By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
“It has been an absolute pleasure to deal with these people up here and serve as judge for them,” Judge Lynn A. Nelson said.
Wednesday, June 14th was a bittersweet day at the Parsons Courthouse. After 15 years with the West Virginia 21st Circuit Court, Judge Lynn A. Nelson is retiring.
“I always wanted to be a lawyer,” Nelson said. “I don’t know why. I guess watching Perry Mason as a kid, I always wanted to be a trial lawyer.”
Nelson came from a family with a strong background in law going back to his grandfather and an uncle. “My Grandad was in the House of Delegates and a State Senator, my uncle was a lawyer and I just got interested in it,” Nelson said. “So, I started hanging out with my uncle working the summers when I wasn’t working for my dad at the car lot.”
Nelson said he never intended to become a prosecutor. “Didn’t plan on becoming a prosecutor,” Nelson said, “but I got elected out of school. I ran in the primary while still in law school.”
Nelson also said he predicted to his parents, becoming a judge while still in law school. “That year before, ’87, I told my parents I’m going to come back to college, work for 20 years and run for judge and I did.”
Nelson is a native of Ridgely. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1984 from West Virginia University and his law degree in 1988 from West Virginia College of Law. He has also studied at Oxford. “I studied at Oxford, too,” Nelson said. “We just did a four month summer camp. You go over there, it was a trip that was sponsored by the University of San Diego and there were four of us from WVU, probably about 40 of us all together, but four of us from WVU went. We were there two day before school got our to two days before school started.”
Nelson went on the describe what studying abroad was like for him. “You see at Oxford you don’t go to class,” Nelson said. “They have the tutorial method. So, I would have to walk 45 minutes to my tutor’s house once a week and when you left the week before, they would give you a reading assignment and they’d tell you write a 10-page paper on whatever the topic was. Then you’d come back, sit one on one like this and they’d grill you for an hour. So, there wasn’t no faking it. But I only had to be in Oxford two days a week, too. I had a brick rail pass so I could go wherever I want. We were 60 miles outside of London.”
Nelson said he plans to become a gentleman farmer after retirement with the possibility of teaching law as well. “I’ve talked to Potomac State College about teaching down there,” Nelson said. “I taught there before when I was prosecutor, but I had to give it up because I went full time. And I’ve got a farm. I’m just going to be Mr. Douglas on Green Acres, I think. Be a gentleman farmer. I got to find me a Eb. I’ll even get the phone down off the pole.”
Nelson said he is going to miss his staff at the court. “You know, I’m really going to miss these guys,” Nelson said. “I came up here, I’d been up here a couple of times as special prosecutor…and these people just took me in. Made me part of them. They are incredible people; I just wish they lived about 45 minutes closer.”
Nelson commented on how small-town life has changed since he was growing up. “Everybody knows about everybody. Ridgeley was a 1,000 people when I was growing up, you know everybody knew everybody. We’re not like that anymore, society ain’t like that no more. I ain’t much on Hillary Clinton, but we used to raise them like a village. Everybody knew, by God, you got into trouble at somebody’s house your mom and dad were going to know about it before you got home.”
Nelson said that today’s parents aren’t like that anymore. “Parents come in here and say, ‘My kid wouldn’t do that.’” Nelson said. “They want to be their friends, not their parents, and it’s killing us.”
Nelson also attributed the change in society to his decision to retire. “This stuff is going to s%$*. That’s one reason why it’s time to go,” Nelson said. “Let somebody else do it. There’ll be people here long after I’m gone.”
When asked what his greatest accomplishment has been on the bench, Nelson said, “I don’t know. You’d have to ask other people, I don’t know. I just showed up and tried to do what I thought was right and if…down in Charleston think it’s wrong, they can change it.”
Nelson did comment that being a judge can be a lonely job. “It’s not the kind of job that you can talk to people about. It can really give you a dark outlook on life.”
Nelson said that he tries to do the best job he can every day. “I got to go home tonight and look in that mirror and say, ‘Hey, you done the best you could today.’ Did I do the best that could possibly be done, probably not all the time, but you got to make decisions with what you know at the time. And I’ve had people come say to me, ‘Why’d you do this? Did you know about this?’ Nope, nobody ever told me that and I can only go on what they tell me. That’s it,” Nelson said.
Nelson equated his position on the bench to an umpire, “Basically, I just call balls and strikes. You see that black dress? We ought to get one of those referee shirts.”
Nelson commended the attorneys that he has worked with over the years. “I got to say though, the lawyers have been good. They’ll probably tell you that I don’t, don’t bull*&%$ me, let’s get to it. Don’t solve a five-minute problem with a 20-minute solution. That’s my theory. So, they get to the point and we just go and I try to be fair to all of them. Sometimes, that’s hard to do because I’m an a#$hole just like everyone else can be.”
