[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 69 (Friday, May 9, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E907-E908]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          RECOGNIZING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF JUDGE JAMES BUCHELE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DENNIS MOORE

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 8, 2003

  Mr. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the contributions made by 
James Buchele of Topeka, Kansas, to his city, county, state and nation, 
over a lengthy and distinguished public career that spans the thirty-
five years I have known him.
  Jim Buchele stepped down from the Kansas District Court bench in 
Shawnee County after eighteen years of service in 1999. Prior to his 
appointment, he served as United States Attorney for Kansas. His legal 
career began in 1966 with private practice in Topeka, after graduation 
from Washburn University School of Law and Kansas State University. He 
also served as City Attorney for Topeka and as chief of staff for 
Representative Martha Keys of Kansas' Second Congressional District. He 
served four terms as a state representative in the Kansas Legislature.
  As an attorney and as a judge, Jim Buchele was involved in a wide 
range of state and federal litigation. After stepping down from the 
bench, Jim continued to serve as a professional mediator and 
arbitrator, as well as taking special assignments from the Kansas 
Supreme Court and serving as a member of the Kansas Children's Cabinet, 
which made recommendations regarding the management of the funds Kansas 
receives from the tobacco litigation settlement in order to finance 
programs and services for children.
  Mr. Speaker, Roscoe Pound once said that ``Law is experience 
developed by reason and applied continually to further experience.'' 
This sentence sums up Jim's lifetime of service in the law. During his 
time on the bench, for example, he specialized in handling domestic 
relations cases, including issues such as divorce, property division, 
child custody and other related matters. Shortly before he stepped down 
from the bench, the Topeka Capital-Journal published an article 
reviewing the special interest and attention that Judge Buchele brought 
to the family law docket in Shawnee County. I include the article in 
the Record and commend it to you and to my colleagues as evidence of a 
career in the law that brought tremendous benefits to Jim Buchele's 
community over a lengthy and successful career. As Owen Fiss wrote in 
the Harvard Law Review, ``The function of the judge--a statement of 
social purpose and a definition of role--is not to resolve disputes, 
but to give the proper meaning to our public values.''
  Please join me in saluting Jim Buchele as he moves into full time 
retirement, where I'm sure he will continue to serve his community and 
nation at every possible opportunity.

                   Judge Found Rewards in Family Law

                             (By Steve Fry)

       Shawnee County District Judge James Buchele measures his 
     impact as a family law judge, in part, by a handful of cards 
     and letters he has received from people who passed through 
     his courtroom during divorces and subsequent disputes.
       ``Thanks a bunch. I really appreciate all that you have 
     done,'' wrote a little girl, who

[[Page E908]]

     told Buchele she was making A's and B's in school.
       Another is a letter from a mother, whose children would be 
     able to start college using the backlogged child support 
     Buchele had recovered for the family.
       Yet another is a letter from a mother, who hadn't been paid 
     child support for two or three years before Buchele got it 
     started again.
       ``This year I will be able to put the boys in Scouts,''' 
     the woman wrote.
       ``I was really touched by that letter,'' Buchele said. ``I 
     never realized that that cost was out of reach for some 
     people sometimes because the laws aren't being enforced.
       ``It makes you appreciate the impact you can have by taking 
     on an area that most judges and lawyers don't like to mess 
     with,'' he said, referring to family law.
       There is a saying that in family law, especially divorces, 
     you see good people at their worst, and in criminal law, you 
     see bad people at their best as a defendant shows his most 
     positive image to influence jurors.
       In the past, a district judge quickly could tire of trying 
     divorces, deciding child custody questions between 
     contentious parents and refereeing bitter domestic battles.
       ``That is the traditional take on what family law is all 
     about,'' Buchele said. ``That's not the way it is in Shawnee 
     County any more.''
       Formulation of the ``Shawnee County Family Law 
     Guidelines,'' mandatory attendance at a workshop for 
     divorcing parents, the supervised exchange of children, the 
     development of family law into a speciality in which about a 
     dozen attorneys handle about 80 percent of the cases and 
     reducing the number of family law judges from nine to two has 
     helped quiet the local domestic battles, Buchele said.
       In an area of law that normally is assigned to a judge for 
     a couple of years or so, Buchele has handled family law in 
     Shawnee County for five years.
       ``I would rather see good people who are struggling, 
     especially when there are children involved, and help them 
     than sentencing drug offenders when you wonder how much good 
     you're doing,'' Buchele said.
       Buchele said that in family law, there is a real 
     possibility to help someone, sometimes if only to end a 
     marriage that has gone bad.
       After 18\1/2\ years, Buchele's stint on the Shawnee County 
     District bench ends when he retires Thursday.
       The most harmful thing for a child whose parents are 
     divorcing is to witness the on-going conflict between mother 
     and father, Buchele said, noting children whose parents stay 
     in conflict ``are the ones who have problems.''
       ``I put the kids' interest first,'' Buchele said, 
     acknowledging sometimes his decisions weren't popular with 
     the parents because things weren't ``equal.'' But if being 
     equal means perpetuating the conflict between parents, equal 
     isn't in the best interests of the child, Buchele said.
       Buchele handled many criminal trials, the most memorable 
     being the cases of Bobby Jackson, killer of three men in 
     April 1994 at a south Topeka strip bar, and Kenneth ``Kenny'' 
     Cook, who in September 1992 robbed a man of his drugs, shot 
     him to death with a black powder pistol, mutilated the 
     victim's body to block his identification and sank his body 
     in a river.
       Buchele, who sentenced Jackson, learned of Jackson's March 
     18, 1995, escape from the Shawnee County Jail while reading a 
     newspaper in a Miami airport. Buchele, who had sentenced 
     Jackson to 72 years in prison for convictions of two counts 
     of first-degree murder, one count of voluntary manslaughter 
     and other charges, was shocked.
       ``I wondered if he was looking for me,'' said Buchele, who 
     was a little afraid. ``It was a lightning bolt.''
       Jackson was recaptured on March 22, 1995.
       Buchele has a reputation for enforcing the rules in the 
     courtroom, including literally keeping attorneys on their 
     toes. A sitting attorney who spoke to Buchele would quietly 
     be instructed to stand when speaking to a judge. A spectator 
     entering the courtroom with a cup of coffee in his hand would 
     quickly be shown the door.
       Both are the examples of decorum in the court, and 
     Buchele's model for courtroom conduct was Judge Earl 
     O'Connor, former chief federal judge for the district of 
     Kansas.
       After hanging up his judicial robes, Buchele will handle 
     special assignments throughout Kansas as a senior judge, sit 
     on the Kansas Court of Appeals to help ease a backlog of 
     cases and work full-time as a mediator and arbitrator in 
     business and family disputes.
       ``I think there will be a high demand,'' Buchele said. 
     Dispute resolution is even finding its way into criminal 
     cases to resolve charges before the case goes to trial. 
     Buchele is undecided how he feels about that. ``It's 
     certainly a revolutionary approach,'' Buchele said.
       Buchele has also become a co-author with the recent 
     publication of ``Kansas Law and Practice: Kansas Family 
     Law.'' Co-author of the legal work is Linda D. Elrod, a 
     Washburn University law professor.

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