THE HERALD Wednesday June Eft view from the bench and from the home Judge Kenneth maintains a sense of humor By LISA The Herald Just an hour before he was to hear the testimony of a man accused of sexually assaulting foster sisters District Court Judge Kenneth Langdon sat in a Georgetown restaurant eating bacon and eggs As friendly chatter buzzed about the Georgetown restaurant Mr teased a local handyman how odd it was that he was wearing a suit asking what charges had been laid against him As his wife lovingly wiped his cheek with a napkin he complained of an abcessed tooth How would you like to be tried by a judge with an abcessed tooth he joked as he buttered his toast The couple eats breakfast at the restaurant so often the staff has their meal prepared as they rive However the jokes and com fortable coffee house chatter never changed once the crowd found out Mr was a judge His wife a coort reporter says his kind and gentle make him an approachable person and eliminates the mystery and in timidation factors which can often interfere in a judges personal life Reference guidelines from A Book For Judges stipulates judges must conduct themselves in a man ner higher than that of an ordinary citizen Conduct must be free from impropriety or even the suggestion of impropriety According to the manual traffic offences may be minor but in the career of a judge it will be a serious matter because the public expects those who administer the law to obey the law It advises judges to always act in appropriate manner because the ordinary mans opinion and respect for the law are based on a judges actions both in court and in private life But Mr will be the first to admit these rules expect more of a man than humanly possible If people expect me to be perfect theyre sadly mistaken he said shaking his smiling face He said the only person who even comes close to perfection is his wife but he admits his judgement could be biased What these conduct rules mean to the long time Georgetown resi dent is that he must refrain from association with or socialize with lawyers who go before him in court And of course keeping to km over the speed limit he teased The conduct code has not put ex cessive pressure on him to be perfect id public said his wife Hes not afraid to show his affec tion in public and I love that she said He s not afraid to touch or hold hands over the table Mrs Langdon said although he may not admit it Mr Langdon can become lonely at times She said there are some individuals such as lawyers whom he would like to socialize with but he must always be aware he could be accused of giving preferential treatment She said they have to be cautious to avoid potential embarrassing situations as well For example they had to declare bottles of wine after returning to Toronto and pay triple in duty fees It wouldnt have been worth the embarrass she said Unwritten codes for judges make many rights afforded to ordinary citizens unavailable to judges Mr Langdon explained He said if a judge receives a traffic ticket that judge is expected to pay the fine and not fight the ticket in court It a nowin situation because the judge will be obligated to uphold the fine to prove independence he said He has been stopped by the police on occasion however if the officer t know his position Mr Langdon won t provide the in formation But since his licence plate reveals he is a judge he jokes Then again I may never get one in the first place After several coffee refills Mr Langdon headed off to the District Court in Brampton arriving to see his furniture huddled in the centre of his office As he was only sworn into the District Court from Peel Provincial Court several months ago his office is just being pamted After settling down behind his desk with a cup of tea brought by his court sheriff Mr Langdon of fered to help a young female painter move three floor toceiling wooden bookcases from his office into the hallway He joked with passerby that he was getting a crash course in furniture moving Mrs says his sense of humor is the healing medicine that prevents him from catching judge disease She explained that this disease can develop in judges who listen continuously to the evils committed in society Whenever he sees an appropnate opportunity to send out a few oneliners he will she said There is an appropriate time and place for humor said Mr For example he insisted there was no place for humor in the sexual assault case he was hearing during the week of June 20 However in a case in which a man bought a rust bucket automobile Mr Langdon saw an opportunity to recite his judge ment in prose The prose involved a man named whose car would only go putty No one gets hurt this type of situation he said adding that the lawyers came back after lunch with their own proses If you don t keep a sense of humor you 11 go crazy Mr Langdon said Just recently he had a good laugh after a man while giving testimony refused to believe Mr Langdon was a qualified judge and made a citizen s arrest on the spot Shortly after politely inviting the man to his office to view proof of his qualifications Judge Langdon recommended a psychological assessment When the frustration sets in after listening to unprepared and even unwise lawyers it is sometimes difficult to remain patient Judge Langdon He said many judges have come to know a lawyer nicknamed The Keys to Kingston This particular lawyer never realized the art of good cross examining sometimes means knowing when not to ask questions he said Judge listened intently while this lawyer further incriminated his own client by summoning answers proving this own client driving under the influence of alcohol Judge Langdon admitted if the lawyer had refrained from further questioning the client not have been proven guilty of drunk driving What horrifies some people comes under the daily routine for judges said Mr Langdon To re main distant from cases sexual of fenders are often referred to as he said Sexual assault cases come before judges so often that it is difficult to be shocked he added Keeping distant while listening to cases involving sexual offences has not always been eas for Judge Langdon however Early in his 5 year judicial career Mr spent days of sentencing hearing listening to the evidence involving a clean cut man accused of molesting the children his wife babysat All the children and their parents gave evidence during the hearing With a week left scheduled for the hearing Judge Langdon told his senior advisor he t sit in on the heanng any longer because he would have handed down an ex cessive sentence He picked up his daughter and went sailing for a week just to restore faith in rela tionships Its necessary once in a while to reestablish trust in rela tionships between adults and children he says Just to know an adult can have fun without diddl ing a child he said It takes about an hour discussing a case to help Judge wind down Mrs said When he sat in Provincial Court he was ex tremely tense because of the ineffi of having so many cases to be heard in a short period of time she said Judge described another incident which still bothers him today He received a late phone call from a man who killed another driver while driving under the influence of alcohol Without hesitation Mr Langdon who was still a lawyer at the time told the man to refuse any at tempts to take samples which could prove his intoxication The man was not convicted but Mr Langdon never forgot the man was responsible for taking another dividuals life Such examples do not undermine Judge Langdons faith in the justice system On the contrary it reaffirms his trust in the system that an innocent man never be found guilty The right man is almost always charged but he can only be guilty if the evidence presented proves his guilt Judge Langdon maintains He likes to say he fell in to the law profession by accident Teaching languages was his first love but he chose to study law after he discovered literature instruc tion was his only option Many of his relatives are also lawyers and in judicial positions If people expect me to be perfect theyre sadly mistaken Judge Judge and his father were one of the few father and sons sitting on the bench in the same time period He s verj suited to what he does because he listens well and has a knack for giving equitable verdicts said Mrs Langdon 1 sat in front of nearly every judge and Ken is tops He t just hand out sentences according to the book she said adding that he will tailor punishment to the needs of the in dividual Most judges don really think of the people who are before them she said For example in a shoplifting hearing Judge Langdon might look beyond the simple facts and include counsell ing in the sentencing Mrs explained He will add more to the sentencing to help if it appears a shoplifter acted out of character she added Mrs accredits her hus band s even temper to the relaxed nature of their homehves Shp takes full responsibility for redeveloping his interests in golf which he now plays at every free opportunity I forced him out a few times and it just clicked and he s become really enthusiastic about the game now she said In the four years they have been married Mr Langdon and his wife have become inseparable They take separate cars to the Georgetown restaurant for breakfast follow each other to work and then if possible organize their routines so they can follow each other home again Mrs Langdon admits they like to live leisurely hating to cook and do housework But at least once a week Judge will cook a roast with potatoes vegetables and Yorkshire pudding Ive got him trained well she teased I use plan A I say I just can t do anything and hell do the majority of the cooking and I clean up Mrs Langdon never loses sight of her husbands authoritative position But he never lets her forget he is as she says a coun try boy who doesnt like the big smoke of the city