Magistrate performed weddings for thousands during career

By Trace Christenson Battle Creek Enquirer BATTLE CREEK (AP) -- David Barnes applied to be a surveyor in 1978 and spent 35 years in court. Barnes, 62, finally left the Calhoun County Justice Center when he recently retired as district court magistrate. "I was a manager at Wendy's and I was looking for a job," he told the Battle Creek Enquirer. "There was a job in the paper for the county for some type of job, something with land surveying. I didn't know what it was all about but I went to the county building and applied." During his interview he learned about a bailiff position with the court and said he might like that. He interviewed with the court and was offered the position. "I had never as much as stepped into a courtroom. I started out as a bailiff and my first judge was Judge (Shelton) Penn and they told me if you can keep up with Judge Penn, you can keep up with all the rest of the judges. I was a nervous wreck but it worked out." He enjoyed listening to the legal issues between the lawyers and the judges and only learned after starting work that lawyers could argue in the courtroom and have lunch together in the cafeteria. "I would think these people don't like each other and then at lunch they would be chatting it up." Barnes later became a substitute magistrate and then about 26 years ago moved to the position full-time. "It is similar but not all the authority that a judge has," he said. Magistrates authorize arrest and search warrants and arraign people and set bonds and can sentence defendants to up to 93 days in jail. They also hold hearings for motorists contesting traffic tickets. "I guess we issue well over 90 percent of the warrants that come through the system," he said. Michelle Hill, court administrator, said Barnes has been a fine magistrate. "Oh my goodness," she said. "It is because he is fair. He is just simply fair. He takes everything in stride and he doesn't get ruffled." Hill said magistrates often don't encounter people in a good mood. "No one is ever happy coming to court and fighting a ticket but they want to feel that they have been heard and he provides that." Barnes said he won't forget the criminal side of his job. "You hear a lot of horrible things people are accused of doing to other people. Some of it will stay with me, especially crimes that involve children and elderly people. And some of the more brutal crimes, absolutely. "You have to try to turn it off. I hear what they tell me and sometimes see because there are pictures. It is worse for the police but it's something you have to learn to turn off. But you can't always do it." While he can't tell his wife everything, he sometimes talks about what he has seen as a way of seeking relief. "You have to let it out. It is something I find incredible, what some people are capable of doing to other people. It is one of the things I am not going to miss." Hill said she and Chief District Judge John Holmes try to ensure that magistrates are not overwhelmed with the ugliness they see. "But I think they have the ability to separate it," Hill said. Barnes, a native of Battle Creek and graduate of Battle Creek Central High School and Kellogg Community College, said he did enjoy performing weddings. He has married over 3,100 couples. "The first wedding I was a nervous wreck," he said. "I think I was more nervous than them." He said he will miss fellow employees "but as far as duties, the weddings are the most enjoyable." Filling in once for Judge Frank Line, Barnes said he performed a wedding in a park in Marshall. "It was raining and it was an outdoor wedding and I didn't know any of the people and there was quite a crowd." He began looking for the couple and "there was a woman dressed as Pocahontas with purple hair and two guys dressed like the three Musketeers and I found out I was marrying Pocahontas and one of the three Musketeers." Barnes expected to use a pavilion but they wanted it on the end of a dock. "I was to be at the end of the dock and I would face the crowd and I was so afraid they would, as a big joke, push me into the water -- but they didn't." He said some couples arrived in formal clothes and some in shorts and sandals. "One wedding I couldn't do because the groom was too intoxicated, but only one." He also remembers another magistrate who married a couple who had several prior marriages. The groom was married 14 times and the bride 11 and 10 of those had been to each other. Barnes is officially retired June 27. He and his wife plan to spend summers in South Haven and winters in Phoenix. "We are going to do some traveling and I hope to take up golf again and we like kayaking, walking and biking," he said. Hill said because of a tight budget, the court will continue for now with two part-time magistrates. "He is going to leave a big hole," Hill said. Published: Thu, Jun 20, 2013