In late March or early April, 2017, one of my daughters told me she had responded to her music teacher's request, and had volunteered to come to Toddy Thomas Elementary School, in Fortuna, one evening, after school, and augment Toddy Thomas' students, to provide music for an awards events.
It turned out that the awards events was a comprehensive one - 4.0 GPAs, "A" Honor Roll, "B" Honor Roll, Perfect Attendance, Student of the Month, Citizen of the Month, Superintendent Award, and sports awards, too - and that it was also the school's Spring Concert.
Also present that evening, to my surprise, was the Honorable Judge Joyce D. Hinrichs - whom I learned, to my surpise, was a product of Fortuna's high school, class of 1976.
Judge Hinrichs was there to present Toddy Thomas Elementary School, itself, with an award from the California Department of Education.
We had encountered Judge Hinrichs in the elevator, once, at the Eureka courthouse, one morning, early in this saga, before we had become professionally acquainted. We knew, at that time, she was a judge because someone called her 'Judge' ... but we also suspected that she had a rich inner life, because she was carrying a homemade cheesecake, and, furthermore, had brought it to work, to share (not with the defendants, alas). The purple hair was also a tipoff.
Judge Hinrichs and I had become better acquainted after Judge Wilson had ruled against my wife and I and tried to confiscate our children. Judge Hinrichs was tipped off about Judge Wilson's antics by someone, had intervened and confiscated the case, JV160250, from Judge Wilson.
But it was too late - we had already been found guilty. Of what? Of something - child abuse, child endangerment, mixing races, not being Jewish, rolling our eyes inappropriately in court - it was hard to treat these people and their hysterical, dramatic, unsubstantiated conclusions seriously. The phrase 'confederacy of dunces' comes to mind.
And so I did not feel comfortable coming into the event. I was concerned that Judge Hinrichs would see me, recognize me, and think that I was stalking her, and be prejudiced against us thereafter. I waited, in the parking lot. Which, I suppose, also made me look like a stalker, LOL. I dropped my daughter off, parked, and waited, in the twilight, reading a novel.
I was exchanging text messages with my daughter and so I knew when she was ready to leave, started the car, and pulled up to the front of the auditorium.
Out came my daughter, carryng her instrument.
Following a few seconds behind her, was Judge Hinrichs.
The program for the event very kindly explained, in the footnotes, that my daughter was an All-County Performer and also a guest performer from Fortuna Middle School.
It seems possible that Judge Hinrichs, being a literate sort, read the entire concert program, and, recognized the last name of one of the performers and perhaps the first name as well, as names she had seen, in a file she had handled recently.
It seems possible that, realizing that one of the guest musicians was one of the children that, according to Humboldt County Child Welfare Services, was being abused, Judge Hinrichs followed my daughter - to see if she would be picked up, and by whom.
Was Judge Hinrichs stalking my daughter? You gotta wonder.
I would describe this as responsible, mature, adult behavior, and exactly the sort of leadership we would look for from a presiding judge. It's a little intrusive but it's also righteous. Lawyers would call it due diligence. Parents used to do this for one another. Some still do.
I looked at Judge Hinrichs. She looked at me. What she saw did not agree with her preconceptions - musical instruments, support from parents, prompt parental taxi service, and the fact that my daughter was class president ... none of this fit what she had been told by Child Welfare Services. Obviously something was wrong, somewhere.
We think Presiding Judge Hinrichs set about to find out what it was.
We have no idea if Joyce Hinrichs found the defects she was looking for in Humboldt County Superior Court and Humboldt County Child Welfare Services. There are so many.
Judge Wilson has resigned one or two or three times now, I have read, but he keeps returning, like a bad penny. There seems to be another, deeper dynamic at work here.
It's not clear what Judge Hinrichs, herself, is doing, these days - we hear very little about her. Perhaps she is just hard at work. She does not seem to seek the limelight. We hope she has not become a victim of COVID-related complications - we are very concerned about the long-term wellbeing of everyone who allowed themselves to be coerced into being vaccinated with substances that did not undergo the usual years of comprehensive and scientific testing.
We would not want to be a judge. But we wish Joyce Hinrichs well. Humboldt County would be a better place to live if it had a dozen more people like her.
Food for thought.