One of a Kind
By Judge David A. Barnett

My wife, Katherine Ann Barnett, more commonly known in our community as Kay to her adult friends, and as Mrs. Barnett to all her kindergarten students, is widely known among all who know her as one of the kindest people in town. This is often in sharp contrast to my reputation as a district court judge. People are occasionally surprised to learn that “That mean old Judge Barnett” is married to the kindest lady in town.

Having been married to Kay for more than 35 years, I can attest to her kindness in general, and as I shall illustrate, in specific.

The first illustration comes from our joint effort of several years ago to store the Christmas decorations after the season had ended. We had boxed all of the decorations and had carried them all up the stairway into the attic. In searching for a place to store them, I ventured into an area where Kay was concerned about the strength of the floor. Being very cautious, she opined, “David, I don’t know how strong that flooring is, so please be very careful.” My male ego took over, and I responded, “Kay, I put this floor in and I know it is strong.” As I made my bold assertion, I jumped on the floor to illustrate my point. Well, the point was made very well when the floor gave way and I dropped partway out of sight into the bedroom directly under the attic. I didn’t drop all the way to the floor, but wedged between the ceiling joists and an old kick’n go scooter, with legs and lower torso dangling from the ceiling. Fortunately, I was unhurt, except for a nasty bruise on my side and a crippling blow to my ego. Practically anyone, after finding out I was okay, would have been unable to resist the urge to say “I told you so.” To this day, Kay has never chided me over this incident. I, for one, am not that kind.

The second illustration of my wife’s kindness comes from the courtroom. During one of our jury terms several years ago, I was serving as the trial judge of a particularly difficult murder case, and had summoned about 150 randomly selected jurors. When the Court Clerk showed me the prospective juror list, I was surprised to find Kay’s name on it. When Kay received her summons, she surmised that the attorneys surely wouldn’t want her, since she was the judge’s wife. I told her I would speak to the attorneys and see if they wanted to excuse her, but that there was no statutory basis for automatically excluding the judge’s wife. When I advised the attorneys of Kay’s presence on the jury list, they both agreed that they would like to consider her as a juror. So, on the first day of jury selection, Kay took off work and came to court with the other 150 folks.

During the first morning, I had been spending a great deal of time hearing requests from prospective jurors to be excused, and had some concerns about not having a large enough panel to seat a jury (more prospective jurors are required for a capital murder case than any other kind of criminal case). Well, it did happen that about the sixth or seventh juror called was my own Kay. My first thought was, “Oh, boy, am I going to be in the doghouse tonight.” Then, as Kay stood and walked to the front of the courtroom, I heard a titter of laughter from those people who knew she was my wife. Without giving a lot of thought to my next statement, I said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, many of you have been trying to find a reason to get off jury duty. Well, I want you to know that this lady has been sleeping with the judge for over 30 years, and she’s not getting off jury duty, so you probably won’t be able to get off either!” After allowing a few minutes for uproarious laughter, I proceeded with the jury selection. Kay was questioned for about a half hour, and then was excused by agreement of the attorneys because of her beliefs in regard to the death penalty. Well, the amazing thing about this story is that, after pulling the stunt described above, I was not only welcomed home by Kay, but I think she was really glad to see me. I was greatly relieved to not spend that night in the doghouse.

There are a great many other illustrations of Kay’s kindness, but these two have greatly impressed me. I am abundantly blessed to have her as my wife.

Judge Barnett is the associate district judge in Tillman County.