Judge recognizes burglary suspect as childhood friend, shows him incredible kindness and warms our hearts
Florida judge Mindy Glazer realized shortly after burglary suspect Arthur Booth walked into her Miami-Dade bond court that the she and the suspect had attended middle school together.
As SkyNews reports, when Glazer recognized Booth as a former classmate, Booth also recognized the judge, and had an emotional response to the shock, smiling and repeating the phrase “Oh my goodness” several times before he eventually began to cry.
“I’m sorry to see you here,” Glazer told Booth. “I always wondered what happened to you.”
‘This was the nicest kid in middle school,” Glazer explained to the rest of the court. ‘He was the best kid in middle school. I used to play football with him, all the kids, and look what has happened.”
Before setting Booth’s bond, Glazer said to her old childhood friend “Good luck to you, sir, I hope you are able to come out of this OK and just lead a lawful life.”
We love the kindness and compassion with which Glazer treated her former classmate. Upon recognizing him, she was able to fill the court in on Booth’s past, another life in which he was the “nicest kid in middle school.” As those of us who haven’t blocked out all our junior high memories remember, our pre-teen/early teen years were times of tremendous insecurity in which it’s hard to be a nice kid AT ALL, much less the “nicest/best kid in middle school.” It seems like life has been rough for Booth in the intervening years, but Glazer both reminded the court that inside this defendant was a kid who had once been a model citizen, and her wish for Booth at the end of their interaction really moved us. We hope Booth is able to come out of this situation OK too, and we imagine that it will help knowing that his judge treated him with warmth and love, remembering him in a kind light and wishing him the very best.
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