Passing judgment: A view from behind the bench - East Idaho News
Idaho Falls

Passing judgment: A view from behind the bench

  Published at  | Updated at

Greg_Moeller
District Judge Gregory Moeller. Photo courtesy Teton Valley News.

DRIGGS — Judge Gregory Moeller’s name appears in the pages of the Teton Valley News, and other area papers, with regularity. As District Judge for the Seventh Judicial District for the State of Idaho, he passes judgment in Teton County on some of our most high-profile cases.

It’s work Moeller says he enjoys, far more than he thought he would. He was an attorney for 19 years, and says he sometimes misses it. Considering the judge position, Moeller at first thought to himself, “Why would I want to be a referee when I could be a player?” But he says his tenure as judge has been “the fastest seven years” of his life.

The job of judge is not without its challenges, of course, as Moeller says those outside the courtroom can be as judgmental in regard to his decisions as he is in making them.

“Half the people are never going to be happy with [my ruling],” he said.

Nevertheless, Judge Moeller says he sleeps much better now than he did when he was an attorney. These days he worries about simply following the law, rather than concerning himself with who wins.

“I’ve had to make some tough decisions,” he said. “I have to discern between evil and stupidity, and generally I’ll give stupidity a second chance.”

Moeller explained that for a first-time, more minor offense, he’ll generally give the defendant the opportunity for treatment and/or probation. For second-time, sexual and/or violent offenses, he’s much less lenient. Public misconceptions arise, he said, when people don’t understand the whole story.

“People think justice and mercy are opposites,” Moeller said. “There are times you can be just and merciful. I have access to much more information than the public generally knows, and they sometimes think I’m either too light or too harsh.”

There isn’t enough room in the newspapers, Moeller said, nor enough time in the day to reveal every detail that goes into his crafting his sentences, although he does expound on them as much as possible.

“I never sentence anyone without explaining my sentence,” Moeller said. “If I can’t articulate why I’m doing something, I shouldn’t do it.”

On high-profile, controversial cases, people tend to make up their own minds, something Moeller says a person should ideally be in the courtroom in order to do.

Moeller has had plenty of high-profile cases come before him so far in his career, as both a judge and an attorney. As a young lawyer, just eight months after passing the bar exam, he was appointed to represent Rauland Grube, a man accused of killing a woman some eight years before. Grube maintained his innocence throughout, and Moeller, believing him “incapable of violence,” persevered on his client’s behalf relentlessly for 16 years.

The charges against Grube were at last dismissed and his full constitutional rights were restored to him for a brief period before he died suddenly, just a few years after regaining his freedom.

In recounting the Grube case, Moeller said it “haunted me almost every day it lasted.”

“The media coverage was pervasive,” Moeller said in an address following the conclusion of the case. “Feelings and emotions throughout the community ran high.”

There were threats to Moeller, his family and his client.

“[My partner and I] soon realized we had on our hands every attorney’s dream and worst nightmare—we were representing an innocent man in a first-degree murder case,” Moeller recalled.

In the classic novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Atticus Finch, an attorney, says to his daughter, Scout, that there is “one case in [every lawyer’s] lifetime that affects him personally.” The Grube case was “just such a case” to Moeller.

“I was literally inspired by ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’” Moeller said, particularly by the scene in the film in which Atticus leaves the courtroom, and the black community stands out of respect for him. Moeller says that as a 14-year-old, that moment sent a chill down his spine.

In a remarkable twist of fate and by way of Grube’s brother, Harper Lee’s minister read to the author the speech Moeller gave about the Grube case and being inspired by “Mockingbird.” Lee then inscribed a copy of her book personally to Moeller.

More recently, in 2002, Moeller fought and succeeded in keeping Madison County together in the face of a redistricting plan. He also ruled last June on the headlining case of Sheriff Blair Olsen in Jefferson County, as well as in the Bonneville County case of Jonathan Folk.

“I’ve had lots of interesting cases,” Moeller said. “I’ve just got to help so many different people from so many walks of life. Every time I have a trial I learn something new.”

While he’s primarily based in Madison County, Moeller is in high-demand, and travels to all 10 counties in this district. He also serves on five different supreme court committees and helps to train new judges. He enjoys coming to Teton County (and especially likes our restaurants), and says he hopes to keep his assignment here.

What’s different about the valley, Moeller said, is the very high number of civil case filings here. There are far more lawsuits here, he said, even than in counties with much larger populations.

Moeller attributes this phenomenon to Teton County’s “diversity of viewpoints, backgrounds and beliefs.”

“Perhaps not everyone shares the same view of where the county’s going and where it should be,” he said. “My job as a judge is to ensure wherever it’s going that the law is followed.”

“Not all legal conflict is bad,” he continued, “if it leads to a better community.”

This article was originally published in Teton Valley News. It is used here with permission.

SUBMIT A CORRECTION