Justice Approximated

He also views himself as a hard-liner on law and order, “but I don’t cut the prosecutors any slack when it comes to having their ducks lined up to meet their burdens of proof.”

But when he finally sends people to jail, “which is relatively rare, I think nearly all the budding incarcerants would agree they’ve finally run out the string and now fully deserve their institutional quiet time.”

At the same time, he tries to rule gently against an attorney or prosecutor because, he writes, “people hate losing face more than losing to the Yankees in Boston.”

Sometimes cases in the court run the coarse course. “A young guy came in trying to evict an older woman from an apartment in his house,” Runyon recalls. “While it seemed a little harsh to be pushing for this with two weeks left before Christmas, it turned into Greek tragedy when I realized about 10 minutes into the testimony that the tenant was the landlord’s own mother.”