Zimmerman Content Sitting On Hot Seat in Juvenile Court

Being a judge in juvenile court isn’t easy. Part of the job entails stepping into a bad family situation and making a tough, unpopular decision in the most trying of times.

Truancy, criminality, substance abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and abandonment, and termination of parental rights — the worst things imaginable —  wind up in juvenile court. And after hearing nearly 19,000 cases, circuit court judge Stacey Zimmerman, whose jurisdiction covers Washington and Madison counties, has seen it all.

But she also said there’s plenty of reasons for hope, and at least some of the teens who come through her court have the chance to join diversion programs like Aikido, Outdoor Adventure Club and Art Therapy. The intent is to keep families together and to deter future unlawful acts.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, and Zimmerman admits that it’s heartbreaking to see children repeating the mistakes of their parents. But such is the experience of a juvenile court judge.

“The kids drive me,” Zimmerman said. “I want to get them help so they can stay on the right track.”

On the bench for 15 years, Zimmerman will become the Fourth Judicial District’s senior judge in January, after longtime judge William Storey retires. She was already a juvenile court judge when she was featured by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal as a Forty Under 40 honoree in 1999, her first year wearing the black robe.

The biggest lesson Zimmerman said she’s learned during her long tenure is that families need help.

“We have good families and good kids, but some kids just make bad decisions and families don’t know what to do,” she said. “I try to get the services that the family can use in a healthy, functional way.”

In the past few years, the number of intakes and the days of detention have decreased, according to county records. While misdemeanor probation violations are the single biggest reason juveniles are incarcerated, others are detained on felony theft and burglary. Particularly violent cases, such as murder, can be moved out of juvenile court so that offenders are tried as adults. The Washington County Juvenile Detention Center, a 36-bed facility for adjudicated and pre-adjudicated residents, is one of 14 in Arkansas.

Zimmerman’s tenure is unbroken, meaning she’s always been re-elected. But that doesn’t mean it’s always been stress-free. She recently endured a blistering attack from her opponent, Lisa Parks, leading up to the May 20 non-partisan judicial election. Parks, a public defender, mounted an aggressive anti-Zimmerman campaign on Facebook, and also ran a glossy, multi-page attack ad inserted into the newspapers distributed by NWA Media.

Zimmerman, as a sitting judge, said she had to keep a cool head. In her position, she knew she had made plenty of people angry and that she was an easy target for a candidate like Parks.

“It’s not pleasant when your opponent is going negative,” Zimmerman said. “You can find people that are happy with me and people that aren’t happy with me.”

Despite the withering attack from an opponent who hadn’t been in her court that often, Zimmerman went on to defeat Parks by a comfortable margin, 60 percent to 40 percent.

Having grown up in New Mexico and Texas, Zimmerman earned degrees in agricultural economics from Texas Tech University before moving to Fayetteville to attend law school at the University of Arkansas. She fell in love with the area and decided to stay.

She was in private practice for 10 years before running for judge in 1998. She was named Arkansas juvenile judge of the year in 2009-2010 by the Arkansas Coalition for Juvenile Justice, and was named Arkansas juvenile judge of the year in 2006 by Arkansas Court Appointed Special Advocates.

Zimmerman, 51, has a 17-year-old son and is married to Sean Pitman. She enjoys watching her son play sports and doing “outdoorsy” activities.

While she enjoys her personal time, there’s nothing quite like sitting on the bench as a circuit judge. And for the foreseeable future, Zimmerman plans to keep doing just that.

“As long as I have the passion,” she said.