Spending 40 hours a week in a room packed with criminals,
lawyers and drug addicts would give most people a cynical view of
the world, but Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shapero prefers to look
for the light.
Spending 40 hours a week in a room packed with criminals, lawyers and drug addicts would give most people a cynical view of the world, but Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shapero prefers to look for the light.
“The most rewarding part of my job is seeing the light bulb go off over people’s heads,” said Shapero, who has been a judge in South Valley for 11 years. “That confirms my belief in the American criminal justice system and the job I’ve chosen.
“I’ve seen criminals in my courtroom show up as defendants over and over – they never change. But I’ve also seen criminals transform into successful people. It balances itself out.”
And it’s balance that the 51-year-old, longtime Morgan Hill resident, strives to bring to South Valley justice.
Since 1991 when he began working as the lone public defender at the old Gilroy Municipal Court trailer on Rosanna Street, Shapero has seen the face of South Valley crime transform with the region’s growth.
From behind the courtroom bench, he’s seen gang violence come, go, and come again; drinking and driving continue to plague the county’s rural roads; and reports of domestic violence steadily increase.
He’s seen Gilroy’s old municipal court join the superior court in San Martin and is helping design the county’s new courthouse planned to open in 2005 in Morgan Hill.
He’s also seen the court system dramatically altered with the implementation of state Proposition 36, the controversial and ground-breaking 2000 law that mandates treatment instead of jail time for misdemeanor drug and alcohol offenders.
But through all of his years as a South County judge, Shapero’s mission has remained the same: serve the community.
Murderers, rapists, thieves, marijuana users and traffic violators – Shapero has looked all of them in the eyes from behind his South Valley bench, while trying to ensure their legal representation provides them full use of the justice system, regardless of their crime.
“I love being a judge, but it’s very difficult sometimes,” Shapero said. “You have a domestic violence victim standing in front of you asking that you not punish her husband who beat her, and it’s very hard to carry out the law. Sometimes you feel like you’re punishing the victim.”
The longest tenured of the three full-time judges at the South Valley courthouse, Shapero has gained a reputation amongst prosecutors and defense attorneys for his fairness and approachability.
Many people see judges as cold figures of authority who impose their power on attorneys, defendants and victims – and some are – but Shapero is different, according to Jennifer Green, supervising attorney for South Valley’s Office of the Public Defender.
Green has known Shapero since 1989 when they were both working for the Superior Courts in San Jose.
“When you go before (Shapero) you never get the idea one side is being favored,” said Green, who argued her first felony case with Shapero as the judge. “With (Shapero), you know he’ll listen to both sides with reason, and that makes you comfortable. His temperament is amazing for what he sees, and that’s important because it puts everyone at ease and lets them concentrate on doing their job.”
Shapero said something that helps him concentrate on his job is the fact that he lives in the community he serves.
Living in Morgan Hill since 1984, Shapero said he has become accustomed to seeing some of his previous defendants around town. Shapero suffers from a thyroid disease called adrenal myelo. The disease is causing him to increasingly lose the use of his left leg, and for the past years he has used a cane whether he’s approaching the courtroom bench or shopping for groceries.
“I’ve seen more than one past defendant at the store who recognized me and thanked me,” he said. “I tell them I’m just following the law as well as I can, but it’s nice to see people turn their lives around.”
Although Shapero says he’s been a fan of criminal justice since idolizing Perry Mason movies growing up, he does admit being a judge for more than a decade has taken a toll on him.
He said one trial in particular, the 1995 gang-related campus murder of a Gilroy High School student, remains on his mind.
“The ease in which a young person could take another life really shocked me,” he said. “It was just one case, but that one really disturbed me and remains with me to this day.”
But at the end of the day, when the long-list of hearings is finished, Shapero feels he’s helped South Valley become a safer place.
Like several weeks ago, when at the end of an afternoon docket of 80 drug-related cases, a woman told him the rehabilitation program Shapero sent her to has turned her life around, and helped her find a home for her and her children.
“I experience the entire community around me, the positives and the negatives,” he said. “I choose to pick the positives.”
