Judge wraps up career of helping troubled families
By Liz BoardmanJanuary 20, 2011
SOUTH KINGSTOWN - Family Court Judge Raymond Shawcross keeps four stones with him on the bench. Each is etched with a word: Truth, listen, respect, patience.
As he presides over a packed calendar of divorce complaints, juvenile arrests and custody disputes, he will pick up the stone that best fits the attribute he is seeking at any given moment and rub his thumb across the word.
"Patience" is wearing thin.
It doesn't show. For the past 24 years - and in excess of 10,000 divorces - Shawcross, 65, of Narragansett, has presided over some of the worst days of people's lives. On Friday, he took the Family Court bench at the McGrath Judicial Complex in Wakefield for the last time. His retirement officially begins Jan. 31.
"[Family Court] is tough," Shawcross said. "You are dealing with people at one of the worst times of their lives. They are vulnerable, emotional, hurting. I'm sitting up there without a jury, in front of some very good people who are acting badly and need someone to blame. But it can be very rewarding - helping people, helping children."
Shawcross likens his job to being an emergency room doctor.
"We can stop the bleeding, but we can't treat and we can't heal," he said. "I don't have a magic word to solve everybody's problems. But I can ask questions."
And he does ask lots of questions. His way with litigants, sense of humor and pragmatic approach to courtroom management are so popular, lawyers have a name for it: The Shawcross Method.
"He has a patient demeanor and is straight-forward and very, very good with people," said Kerry Rafanelli, an East Greenwich lawyer. "I don't think people leave there feeling worse than when they went in."
"He has a perfect mix of legal knowledge and street sense and smarts," said Joseph Ballirano, a Johnston lawyer. "You absolutely could not bulls--- him either as an advocate or a participant in the Family Court."
The street smarts come from his upbringing, said Matthew Callaghan, a Wakefield lawyer who has known Shawcross since childhood.
"We grew up in the rough-and-ready Elmwood Avenue neighborhood in Providence," Callaghan said. "He dealt with a lot of wise guys and smart-alecks growing up."
While attending Providence College, Shawcross went to work for an inner-city after-school program in Providence.
"I worked on Smith Hill, near the Chad Brown [Housing Complex]," Shawcross said. "It was the first time I'd been acquainted with Family Court."
That was because some of the boys in his charge kept referring to "that old white-haired fool."
"They were talking about Judge [Francis J.] McCabe," Shawcross said, with a grin. "I always wonder if they are saying that about me now."
After graduating from Suffolk University Law School, Shawcross began working for Child Welfare Services, a forerunner to the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, and later for the former state Department of Social Rehabilitative Services.
Those experiences made him uniquely suited for Family Court. After a stint as legal counsel to then-House Majority Leader Joseph DeAngelis and then-House Speaker Matthew Smith, then-Gov. Edward DiPrete appointed him to the Family Court bench in 1986.
From the beginning, he has tried to reach out to the people who appear before him.
"I attempt to make it human, and to listen to people," Shawcross said. "If the [litigants] want to talk, let them. It makes them feel better. That's theraputic justice - if they are allowed to participate, they will feel better about the outcome."
In a court where emotions run high, lawyers said, Shawcross has a gift for calming people and easing fears.
"He will start talking to people," said Russell Bramley, a Warwick lawyer. " 'What do you want out of this? What is your story?' He gives them a chance to emote, and because of that, he can identify how to get issues to resolution."
"He has a keen insight into the issues in a particular case and the unique ability to get the parties, lawyers and clients alike, to recognize the respective strengths and weaknesses of their positions," said Councilwoman Carol Hagan McEntee, also a lawyer
"He uses humor to disarm people - you don't see that often," Bramley said.
R.I. Bar Association President Lise Iwon of Wakefield recalled a time when an inexperienced lawyer appearing before Shawcross asked her client what problems brought about the end of her marriage.
"He's a liar, he's a drunk, he's a thief, he's a drug addict, he won't work, and he has no personal hygiene," the woman said.
"But other than that, was he a good guy?" Shawcross asked.
"He is able to have jovial conversations with people and lead them down the primrose path to confession, just by talking," Iwon said.
During a paternity case, Shawcross asked the man if he knew the woman was alleging he had fathered her child.
"When I was having sex with her, she was having sex with every Tom, Dick and Harry for money for drugs," Iwon recalls the man answering.
Shawcross turned to the woman.
"What do you have to say about that?" he asked.
"I had my own money for drugs," she said.
Shawcross has had a front-row seat as society changed over the last generation.
"Substance abuse has always been a big issue [in breaking up marriages], but gambling addiction has risen in South County because of the casinos in Connecticut," he said.
These days, job loss and foreclosures are putting pressure on relationships. And far more of today's custody issues involve young, unmarried couples.
