News

Prosecution doesn't rest yet

Bud Starr and his assistant, Pat Davis, enter the courtroom for a trial. Davis helps Starr with his duties as a prosecutor with the District Attorney’s Office. Starr has gone blind but continues to work as a prosecutor in the D.A.’s office.

     On Valentine's Day, Deputy District Attorney Bud Starr and his wife, Pam, went to a showing of the movie "Daredevil" in which actor Ben Affleck plays a superhero whose alter ego is a blind lawyer.

Starr couldn't actually see the movie because he's blind.

But Starr, 52, who became blind after diabetes-related eye surgery in July, felt he needed to show support for a fellow blind lawyer.

Virtually everyone in the Kern County courthouse is showing support for Starr, who, with help from an aide, continues to try felony cases, winning five convictions in trials so far this year.

Two of the complicated trials were attempted murder cases.

"It makes me proud to know he has done that," said 15-year friend and fellow prosecutor Steve Katz. "He's a very positive role model."

Adds Chief Deputy District Attorney Dan Sparks, "It certainly increased everyone's respect and regard for Bud as a trial lawyer. It's inspirational and impressive."

And Deputy District Attorney Michael Palmer said, "I think it's fabulous. My God, if it was me, I'd probably crawl in a hole with a bottle of gin. But he does his job well with a positive attitude and he jokes about his disability."

Starr, a prosecutor for nearly 16 years, does joke.

"I tell defense attorneys 'I can't see your point.'"

"I tell my wife, 'you haven't aged a bit.'"

"Did you notice I don't have a window office anymore? I didn't."

Starr won't tolerate being excluded from the legendary ribbing within the District Attorney's Office.

Shortly after Starr became blind, Katz came in his office and expressed sorrow and compassion. Starr thanked him, but said, "If you don't rib me, you won't be my friend."

Katz immediately obliged, dissing Starr for missing the trash can with his Kleenex shots.

Humor is just fine with Starr, who says, "If you can't laugh about it, it will kill you."

Because losing sight is a big loss.

For example, basketball is a big part of the life of his family of five children. "At my house, you can't get a meal unless you can make a left-handed layup," Starr said.

So when his daughter is playing on her school basketball team and he can't see her, that hurts, he said.

And, of course, a prosecutor's job is based so much on sight -- reading stacks of reports, watching juror and witness reactions, looking at evidence photographs and facing the right way in the courtroom.

Regarding the latter, Starr thought in his first trial after going blind it would be useless to use a podium as he addressed the jury. But he turned 180 degrees to point to the defendant and then overshot his mark when he turned back, looking at the audience section rather than the jury.

"I use a podium now," Starr said.

Defense attorney Kyle Humphrey said Starr can do the job.

"He is always prepared," Humphrey said. "The blindness just means he prepares in a different way."

Part of the difference is a helper hired to assist him with his job. She is Pat Davis, 70, a retired secretary with the Department of Corrections who has become Starr's eye for detail.

She helps him get around the courthouse, reads reports to him, describes photographs and evidence, observes prospective juror and witness demeanor and types legal documents.

"She types faster than I can think," Starr says of her. "She's the brains of (the) outfit."

Davis returns the compliments, saying that Starr has an amazing memory, is easy to get along with and is very fair.

Starr, who was born in Sacramento, said he always wanted to be a lawyer, but he couldn't afford to go to law school. So he went to the University of Pacific School of Engineering in Stockton where he learned to be a civil engineer, graduating in 1973.

He worked several jobs to earn enough money to go to law school, graduating in 1979 with a law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.

He then worked several jobs before coming to Bakersfield in 1985 to work for the Kuhs and Parker civil firm (William Kuhs and James Parker).

Two years later, he joined the Kern County District Attorney's Office, where "I had more fun in the first six months in the D.A.'s office than the previous eight years as a lawyer," he said.

He loved going to trial and decided, "This is where I belonged."

But it was about that time that he went blind in his left eye, due to diabetes.

The disease causes poor blood circulation. In order to get enough oxygen and blood to the retina, the innermost lining of the eyeball that sends image signals to the brain, additional blood vessels are created, Starr explained.

That causes pressure on the eye, creating scar tissue and blind spots, he said.

So for about 15 years, Starr knew that the blindness in his left eye could move over to his right.

In 1990, that worry became secondary as he almost lost his life getting lost in the Las Padres National Forest near Paso Robles on a bow and arrow hunting trip for deer with his wife.

Despite their hunting experience and precautions, they found themselves trapped and lost in thick, high brush, where Starr's diabetes started to act up. Ultimately, he was rescued just hours before he would have died, doctors said at the time.

His next adventure came in July 2001 when his blood circulation problems left him unable to walk. So he went to work in a wheelchair for five months until he regained use of his legs.

A few months later, in April 2002, the blindness began to set into his right eye. That put him out of work until June when he returned and read with a large magnifying glass.

A month later he couldn't see, and then at issue was whether he would take a disability retirement or whether the office would accommodate his condition.

"God bless Dan Sparks and (District Attorney) Ed Jagels," Starr said. "They looked into it and decided they could accommodate me."

What does it mean to him?

Critical aspects of his life are lost -- his abilities to see his children and grandson play and work, to move around by himself, and to hunt and play basketball (although with the help of his children he still shoots hoops in the back yard).

"All I really have left is this job," he said.

There's still a possibility his sight may be restored, he said. But in the meantime, he uses his memory to help him visualize the world he can't see.

For example, he was in Department 10 recently arguing a motion before Superior Court Judge Lance Fielder and against Deputy Public Defender Gregory Tuss.

"In my mind, I'm still visual," Starr said. "I know what Judge Fielder, Mr. Tuss and Department 10 look like and that's what I see when I'm in there."

He can still discern light and dark. He uses his white cane to navigate his way to the courthouse, using the stone tile strips in the cement to guide him to the front doors.

Starr plans to continue working as long as he can.

"I wouldn't have picked this disability," he said. "I hated that wheelchair, but I'd trade it for the white cane in a heartbeat.

"If I didn't have this job, it would be like sitting in a dark room all day. I am so pleased my boss decided to let me do this."

Reprinted with the permission of the Californian and the author Steve Swenson.

Bakersfield Californian Newspaper