Lynxwiler settles in as Carter County's newest associate circuit judge

VAN BUREN — Becoming Carter County’s newest associate circuit judge was the “natural progression” in Steve Lynxwiler’s law career.

A December 2000 graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, Lynxwiler began his legal career at the Hackworth Law Firm in Piedmont.

He subsequently opened his own law firm in Doniphan and ran for Ripley County prosecutor, a position he held from 2003 to 2006.

Lynxwiler then joined the Public Defender’s Office in March 2007. Three months later, he became the district defender, overseeing the Poplar Bluff office.

“As I’ve gotten older and as my diabetes has progressed … I knew at some point, I could not continue to try cases,” Lynxwiler said. “The stress was causing me a lot of health issues.

“While this job (as judge) is stressful in its own right, it’s a different kind of stress.”

Lynxwiler described becoming judge as “something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Jill (his wife) and I had talked about moving to Carter County years ago. …

“I started visiting with people up here. I knew Judge (Michael) Ligons was most likely going to retire at the end of his 12 years … so the plan was to run for judge up here.”

The timing of Ligons’ retirement was “perfect for me,” he said. “It couldn’t have worked out better, and to be fair, after 12 years of managing the Public Defender’s Office, that office was probably ready for a coaching change.”

Lynxwiler said he “absolutely” loves being a judge.

“Everybody has been great, very welcoming,” said Lynxwiler.

Ligons, he said, didn’t have an office in the building that now houses the courtroom.

“He just always operated from the bench computer; the courtroom was his office,” Lynxwiler said.

As a new judge and someone who had spent the majority of his career in criminal law, “I knew there was going to be a lot of times that I would need to prepare for things and to research issues, and I would need someplace to go, besides working at home,” said Lynxwiler.

Working at home, he said, wouldn’t be fair to the litigants in the cases he heard.

“I try to separate work and home as much as I can,” said Lynxwiler, who indicated it “most importantly” wouldn’t be fair to his wife and his daughters, ages 5 and 2, to deal with his “day-to-day work. … They don’t understand it.”

“I’m a daddy and husband first, before I’m a judge,” he said.

In looking at space for an office, Lynxwiler said, the county treasurer volunteered to give up her office space as it was adjacent to the courtroom.

“That was an incredibility kind gesture for her to uproot herself to do that,” Lynxwiler said. “Everybody’s been like that.

“Our court clerks have been great about getting me up to speed on all of this. How can you not love it when everyone treats you that way?”

Lynxwiler described his taking over as judge as a smooth transition.

“I was in court somewhere almost every day of the week,” Lynxwiler said. “… The problem I had is even through you’re in court when you’re practicing, you may not be paying attention to what’s going on. You’re doing your own thing.”

While every case is different, Lynxwiler said, the judges have a basic “script” they go through telling defendants of their rights.

“You hear it every day; you live it every day,” he said. “Then, you get up there to do it, you think I have no idea what I’ve been listening to for the last 15 years.

“I feel like I should know this, so there’s been that learning curve having to switch roles from dealing with my cases to dealing with everybody’s cases.”

Thus far, Lynxwiler said, he has not taken any breaks on his court days.

During his first “law day” in Howell County, Lynxwiler said, he had 100 cases on the docket.

“We went 6 1/2 hours, with a 15-minute lunch break; it was nonstop,” said Lynxwiler.

That, he said, has been a change for him.

“When you practice, if you need to step out, you step out,” Lynxwiler explained. “If you need to get a bite to eat, you go get a bite to eat.

“You need to talk to somebody, you talk to somebody. When you’re on the bench, you don’t do that; you keep chugging away to make sure the things get done, and they get done in the way they’re supposed.”

The process, he said, can’t be hurried.

“Everybody that comes before you deserves to have you treat their cases with the upmost respect,” Lynxwiler said.

That’s true even of traffic tickets, he said.

For a lot of people in the criminal justice, those don’t seem like a big deal, but it’s a “big deal for the person standing in front of you that day,” Lynxwiler said. “That may be the only time they’ve ever been to court.”

In his law career, Lynxwiler said, he has “always done what I thought was the fair thing to do.

“As a judge, what you do every day is what you think is the fair thing. Your treat people the way you would want to be treated.”

Even when making a decision against someone, “you’re not going to be rude” or show ill will against them, Lynxwiler said. “You’re going to treat people with respect.”

As judge, Lynxwiler said, he is enjoying getting back into the research role and reviewing things he hasn’t done in a while.

“It’s actually been really interesting,” Lynxwiler said. “It revives you. When you practice the same kind of law day in and day out for your career, sometimes its gets stale.”

Lynxwiler said he now is dealing with “every kind of law” — criminal, probate, civil and family.

Although he has no murder cases at this time, Lynxwiler said, he has several Class A and Class B felonies, including sexual abuse cases, as well as defendants representing themselves.

“It’s very interesting to see that part that I haven’t seen for quite a while,” he said.

The law wasn’t Lynxwiler’s chosen career path when he graduated from Arkansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in criminology. He originally planned to be a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper.

“The first time I applied, I didn’t make the highway patrol cut,” Lynxwiler explained. “Some of my dearest friends and mentors … said my calling was more for going to law school.

“They said I could do more good as a prosecutor than as a cop, so that’s what I did.”

As Lynxwiler looks to the future, he said, he and Sheriff Rick Stephens are working to get community service started again in Carter County.

Lynxwiler said he and Presiding Circuit Judge Steven Privette also are working to establish a drug court program in Carter County.

“I believe in treatment courts,” he said. “When I first began, I didn’t think treatment courts would work.

“Then, we set one up in Ripley County. … The more I went to training and the resources I read, I realized they did (work).”

Treatment courts, he said, are a lot better than sending someone to prison.

“The recidivism of someone coming out of a treatment court program is so much lower than someone coming out of prison,” said Lynxwiler, who indicated its about “correcting the behavior.”

That is especially important is rural, poor areas, he said.

“It’s worked well in Butler County … Ripley County, Wayne County, I don’t know why it wouldn’t work here,” he said.

Lynxwiler also is serving as a coordinator representing the 42nd, 36th and 37th judicial circuits to help find judicial speakers through a subcommittee for the Missouri Supreme Court’s Civic Education Committee.

He said he will be working to get schools more involved with such things as mock trials to educate more on what courts do.