For the kids

Circuit judge honored as outstanding leader

Circuit Judge Troy Braswell Jr. stands in the Conway Police Department with his wife, Karla, and their two children, Trey, 6, and Mia, 4. The plaque on the wall has Braswell’s name engraved as Outstanding Community Leader, presented to him June 29 by the Conway Morning Rotary Club.
Circuit Judge Troy Braswell Jr. stands in the Conway Police Department with his wife, Karla, and their two children, Trey, 6, and Mia, 4. The plaque on the wall has Braswell’s name engraved as Outstanding Community Leader, presented to him June 29 by the Conway Morning Rotary Club.

Twentieth Judicial District Circuit Judge Troy Braswell Jr. of Conway has a packed calendar — juvenile-court hearings, trials, meetings and, on a recent week, princess camp.

His 4-year-old daughter, Mia, had her end recital at a summer camp, and he wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Braswell’s wife and two children are his heart, but he’s committed to troubled youth in Faulkner, Searcy and Van Buren counties, too.

In June, the Conway Morning Rotary Club presented Braswell with the Outstanding Community Leader Award for his work.

“To be recognized is very humbling, and it makes me thankful to live in such a great community,” he said. “I just feel like I’m doing my part as a citizen of Conway. I’m blessed to be a judge and use my position to make a difference.”

Rotary Club member Mary Kay Dunaway nominated Braswell for the award.

“To me, he epitomizes the right balance of a caring attitude with tough love for our community’s youth who have made some poor choices in life,” she wrote in her nomination letter.

She outlined Braswell’s accomplishments, which have stacked up quickly for the 38-year-old. He is the youngest circuit judge in the state, a fact that he enjoys, he said.

“I’m going to use it as long as I can,” Braswell said. “It’s a fun thing I like to poke my colleagues with.”

He was also named 2016 Drug Court Judge of the Year for Arkansas and Outstanding Community Partner for Service-Learning Programs at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. Last week, he was a speaker at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in Denver.

He’s gained recognition for the youth-rehabilitation programs he reinstituted and the ones he started since he became a judge in 2015.

When he became a circuit judge, “overall, the morale in juvenile court was low,” Braswell said. “Teen court had fallen off; drug court was not as effective as it had been in the past. I’m not laying blame; it is what it is. We really had to roll up our sleeves and go to work and say, ‘How can we do this in a different way and re-energize?’”

He first mentioned the Youth Empowered Sisters, or Y.E.S., a mentorship program for African-American girls started by Sheila Franklin, intake officer for the 20th Judicial District.

“She’s awesome,” Braswell said.

Franklin has mutual admiration for Braswell. She has worked with the juvenile-court system for 25 years, with seven judges.

“He’s made such a positive impact on the way the juvenile-court system works in the state of Arkansas, being able to discern what kids need instead of looking for the punishment part,” she said. “He actually works more on what services we can offer young people. [Faulkner County is] a model in the state. Every county in Arkansas

is looking at us for training to see how we’re making this positive impact.”

Braswell said several programs are making a difference with juveniles.

“We’re the first court in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas to institute a Girl Scout troop for court-involved youth. It’s fabulous,” he said. It won an award from the Girl Scouts-Diamonds of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Other juvenile-court programs include a sewing class, a moral-dilemmas class, a boys boxing club, tutoring and one of Braswell’s favorites, a book club for girls.

“That program is amazing,” he said.

He slid down in his chair and twisted in the seat to imitate one teenager’s disgust when he ordered her to participate in the book club.

“Oh, this is ridiculous,’” he said, sighing as the girl had.

When Braswell saw the teenager in court again, she reported that she enjoyed the book club.

“She said, ‘It sparked a period of growth in my life,’” Braswell said. He almost fell out of his chair, he said. As a reminder, he has that quote and others he’s heard in court written on small sticky notes where he can see them when he’s on the bench.

“That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “You get one of those [comments], and you say, ‘You know what? We’re making a difference.’”

The juvenile court has the support of the community, he said. Hendrix and UCA partner with the court, as well many organizations, such as Deliver Hope. Not every county is so fortunate, Braswell said.

One of his passions is to see equality in juvenile justice. Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed Braswell chairman of the Juvenile Justice Reform Board.

“What can we do as a state to make juvenile justice more uniform from a budget standpoint?” Braswell asked. “How can we reallocate funds from locking so many kids up to reinvesting in the community for preventative measures?”

Braswell said there needs to be accountability, too.

“A judge’s order isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if it’s not going to be enforced,” he said. “This is not about being soft on kids; this is about being smarter.”

Braswell didn’t start out planning to work with juvenile cases, or necessarily be a judge.

He grew up in Little Rock. His father, Troy, owned skating rinks for a while, as well as pawn shops, which he still operates.

Braswell’s mother, Kitty, was a special-education teacher.

“I knew I wanted a law degree,” Braswell said. “I looked at the wide range of jobs you could have. What intrigued me was the doors a law degree could open.”

Braswell reeled off a list of possibilities, from politics to commissioner of a major sports league.

Braswell sat in his office on the third floor of the Faulkner County Justice Building in Conway. He walked over to a Pulaski County Bar Association class photo hanging on the wall of his office and pointed out his grandfather on his mother’s side, O.D. Longstreth, a former Little Rock city attorney, and Braswell’s great-grandfather and an aunt, also attorneys.

