Judge John G. Cicala Jr. is not new to the Judicial system. He’s not a judge because he wants to sway people or because he’s on a power trip. He doesn’t enjoy seeing people suffer or the hardships they endure and he certainly doesn’t favor one person over another or prejudge someone before they explain their case.

No; Cicala is not in the business for the money or to bring the city revenue.

He’s simply on the bench to listen and to make an informed and fair decision for each and every case that comes before him in his court room.

Cicala has been a judge in Auburn for about 17 years and has filled in for Gainesville, Flowery Branch, Oakwood, Loganville and Stone Mountain at times.

"Have Gavel will travel," Cicala joked as we sat in the Auburn Police Department break room. After sitting through a few trials on "trial day," Cicala called for a break and took some time to explain to me what it is that brought him into the court room in the first place, what steps he took to get there and what he feels the most important aspect to his job is. Here is what he had to say.

A: The usual steps as far as an undergraduate degree from Stetson University. I started at Stetson Law School in St. Pete, Fla. and finished at night in Atlanta. I have been in private practice since 1981, was a reserve deputy in Fulton County and a reserve police officer in Pine Lake, Ga. for 7-8 years. I had to give up my act of law enforcement certification in order to take the bench. I came here when ... Tom Riley was mayor ... they were looking for somebody who ... [would] make it an even playing field. To go ahead and just be fair. They weren’t looking for a revenue producing judge; they were looking for someone who would just do the right thing. Auburn didn’t have the best reputation in the world, you know ... it was known as a speed trap, and I think we got away from that pretty quickly. Auburn went through its growth ... and it’s still growing and it’s a great feeling to be a part of that. I was married to my first wife while I was in law School and I’m now married to Tami and we have two children. Kevin, 30 and J.J., 19. J.J. is on the Grayson Mock Trial Team which I help coach. They recently participated in a regional competition and J.J. was a witness and won three Best Witness Awards out of the three rounds. Grayson went all the way to the final round with Wesleyan. We did very well, we definitely showed up ... I’m really proud of the kids, the kids did a great job. Now, back to what I was saying; I started as a prosecutor here in Auburn and since being here, we were one of the first city courts, at least in Barrow, to initiate the practice of having a prosecutor and a public defender. We have a very good relationship with the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department and the Barrow County Sheriff’s Department.

Q: What would you say the toughest case is that has come across your bench?

A: I’m going to try to say this in a way that doesn’t sound uncaring. To be quite honest with you, I try very hard not to know anything about the cases before I come in. I try to forget about the cases as soon as I leave, because it’s not necessary to my job. My job is to come here and be a fair and impartial magistrate and try to decide issues between the City of Auburn and people that are accused of some violation within the city. I don’t care if somebody is kin to the councilmen ... it’s not a popularity contest. I just want to come here and do my job and do the right thing, try to give people that are charged with a violation as much information as possible so that they can make an informed choice about how to handle their case. I really try to not anticipate what I’m going to hear and I try to not carry away from here what I have heard. So, having said that, their really isnt a case that stands out to me as being more important to any other case because I think everybody’s case should be important.

Q: Is there a case that stands out to you though, one you have never forgotten?

A: People on the frequent flyer program ... like one gentlemen from Auburn who we sometimes joked, since Auburn is’nt big enough for a "town drunk," that he was imported from Winder. He was quite a character ... a nice man and my heart just always went out to his family and him because he had achieved a certain level of greatness in his life ... and you could see the family was in pain because of the deterioration he went through and the trouble he kept getting in. I used to try everything to try and help him maybe change the path he was on, but you can’t really save people from themselves. You can try to go ahead and show them there is a different way, but when it comes down to it, you can lead a horse to water. You practice law for a while and you get over Jesus Christ Syndrome. You can’t save the world. There was only one person that could do that and He lived 2,000 years ago. What you can do is try to influence your small corner of the world to be a better place ... you have to have the cooperation of the people though.

