Salt Lake Tribune, October 2, 2005
Iwasaki Takes on Juvenile Court Beat
Background: He grew up in 'J-Town' and knows
the legal system from a number of different jobs
By Elizabeth Neff
The Salt Lake Tribune
A nostalgic smile spreads across new 2nd District Juvenile Court
Judge Paul Iwasaki's face when he talks about the area of downtown
Salt Lake City that was once home to his close-knit Japanese community.
Looking at black-and-white photos of himself as a boy on the streets
of J-Town in the 1960s, he recalls the families in the neighborhood
and shops. His family operated The Pagoda restaurant.
"Everyone knew each other," he said. "It was
like growing up in Mayberry. That was my world." Yet he also
remembers there were other realities - such as the kids he refers
to as "parentized," caring for an alcoholic parent when
they could barely look after themselves.
Iwasaki's life since the demise of J-Town has been a unique journey
through the state's legal system. Now 53, he has been a police
officer, a prosecutor, a child welfare attorney, an administrative
law judge and a Salt Lake City justice court judge.
This month he began work as a juvenile court judge in Ogden,
where he helps handle the district's growing number of child welfare
and neglect cases. Iwasaki says his experiences, both as a parent
and in his career, will help him understand how his decisions
will impact families.
"Having had that experience of being the one to physically
take the kids away as a police officer, I appreciate what happens
to those kids, what a traumatic experience it is for them,"
he said.
If the Iwasaki name sounds familiar, it may be because he is
the second Judge Iwasaki in the state's district courts. His older
cousin, Glenn, serves as a 3rd District judge. But a spot on the
bench wasn't something he planned.
After graduating from West High School, Iwasaki earned a teaching
certificate from the University of Utah. A ride-along with a Salt
Lake City police sergeant who frequented his family's restaurant
changed his life's direction.
Policing, Iwasaki said, appealed to his desire to help others
and his sense of adventure. As a cadet, Iwasaki became the first
Asian American on the force.
Brandt Hutchinson met Iwasaki in college and served with him.
"I always admired him for stepping up and becoming an officer,"
Hutchinson said. "He was smaller in stature. He had to take
his amount of abuse by being a minority and a police officer.
. . . He never let it get to him. He always maintained professionalism."
As an officer, Iwasaki was commended for carrying an elderly
woman from her burning home, and for apprehending a man who had
stabbed and sexually assaulted a woman.
Drawn to the courtroom: Testifying in court - and seeing cousin
Glenn make twice as much money in the county attorney's office
- sparked Iwasaki's interest in law. He graduated from the U.'s
law school, then found being a prosecutor to be a much different
job.
"In police work you get immediate satisfaction," he
said. "In the police department, there is a camaraderie like
no other job I've had. As a prosecutor, things drag out and don't
go the way you want things to. There is always someone mad at
you."
After a decade in law enforcement and as a prosecutor, Iwasaki
made his first leap to the bench. He worked as an administrative
law judge for the Utah Department of Employment Security and the
Utah State Tax Commission, but missed the personal interaction
of helping people.
Iwasaki became an assistant attorney general and soon transferred
to the child welfare division, where he represented the Department
of Child and Family Services (DCFS).
He worked in the courtroom of 3rd District Judge Anthony Valdez
at a time when Utah's child welfare laws had just changed and
there was a backlog of cases.
"He was very hard-working," said Valdez, adding Iwasaki
brought not only legal experience, but "an ability to understand
the human condition."
Back to the bench: In 2002, Iwasaki joined the Salt Lake City
Justice Court. Criminal defense attorney Ron Yengich described
him as firm yet fair.
"If we are going to appoint judges to the bench, we should
look for people who have a broad experience in life first and
a broad experience in the practice of law," he said. "You
should have at least handled people's problems in various guises.
I think that's [Iwasaki's] strength."
Iwasaki said he saw defendants he had litigated against for DCFS
choose to keep their cases before him. He also saw some of the
children he helped who were placed in foster homes, now grown
but still struggling. One woman he had placed in foster care appeared
before him years later, after the state had taken her own children
from her, Iwasaki told a state senate confirmation committee earlier
this month.
"Is she any better off now than she would have been had
we not placed her in foster care?" he told senators. "I
don't know the answer to that question, but it certainly gives
you pause. . . . Sometimes maybe you have to understand that leaving
them with parents that are marginal is going to be as good as
it gets for them."
Yet Iwasaki also recalls many success stories, such as the young
man whose attitude turned around after Iwasaki attended one of
his basketball games.
"I'm real comfortable with what my gut tells me," he
said. "I don't always get it right. Sometimes you have to
roll the dice and take a chance."
eneff@sltrib.com
2nd District Juvenile Court Judge Paul Iwasaki
- Age: 53
- Law degree: University of Utah, 1980
- Experience: Police officer, attorney, judge
- Family: Lives in Bountiful with his wife of 29 years, Sandra,
an administrative assistant for the courts. Two children, a
21-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter.
- Getting to the bench: Iwasaki was nominated three times before
his appointment by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. this year. Some complained
five of the last seven judges in the 2nd District - which covers
Davis, Morgan and Weber counties - practiced in Salt Lake City.
- Dissenting votes: Republican Sens. Dave Thomas, of South Weber,
Allen Christensen, of North Ogden, Scott Jenkins, of Plain City,
and Howard Stephenson, of Draper, voted against Iwasaki's confirmation.
Utah Minority Bar Association
c/o Utah State Bar, Law & Justice Center
645 South 200 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84111-3834
mailto: umbalaw@utahbar.org
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