Braswell earned his undergraduate degree from UCA — where he met his wife, Karla — and his master’s and law degrees from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

After graduation, he served as a clerk for a judge in Little Rock and got to watch a lot of jury trials and court proceedings.

“I knew at that moment I wanted to be in the courtroom,” Braswell said.

His first job was in 2007 as a deputy prosecuting attorney in Little Rock.

“I loved having to think on my feet,” he said.

Six months later, he was trying cases in front of juries.

“I knew I’d found something I enjoyed getting up and going to work for,” Braswell said.

He was assigned to a domestic-violence and sexual-assault unit, where he worked with abused women and children.

Braswell said the most gratifying part of the job was the number of children he helped.

“There’s something very sad and very motivating about sitting across from an 8-year-old boy who has been raped by his dad, who, one, has to talk about something so intimate and having to talk to strangers about it. It’s inspiring, the [child’s] bravery.”

In the John Grisham novel A Time to Kill, the attorney asks the jury members to close their eyes and imagine that a little black girl who was raped by two white supremacists was a little white girl raped by black men.

Braswell did something similar once. He asked the jury members to close their eyes and imagine the little boy who was raped by his father.

“I said, ‘Close your eyes and think about that 8-year-old boy lying there every night. The door would open and the light would creep in, and the dad who was supposed to protect him came in … and the nights that door didn’t open, think how scared he was.’”

The father got 90 years in prison.

Another case that’s seared in Braswell’s memory was a little girl of 5 or 6 who was molested by her uncle. Braswell interviewed the child at her house.

“She was running around hitting me with a balloon,” he said. “I think my ability to relate to kids is what’s helped me.”

When the child took the stand in front of a jury, he asked her, “Sweetheart, do you know why we’re here today?” He said she turned and looked at the jury and said, “Because my uncle does nasty things to me.”

Braswell said he knew right then it was over.

In January 2011, he became deputy prosecuting attorney for Cody Hiland, then 20th Judicial District prosecuting attorney.

Braswell continued to handle a lot of the juvenile cases — sexual cases with minor victims — as well as homicides.

In 2014, “I remember vividly being with my wife and praying through whether running for circuit judge was right, and we felt a peace.”

Braswell said he’d had experience as an attorney in front of several great judges, “those who understand the importance of a fair and impartial judge who will let you try a case.”

“I tried 49 jury trials as a prosecutor. I felt like I knew the type of judge I wanted to be, … so that’s why I ran for office.”

His parents also instilled in him the importance of community service, he said.

“I felt like God was leading me in this direction, so I took a leap of faith,”

Braswell said.

Judges are required to submit an administrative plan about what type of cases they’ll hear.

“It became apparent that no one wanted to handle juvenile court,” he said.

So Braswell volunteered for the juvenile cases. He has 15 employees, whereas other judges have one or two, he said. That’s because he has juvenile probation officers under him, and the budget is bigger.

Braswell said the most time and resources should be spent on children who are at risk for being involved in the system over and over.

During Braswell’s first year on the bench, the Faulkner County Juvenile Court was a pilot court for a new risk-assessment and

behavior-screening tool. Families and youth are interviewed during the intake process and asked a series of questions that the probation officers score.

“It works,” he said.

“After two years of using this tool, we have reduced the number of kids coming into our juvenile detention center by 47 percent,” he said, adding that there has been a

33 percent reduction in cases filed by prosecutors. “There are fewer kids in jail and fewer kids charged with crimes. We’ve reduced the number of kids who keep coming back multiple times by 90 percent.”

Franklin said Braswell has made the assessment work.

“He dissects what each individual, not just child, but family, needs. The statistics show just how improved our juvenile justice system is in Faulkner County.”

A small wooden box is displayed in his office. The box contains mementos, such as his grandfather’s Arkansas Bar Association card, and letters.

“Sometimes victims will send me a letter, and I will keep some of those. They go through a lot, so it’s special,” he said.

Braswell said he tells victims of sexual assault: “This does not define you for the rest of your life. You will have an opportunity to help somebody else — a friend, a relative — and you will be able to give back from this.”

Braswell’s eyes get misty as he talks about it. Since he and his wife had children, “it hits home more,” he said. “It makes me want to protect my kids more.”

The role of parents can’t be overstated, he said.

“Our community suffers due to a lack of parents and parenting. The breakup of the parenting unit has been catastrophic for children. … We have so many parents who want to be friends. Parents can’t afford to sit on the sidelines and not do their jobs.

“As a parent, I get it. I screw up. I’m not perfect, but I’m engaged,” he said. Many of the juveniles Braswell sees in court “have nobody at home, or nobody at home to teach them right or wrong.”

He said many of the juveniles have been sexually or physically abused under the age of 5, have a home life “that’s a wreck,” with no accountability and drug use, “and we’re wondering, ‘Why are the kids in court?’ We have to understand what the kids have been through.”

Braswell’s name is one of those listed in consideration for a federal Eastern District judgeship to replace U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes, who took senior status in March.

Braswell’s smile couldn’t be any bigger, but he said, “I can’t comment.”

“I’m 100 percent invested in being the juvenile-court judge. We have a lot to accomplish here, and that’s what I’m focused on. Obviously, that [federal judgeship] would be a huge honor. My goals are to see comprehensive juvenile-justice reform. … It’s a fight worth fighting.”

Braswell’s supporters expect him to leave Faulkner County someday. But he’s here now, for the kids.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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