Three Democratic candidates are running for an open position, Wyandotte County District Court judge, Division 13.
The primary election is Tuesday, Aug. 2.
The three candidates are Tony Martinez, Deryl Wynn and Renee Henry. They appeared at a candidate forum July 12 sponsored by Business West, other neighborhood business organizations and Kansas City Kansas Community College.
Martinez said he has 25 years of experience working for people in the community as an attorney in private practice. He has worked for individuals who need criminal defense. He said he represents the face of diversity in the community.
“My roots run deep in this community,” Martinez said, adding he had a lot of relatives in the community. “I’m not just in this community, I’m of this community.”
Growing up near 6th and Osage, Martinez said he paid for his own education by working in grain elevators here since he was 14 years old. He received his undergraduate and law school degrees from Washburn University.
He has mentored and coached young men through a sports ministry for about 20 years, he said.
Martinez said he wanted to give back to the community by serving as judge. He said there currently are no Hispanic judges and there are two black judges on the Wyandotte County District Court.
Deryl Wynn, who served many years as the attorney for the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools and KCKCC, said his family is from a military tradition, as his father was in the Air Force, and they moved around to different cities when he was younger.
“I grew up thinking that when you live in a country such as ours, one thing you have to do is give back,” Wynn said.
Wynn also is a veteran, with Army service. He received the U.S. Army meritorious service medal as chief prosecutor for the U.S. Army Transportation headquarters in Newport News, Va.
Afterward, he brought his principles of service to his work in Kansas City, Kan., he said. He was the first African-American attorney hired by the McAnany, Van Cleave and Phillips law firm in 1990. He retired in 2015 from the law firm.
“I began serving this community, and even though I wasn’t born here, I made it my home,” he said.
He was involved with starting the summer reading program at the public libraries through the Friends of the Library. He also helped some residents start businesses here.
He said when he learned there were children in police protective custody sleeping on the floor of the jail, he helped Wyandot Inc. to raise money for Robert’s Place, a safe place for children.
He and his family have volunteered at Avenue of Life to purchase and prepare some snack packs for kids who didn’t have enough food on the weekend, he said.
“If you want to know what kind of judge I will be, look at what I have done already,” he said. “What you want is a citizen judge who cares about this community and who has demonstrated how they care by giving back.”
While he doesn’t have deep roots here, no one can match or exceed his passion for this community, he said. He chooses to live here.
He has worked for clients who serve the needy, Wyandot Center, the school district, KCKCC, United Way, Friends of Yates Battered Women’s Shelter, El Centro and other charitable concerns. He worked 15 to 20 years for the schools.
When he was a member of the Kansas Board of Regents (2001-2005), Wynn said he seconded the motion for in-state tuition for the children of undocumented workers. He said he is a problem-solver who cares about this community.
Wynn said he was appointed in 1995 by the Kansas Supreme Court to sit on the Kansas Board of Discipline for Attorneys, the panel that hears appeals of attorneys whose licenses are subject to discipline by the court.
Renee Henry, 41, said she is the most qualified candidate in this contest.
“In Wyandotte County, I have been on every single side of the bench,” Henry said. She has 14 years experience practicing law here, including as a prosecutor, defense attorney and pro-tem judge.
She has an undergraduate and a law degree from the University of Kansas.
Her first job out of law school was working in the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s office, where she prosecuted cases for seven years. She handled DUI, theft, rape and homicide cases, and other cases. She also specialized in sex crimes while at the prosecutor’s office. She wrote briefs and did oral arguments at the Kansas Court of Appeals and Kansas Supreme Court. She has done more than 50 jury trials, and hundreds of trials, as both prosecutor and defense attorney.
After seven years, she opened her own practice, and was appointed to represent indigent defendants in Wyandotte County on everything through rapes and homicides.
“I am uniquely positioned, have seen both sides, and I understand the unique challenges that come with both prosecution and criminal defense,” Henry said.
She is currently a permanent pro tem judge in Wyandotte County, in courtroom 15B, and has been there every Wednesday and Thursday each week for the past three years, she said. She handles juvenile offender cases, and they range from theft to homicide. She handles detention hearings, arraignment, trials, sentencing and violation hearings.
“The thing I love about being a judge, especially in juvenile court, is that we look at what programs are needed to help stop the criminal activity. I think that needs to translate to adult court, and that’s what I want to do from the bench in adult court,” Henry said.
She said she wasn’t here to be soft on crime, and agreed that some people needed to be locked up. However, low-level and mid-level offenders are coming back to the community after being sent to prison, she said, and are learning worse things in prison.
“I want to make our community a safer and better place for all of us,” Henry said.
She would like to look at getting a veterans’ court in Wyandotte County, and she also thinks there is a need for more mental health resources in court here.
Henry is currently president of the Wyandotte County Bar Association, and also has volunteered as secretary of her homeowners’ association. Additionally, she volunteered for Project Grad for seniors so they have something to do on graduation night. She said she started a special ed prom at Harmon because she had worked with a victim in one of her cases who was in the special ed community.
While her focus is on criminal law currently, Henry said she interned in law school at a personal injury law firm, and has done civil litigation there, and she also has handled divorce, custody and family law cases.
Wynn said he had handled all kinds of civil litigation cases, from discrimination based upon race and disability, as well as wage and hour class actions he defended on behalf of nonprofits that had been challenged. He has done divorces, adoptions, bankruptcy, and contract work.
Martinez said he had handled custody, divorce, contract disputes with landlords and other cases. He said there isn’t anything he could think of that he hadn’t done on the civil litigation side.
With criminal litigation, Martinez said he has defended murder and rape cases, as well as other types of cases. “I have a wide background doing many things for the people,” he said.
Wynn tried two jury trials while still in law school, then was a federal prosecutor for the Army and a special assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia. He prosecuted a foreign national for impersonating an Army intelligence officer in one case. He has prosecuted, and also defended criminal cases.
Henry said she has handled everything in criminal law from charging a case through appealing a case, both on the prosecutor side and the defense side. She has handled rape and homicide cases in Wyandotte County District Court as a pro tem judge. She also has been a pro tem judge in Kansas City, Kan., Municipal Court, where she handled minor offenses.
Henry has been endorsed by the Friends of the Fraternal Order of Police No. 4 and No. 40, the International Association of Firefighters and the Tri-County Labor Council.
Compassion, fairness, parity and transparency are important qualities, Martinez said.
The judge’s authority comes from the character and integrity of the person who is the judge, Wynn said.
Everyone should have access to justice, Henry said. People should feel they can come into a courtroom and talk to a judge, she added. She said she has experience, fairness and dedication to justice.
For more information about Martinez, visit www.tonymartinez.xyz.
For more information about Wynn, visit http://derylwynnforjudge.com/.
For more information about Henry, visit www.henryforjudge.com.
To view the candidate forum online, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2MhEB1XHw8&index=6&list=PLMfeRPiOepX3iQS-Y5OCca80njs3sop8W.