Q: What would you say the most important aspect of your job is?:

A: To show people that they can make smarter choices. A lot of times I try to tell people ‘look, I don’t know about you guys, but I pay the government about 60 percent of what I earn every year. Between school taxes, income taxes, advolorem taxes, 941 taxes, sales taxes, tax on the taxes ... so, the reason you’re here today is because you’ve decided that you want to make a voluntary donation to the government because you don’t feel like you’re paying them enough.’ Keep the government’s hand out of your pocket. Keep the government out of your life. Make some smarter choices and you don’t have to give your money to lawyers and judges and probation officers. Not that I begrudge any of us of a job, I try to go ahead and make the system work smoothly. But, when it comes down to it, your personal life should be your business unless you invite the government into it and you should be able to use whatever resources the government lets you keep to benefit your life and to enhance your life. I try to impart that message somewhat, it’s met with mixed feelings, you know, but it is what it is.

Q: You are one of the only judges that requires 21 year olds and under to write an essay and attend court. Can you tell me a little about that and why do you require it; how do you think it benefits them?

A: Well, it’s not necessarily that I think it’s going to change them. The reason that -- and I’ve done this really with my law practice -- when a client would come in to see me, a lot of times they would want to come in and tell me their case. ... The thought process that goes into writing is a different thought process that goes into speaking. Many times when you write information down, you remember information that you didn’t remember when you were just telling somebody something and chronologically things are a little bit different. It also gives you an opportunity to critique your own work. What I’ve found is that there is probably 6,000 or so young people that are dying every year that don’t have to die. Maybe 15 percent of those cases are drug and alcohol related, the rest of them, 85 percent of them, are runing a stop sign, speeding, failure to maintain lane, you know, stuff that you can really go ahead and remedy if you just get them to put on the breaks (not litterally) and think about what they are doing. Some of the hardest cases I’ve had to deal with is vehicular homicide with young people. There are no winners. The [one at fault] is going to carry that around with them for the rest of their life and whether they realize it or not, will probably need counseling for the rest of their life. And how do you replace those two only children to those families, you don’t. It’s just a life-altering event that not only alters the lives of the driver and the two passengers, but every family member and friend that comes into contact with those people. And you see, the attitude with most young people is it’s always the other guy that it’s going to happen to and I’ll tell you that it’s always the other guy, until it happens to be you. So yeah, I make under 21 year olds a mandatory court appearance, because I see too many of them able to pay at the window. It’s just a situation where I think that if somebody wants to show these young kids that ‘look, I’ve got an interest in you trying to change your driving behavior. If you understand that there is a reason behind that, that it’s not just me trying to be mean, it’s because it’s importnant for you to go ahead and develop really good driving behavior.’ Kids will listen to other kids before they will listen to me. When they start hearing me talk, they’ll hear maybe half of the first sentence, but after that it’s all ‘blah, blah, blah ... blah,blah ... blah, blah, blah,’ you know, Charlie Brown Christmas. And so, when they hear someone else, maybe they’ll listen to them. I’ve got a poster that I try to get them all to sign off on that shows a result of a crash. I just try to get them to realize it’s not a natural act for their parents to bury them. It’s something you don’t get over ... you become a permanent statistic and the aftermath of that is the lives that people have to live with. You have to go ahead and utilize the tools that are at your disposal. It’s behavior modification in its purist sense.

Q: You have initiated a form called Orientation for Arraignment, what is the purpose of it?

A: Some people are better atune to oral instruction, some written ... I found that a lot of people were really feeling disassociated with the whole process. I think that when people go into traffic courts, magistrate courts, they feel like they are there to just get run through the system and that’s not how people should feel about their government ... the legal process in this country. I think that an informed public is very good, it keeps things honest, on an even playing field. So, I came up with this Orientation for Arraignment form that I robbed a little from here and there. Really what it does is tell people the process that they will be going through and these are the choices you can make and this is what the procedure is in this court. And the court procedure here may be slightly different than somewhere else, but here is what you are going to be asked to do here and here are the decisions you have to make and here are some of your options. It’s informational, it’s not designed to give legal advise, that’s something that I never do, give legal advice. Because that’s not my job. I’m not their buddy, I’m not their pal, I’m not their lawyer. I’m just the judge.