair
for everyone. She doesn't give
away the farm" — his language
for being a tough sentencer.
"She reads everything," he
adds. "And her appellate affirma-
tion rate [the percentage of crimi-
nal appeals upheld by the appel-
late court] is phenomenal.
' "It's easy to hear nice things
from the prosecutor," Pietrofesa
acknowledges, "but you'll hear it
from the defense bar, too. It's a
balanced courtrootiC
That was upheld by two crimi-
nal attorneys who often defend
clients before Tyner.
24
November 30 .2006
"I'm not happy she's retiring,"
says Jerome Sabbota of Ribitwer
& Sabbota in Royal Oak. "In a trial
before Judge Tyner, you get a fair
shake. She is always prepared. You
know where you stand with her."
"I'm going to miss her," sec-
onds Larry Kaluzny of Kaluzny &
Kaluzny in West Bloomfield. "Just
because she's leaving, she hasn't
when first elected in 1990.1 was
judgeships was added to the
ready for a change from being a
Oakland County Circuit Court,
trial judge."
• she ran and won a seat.
She applied for the opening on
"I remember the first time I
the Michigan Court of Appeals,
took the bench," she says. "I had
created when Judge Hilda Gage
a lot of trial experience. But the
retired earlier this year. "When
physical perspective is so differ-
the appeals position didn't come
ent."
through, I thought about doing
Sometimes when she is con-
some social good from another
ducting a bench trial, where she
"She's a good friend and a good colleague. She knows the
law and really cares about the job and the people. The
circuit court is a team and she's always held up her end."
.- Circuit Judge Edward Sosnick
stopped being a judge.
"I think the public got more
from her than the journalistic
approach would really show,"
Kaluzny said. "Judges, like defense
attorneys, do a lot of preparation,
and she was always prepared. She
wasn't afraid to make a decision
that wasn't popular:'
"She's a good friend and a good
colleague," says Judge Edward
Sosnick, whom Tyner cites as a
mentor. "She knows the law and
really cares about the job and
the people. The circuit court is
a team, and she's always held up
her end."
University of Michigan senior
Alex Edelson interned for Tyner
the summer between his sopho-
more and junior year. "I appreci-
ated her willingness to include
me," he says, "and her effort to
make sure I was having a mean-
ingful experience."
Edelson, who grew up in West
Bloomfield, is applying to law
school this fall. "If I learned any-
thing it was the value of being
prepared as an attorney," he says.
"She really demanded that prepa-
ration."
At A Crossroads
So why is she leaving when it has
been her lifelong ambition to be
a judge?
"I've been doing this a long
time," says Tyner, who was 34
arena;' she says. "I want to take
what I've learned and apply it dif-
ferently."
She may devote more time to
Kadima, the Southfield-based
Jewish residential and support
service agency for adults with
mental illness, where she is on the
advisory board.
Indeed, during a morning of
criminal calls, she focused on
a young mother suffering from
both bipolar illness and drug
addiction who was sentenced to
probation for identity theft.
"They'll tell you no drugs. But
you need to continue to take the
meds. You cannot take anything
else," Tyner warned her several
times."They'll have the list. If you
don't adhere to the zero tolerance,
you go to jail. Do you under-
stand?"
It was a visit from then-
Oakland County Circuit Judge
Alice Gilbert to her Birmingham
middle school that first turned
Tyner on to becoming a judge. "I
thought it was so fantastic to see
a woman judge," Tyner said.
She followed that dream, grad-
uating the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor with highest honors
and Wayne State University Law
School in Detroit with honors.
After a stint as a Wayne County
assistant prosecutor, she became
a partner at Sommers Schwartz
in Southfield. When a pair of
circle and instructs "Bang Head
Here."
"You have to learn this job as
you do it," she said. "You learn
your own rhythms. You have to
multi-task.
"Efficiency is one of my
strengths."
Married to commercial litiga-
tion attorney Richard Herman
and mother to children ages 19
and 11, she is open about."the
challenges of being a working
mother in a job that is seven days,
24 hours.
"It's part of my identity to
be a judge, a wife, a daughter, a
mother. You're expected to attend
community functions, participate
Judge Tyner: "I want to take what I've learned and apply it
differently."
is judge and jury, she leaves the
bench so that she can face the
witness as a juror would.
A murder for hire was one of
her most memorable cases."It
involved two trials and was cov-
ered — beginning to end — by
Court TV. And, Johnnie Cochran
once came before me. He was a
very polite, distinguished man."
A Tough Role
No amount of trial work, she says,
can totally prepare you for the
stress of being a trial judge in an
urban setting. As she sits at her
bench, she has only to look down
at an "Anti-Stress Kit" given to her
by Judge Sosnick. It shows a large
in activities. I wanted to be a part
of my children's schools. Everyone
used to call me 'Mama Judge,"
she says with a smile.
Stepping down will give her
more time with family. "I'm
very proud of my children," she
says, confiding that last year her
daughter broke both legs when
someone ran into her on a snow-
boarding hill. The healing process
was long and arduous. "We've had
quite a year."
Tyner was re-elected Nov.7.
By the time she decided to retire,
she says, her name could not be
removed from the ballot. It will be
up to Gov. Jennifer Granholm to
fill the vacancy. II