"And same-sex couples who share children - I didn't see that 24 years ago," Shawcross said.
One of his hardest jobs, he said, is deciding custody issues when one parent is relocating.
"In more and more cases, the mom wants to move with the kids to someplace like Arizona," Shawcross said. "It's not like North Kingstown or North Providence."
The way the courts, and the police, handle domestic violence also has changed dramatically. In 1994, as part of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Shawcross chaired the steering committee that drafted the new model state codes.
"It is all mandatory arrests now," Shawcross said. "Years ago, the police said it was a family matter, or told the man to go take a walk. It is a serious offense now, and studies have been done to show the impact domestic violence has on children."
"He has an extremely good understanding of domestic violence issues," said Iwon, who also sits on the Advisory Council of the Domestic Violence Resource Center of South County. "He knows it takes seven times of physical separation from a spouse before the other spouse leaves for good. He will ask, 'Have you gone to the Domestic Violence Resource Center?' "
His practical demeanor also helps in juvenile cases, lawyers said.
"With some of the Family Court judges, the kids are more street smart than the judges," Iwon said. "Shawcross is hip to their lingo and their tricks."
"He gets to understand the boy and he has a good sense of humor," said Brother Brendan Gerrity, president and executive director of Ocean Tides, a Narragansett-based school for troubled boys. "He makes sure the boys get what they need. There may be times when the kids make another poor choice, but he's not ready to hang them out to dry."
"It is easy to say the kid is always in trouble," said Rafanelli. "But up until 18, the role of Family Court is to rehabilitate, not punish, and Shawcross gives them the presumption of innocence, the idea they can be rehabilitated."
"He has great confidence in his own judgment," Callaghan said. "Some judges - especially with cases involving juveniles or child custody - like to appoint a guardian ad litem [a legal guardian]. He's never been big on that. He puts his hands right on the case and does the work himself. Not everybody can do that, frankly. It is more work for him, but if the decision is going to have his name on it, he is going to do it himself."
"I always thought that if you are going to make a mistake with a juvenile, make a mistake with leniency, rather than harshness," Shawcross said. "Harshness you can't take back. If you put them in the Training School, you are making them better car thieves. Once they are out of Family Court and in the adult courts, we've lost them, and we've failed."
While he helps the litigants, he is also committed to educating lawyers.
He is a frequent lecturer before the Edward P. Gallogly Rhode Island Family Law Inn of Court, a group of family court lawyers who gather nine months a year for continuing education.
"People want Shawcross," Rafanelli said. "He has no qualms stepping out of the box and telling us how to do it better for both lawyer and client."
Some judges bellow at the lawyers before them, riding them or putting on a show, lawyers said.
"Some lawyers never go back to the courtroom after that," Rafanelli said. "Shawcross doesn't do the show. He's the judge, no doubt about it, but he guides young attorneys. A lawyer knows what he's doing because he's practicing before a judge who knows what he's doing. In the end, we are presenters, helping the judge make a good decision."
"I try to be a student of the law and try to help them with what they should be presenting, in a nice way," Shawcross said.
He is one of the least overturned Family Court judges on the bench. A notable exception was the divorce case of Dr. Nagib Giha, which the state Supreme Court overturned in 1991.
"He bought a $1 ticket in the Massachusetts lottery and won $2.2 million," Shawcross said.
After his divorce court appearance, but before the final judgment was filed, Giha claimed the prize. His wife returned to court, looking for a share of the winnings, Shawcross said.
Giha's lawyer argued if Giha had lost that amount of money after the divorce was filed, it would not be claimed as a joint debt. Shawcross agreed.
"The Supreme Court said otherwise," Shawcross said.
Shawcross said he still thinks he was right, but he respects the decision.
"I enjoy the law, and pride myself on knowing what the law is - not what I think it is, or what it should be - but what the Supreme Court says it is," he said.
Next month, Shawcross and his wife, Noreen, who retired in June from her job as executive director of the state Housing Resources Commission, will take two months to vacation in Florida.
"I have been working since I was 15," he said.
In April, he will return to the Kent County Family Court bench part time, as the terms of his pension dictate, but also at the request of Family Court Chief Judge Haiganush R. Bedrosian, he said.
That news made lawyers happy.
"He is a wonderful judge, and we are all going to miss him terribly," Iwon said.
"He has been tremendous," Callaghan said. "If we could clone him, we'd be in great shape."
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If you have questions about this posting or are interested in Criminal Defense, Divorce, or Immigration Law in RI contact Rhode Island Criminal Defense Lawyer John E. MacDonald at 401-421-1440.
To learn more about The Law Office of John MacDonald, please visit his website at AggressiveLegalServices.com..
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