Left, Judge Fred Larson being sworn in as city court judge in 2014. At the end of the year, Larson will be stepping down as a city court judge. P-J file photo

“Chaos services no social end,” is a quote from former Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson that Judge Frederick Larson kept on the bench as he served as part of the Unified State Court System as a city judge for more than seven years.

The “firm but fair” judge has now retired after reaching the state’s mandatory retirement age. After 38 years as a private practice attorney, which also included serving eight years as the county attorney and also as a part-time business law teacher at the State University at Fredonia, Larson continued to do what “is best for the community” as a city court judge, ruling over drug, housing and small claims cases.

“In private law practice, you are always doing your best to advocate for your client’s interest. As a judge you have to objectively and fairly decide what is just and equitable on all the facts presented to you,” he said. “I felt comfortable as a judge because I’m able to make decisions fairly quickly and then move on to the next case. Being a judge is no place for someone who second guesses themselves all the time.”

Larson said the best part of being a judge is to have people thank you for the decisions you’ve made. One example was when he was attending a Jamestown High School basketball game and a middle-aged woman approached him and thanked him for sending her to jail.

“In jail, she faced up to her addiction problem,” he said. “You can imagine how emotional that was for me. I’m at a Jamestown basketball game and I’m being thanked for being fair.”

The judge, who is a graduate of Jamestown High School, Princeton University and Yale Law School, said he has always enjoyed hard work, going back to when he was 17 years old painting houses to pay for his college education. As one of two city court judges in Jamestown, with John LaMancuso being the other, Larson said their caseload was the greatest of the eight Western New York counties that make up the 8th Judicial District.

“Both Jamestown City Court judges are also acting county court judges, which means that we handle many serious felony matters as well as criminal misdemeanors. It’s part of the reason we have such a heavy caseload,” he said. “Perhaps a bit unusual for a city court judge, three of my decisions on difficult cases were accepted for publication in the law books of New York. You can look it up.”

Presiding over drug court, Larson learned how large of a problem methamphetamine and heroin is, with both often being mixed with fentanyl that can lead to drug overdoses and deaths, is in New York’s Southern Tier.

“Happily we have a lot of resources in Chautauqua County to help drug addicts who want to become clean and sober. Those services include very dedicated professionals in the county jail who do their best to help drug addicts who want to lead better lives,” he said. “My experience now tells me that having a drug court is better than the old approach of locking up drug addicts, criminals and throwing away the key. Under that old approach, those with a drug addiction would come out of county jail or state prison still being a drug addict who had no opportunity for treatment and recovery. At least now they get a real chance to help themselves through drug court.”

Conducting housing court was also a challenge for Larson who had to deal with abandoned houses throughout the county and property owners and landlords who wouldn’t willingly clean junk, debris and garbage.

“About half the housing in Jamestown is now income property. Many of the owners our corporations or limited liability companies, and their owners live out of town or out of state,” he said. “Under a U.S. Supreme Court decision years ago, housing inspectors generally are only allowed to respond to complaints about a property. I urge (The Post-Journal’s) readers to contact city housing inspectors when there is a deplorable property on their block or their street. Once they complain about a particular property, the city housing inspectors can do a complete inspection of that property. If the owner fails to clean up the property, then city housing inspectors can bring the property and its owner into Jamestown City Housing Court.”

Leading small claims court was also an enjoyable experience for Larson. He said the city’s small claims court has countywide jurisdiction, which means if a homeowner in Lakewood provided a $5,000 deposit to a contractor in Bemus Point who then never shows up to do the work, the case could be heard in city court.

“For fans of Judge Judy and other similar TV shows, over the years in small claims court I certainly had a number of humorous moments,” he said.

In recent years, Larson said there have been unprecedented challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down housing court for more than a year.

“Housing court being shut down for over a year was not good for the neighborhoods of Jamestown,” he said. “Since we have been back up and running, we have been making some progress on the backlog of serious housing violations.”

Another unprecedented test the judge had to handle in recent years is bail reform.

“As a criminal court judge, the first bail reform by the state legislature in the spring of 2019 was very difficult to deal with. That bail reform basically eliminated all discretion by city court judges on who should have bail set,” he said. “Many of the reformers alleged that all criminal defendants are ‘innocent.’ That is not American law. American law is that all criminal defendants are ‘presumed to be innocent.”‘

Larson said in the spring of 2020 the state Legislature did react to the criticism of bail reform and made changes to make it easier for judges to set bail.

“The bail reform advocates were concerned poor people and minorities were the ones most impacted by bail. There are lots of ways the criminal justice system could deal with judges who set bail inappropriately or in a discriminatory way without taking away the authority of all criminal court judges in New York, which is to set bail based on the facts and circumstances of each criminal charge.”

In retirement, Larson said he plans to continue being a member of the Kiwanis Club of Jamestown and First Lutheran Church. He also has three granddaughters he wants to spend more time with.

“I’m going to remain active in the community and enjoy the opportunity of being a grandfather,” he said.