He’s been on the bench in Alabama’s Limestone County for nearly 20 years, but now Judge Bob Baker has decided it’s time to give someone else a shot.
Baker is retiring on Tuesday, WAFF-TV reported. He said he and his wife plan to travel, play “bad” golf, and enjoy life.
At a retirement party Friday, Baker said it’s the relationships that he’s made over the past two decades that he will miss the most.
“I work with good people and I’ll miss them more than anything. The work, I enjoyed, but I’ll miss the people,” he said.
Through the years, Baker has seen the growth of Limestone County firsthand and watched as it impacted the court system. Baker said it led to an obvious change in volume and said watching the jury demographic change has been interesting as well.
“When I came here about 26 years ago, we had farmers, Saginaw workers, professionals, your typical mix. Now when I strike a jury, I’ve got engineers, computer scientists, physicists, military,” he said.
Baker said he has many good memories at the courthouse and he’s presided over many high-profile cases. One of the hardest cases to preside over and one of his first involved a man named Farron Barksdale.
“He was a mentally ill man, and he lured two Athens Police officers to his house and then shot them down in cold blood. And that was hard because I knew the officers, and obviously the impact on the community, that was difficult,” he recalled.
Though the job carried many highs and lows, Baker thanked Limestone County for trusting him and treating him like family.
“I’m not from here, I didn’t think that that was a chance, but they took me in like the native son so, it worked out,” he said.
Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
