Photo courtesy New York Times.
Many visitors to Yosemite don’t know about the tiny federal courthouse nestled in the back of Yosemite Village. To them it’s just another park service building but to those who are cited for speeding or drunk in public or any of a slew of offenses it’s the place where justice is doled out. But since June when Judge William M. Wunderlich resigned because of health concerns the court has been without a seated Judge so the search is on for someone to take over the Bench with the most scenic view in America.
NY Times: The job, which pays $160,000 a year, has been open since June, when Magistrate Judge William M. Wunderlich resigned because of health concerns.
Felony cases that originate in the park are sent to federal court in Fresno, about 70 miles away, but Yosemite’s magistrate judge handles misdemeanors from throughout the 750,000-acre park, including petty offenses one might not expect to see at the federal bench.
“We get a lot of biking while intoxicated,” said Laurie Yu, the courtroom deputy and its de facto den mother. “And biking without headlamps.”
“It’s the Garden of Eden,” said Larry M. Boyle, a magistrate judge from Idaho who filled in at the park for two weeks this summer. “But the law is the same as in San Francisco or Boise or Manhattan.”
In summer, when visitors from all over the world descend on Yosemite, the number of misdemeanors, including drug, alcohol and gun charges, can be daunting.
“Everything that will happen with people out there,” beyond Yosemite, “will happen with people in the park,” Judge Boyle said. But the courthouse where they are dealt with, a small gray clapboard structure that is part of the Eastern District of California, has more than a few notable characteristics.
For starters, it sits beneath Yosemite Falls, where water cascades thousands of feet to the valley floor. A grapevine adorns a trellis out front, while backpackers follow a hiking trail that passes just outside the back door and the court’s small holding cell.
A broad window behind the bench from where the judge presides offers a calming view of the park’s pine, cedar and oak trees, and in the winter, falling snow.
“It can make it really hard to pay attention,” said Ms. Yu, who handles all the court’s administrative duties, including intake, docketing and recording.
Also distracting is the local wildlife, which periodically shows up on the courthouse steps. “We often have a bear come through,” said Ray Kern, who works security at the court. “And coyote. Bobcats, too, on a regular basis. They come up to the front door. But we don’t let them in.”
Judge Boyle, in fact, met a local bear on a recent morning stroll near the court with his wife. “It was maybe 60, 70 yards away,” he said, “but we didn’t wait around.”
Then there are the tourists.
“They’re like, ‘Oh my God, it’s a squirrel, let’s take a picture of it,’ ” Mr. Kern said. “Come on, move it along.”