- April 28, 2024
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‘It really makes you feel good to know you touched someone in a positive way.’
Wayne Grant
News Editor
Circuit Judge J. David Walsh looks at retirement as a chance to retrace parts of the long, winding road of his career. There will be reunions with the brotherhood of aviators and bombardiers from his Naval career, and a return to the music of his youth.
Walsh has announced he will retire as judge next February after serving in the Seventh Judicial Circuit which includes Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia counties, including four years as chief judge. He practiced civil litigation in Volusia County for 25 years before his appointment as a judge in 2001. Since 2012, he has served in the felony, child dependency and drug court divisions in Flagler County.
“I enjoyed being a trail judge,” he said recently. “I enjoyed trying cases and reading and applying the law. I found it to be engaging.”
Some cases stick in his mind. One child dependency case successfully reached an adoption, even though the adoption had to be handled by phone because the child was in the hospital.
“That child came back to visit me years later,” he said. “I think he was five years old. He was with his adoptive mother. We had a wonderful visit. It really makes you feel good to know you touched someone in a positive way.”
He said he is an adoptive father of two, so cases such as that can be especially touching.
There are also cases that are unpleasant to deal with, such as murder cases, where even witnesses and jurors are affected.
For each case, he researched and prepared, kept control over the proceedings and made sure the cases were tried fairly.
‘I always have strived to be polite and fair to all litigants, to be prepared, and to rule in accord with the law and the facts presented to me,” he said.
More judges needed
The part he did not enjoy, he said, was the judiciary in the seventh circuit being understaffed, especially in Flagler County.
“We are undermanned in judges and it’s been that way for many years,” he said. “The legislature had not created any new judgeships for our circuit even though we qualify.”
He said Florida ranks about fortieth among the states in money dedicated to the court system.
Flagler is once again a growing county, and the legal system is required to do more with the same number of judges.
“With that growth comes civil cases, family cases and criminal,” he said. “We just don’t have the manpower we should.”
Missions over Vietnam
One of his plans for retirement is to see old friends at Navy reunions.
After attending the University of South Carolina on a Naval ROTC scholarship, he served on a destroyer for seven months and then was trained as a flight officer.
From 1969 to 1973, he was bombardier/navigator on an A-6 Intruder, flying 150 combat missions over North Vietnam.
“What we did was pretty difficult,” he said. “We flew single plane attack missions. We lost a lot of planes.”
He said during a mission over enemy territory, you don’t think of the danger, because you’re concentrating on navigation, finding the target, and then getting out before getting shot down.
After his two combat cruises on the USS Midway, he decided he should get into “something safer,” and got a law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law. He served in the intelligence area in the Naval Reserve, retiring as captain after 15 years.
He’s looking forward to the next Navy reunion, in two years in San Diego.
He describes the veterans as a close brotherhood.
Making music
The musical part of his life has been in the background during his law career, but there could be a crescendo.
As a youth, he played percussion in the school band as well as a dance band. He also played xylophone, piano and guitar, and his dad always wanted him to keep up with his music.
“When I retire I can get back to working on those things,” he said. “That’s definitely something I want to do.”
During his law career, he would play music only for relaxation, but it could be a bigger part of his life in the future. While in New Jersey at a niece’s wedding, he saw a bluegrass band.
“I’m thinking of doing something like that one day,” he said. “A little bluegrass or country band would be fun.”
