4th District judge sets sights on Iraq

A 4th Judicial District judge will trade his black robes for fatigues after being assigned to help strengthen criminal courts in war-torn Iraq.

Judge David Shakes will take a yearlong unpaid leave from his El Paso County courtroom while serving in the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in Baghdad.

Shakes is in the Army Reserve with the rank of colonel in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, the military’s legal arm.

“The (U.S.) Department of Defense was looking for someone who was a judge in civilian life,” Shakes said. “That will particularly be useful with working with the Iraqi judges and helping them facilitate the development of a fair and efficient criminal justice system.”

Ultimately, it could help stabilize Iraq and bring troops home faster.

Shakes will first spend time at Fort Bliss in Texas training for the desert and the hostile conditions he’s sure to face in Baghdad. He’s been poring over more than 25 books on Arabic and Islamic culture, the history of the Middle East and the insurgency in Iraq.

“There are trained and experienced judges in Iraq, so this is not a situation where we’re trying to create a whole new system,” Shakes said.

The operation is also being supported by the Air Force, Navy and Marines.

The Central Court is attempting to move thousands of detainees through the legal system and either free them — if they’re innocent of the charges and deemed not a threat to multinational forces — or sentence them fairly.

One of the directives, according to military briefing documents, is to work within the Iraqi judicial system.

That means Shakes won’t be starting sentences with “In America, we do it like this . . .”

“There’s got to be a cultural awareness and sensitivity,” Shakes said. “Their system is much different than ours. We’re not going over there to say you have to use jury trials. We’re helping them get done what they want to do with their country.”

The differences are stark.

For starters, the Iraqi legal process is based on an inquisitorial system, versus the adversarial system used here. That means judges act as investigators, collect the evidence, and decide the defendant’s fate. Trials last an average of 30 minutes, with judges deliberating an average of five minutes, according to briefing documents. Defense attorneys are little more than an afterthought.

Pueblo Deputy District Attorney Mark Waller knows what Shakes is in for.

He spent four months in 2006 at the Central Court courthouse — a converted museum near Baghdad and the International Zone, or Green Zone — working as a prosecutor preparing cases.

“The attempts to establish the rule of law are falling short,” said Waller, a major in the Air Force Reserve based out of Peterson Air Force Base. “We’re nowhere near where we need to be.”

The problems are many, Waller said: Soldiers aren’t trained to gather evidence and build criminal cases as police are; the small number of judges and their hesitancy to work long hours creates a backlog of cases; the fear among judges and prosecutors is everpresent.

Several judges were assassinated while he was there, as was the chief judge’s son and bodyguard.

“Their system of law lends itself to corruption,” Waller said. “And in order to establish rule of law, we’re going to have to recognize that and work within their culture and system.”

Shakes knows he’s got a hard road ahead, but said it’s one of the most critical aspects of getting Iraq to stand on its own.

It helps that he’s got the support of his wife and his three children. It also eased his mind that the judges and staff of the 4th Judicial District stepped forward to cover the work he’s leaving behind.

County Court Judge Barney Iuppa, the former 4th Judicial District Attorney, will take over Shakes’ docket, said Chief Judge Kirk Samelson. A new magistrate will be hired for a year to help cover the workload. Shakes’ last day on the bench is Friday.

“I’ve got an opportunity,” Shakes said, “to make a difference at a critical time in the mission in Iraq.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0110 or dennis.huspeni@gazette.com