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Montco's first African American district judge ran against the odds

At age 11, Greg Scott met President Bill Clinton. At 16, he became the first junior member of Norristown's town council.

"I ran because it’s important that the bench is reflective of the people it represents," says Greg Scott, Montgomery County’s first African American district judge, a Norristown native.
"I ran because it’s important that the bench is reflective of the people it represents," says Greg Scott, Montgomery County’s first African American district judge, a Norristown native.Read moreEd Hille/Staff Photographer

At age 11, Greg Scott met President Bill Clinton.

At 16, he became the first junior member of Norristown's town council.

Now, at 28, he is Montgomery County's first African American district judge, and the youngest sitting judge in Pennsylvania.

To those who know him, Scott's win in November - in his first run for elective office - was no surprise. "He is a force of nature," said James A. Daley, a neighbor and mentor since Scott was a student at Eisenhower Middle School in Norristown.

An against-the-odds backstory helped. Voters, Scott said, were "excited that a kid who grew up at Spruce and Willis Streets, in a drug-infested area, in a single-parent household, can be successful."

He won a hard-fought three-way Democratic primary in May, then survived a last-minute challenge from a write-in candidate to secure a six-year term in a new district court in Norristown.

Occupying the lowest level of Pennsylvania's court system, magisterial district judges preside over arraignments and preliminary hearings in criminal cases, set bail, and handle landlord-tenant disputes, small civil claims, and citation-level offenses such as traffic tickets. Their caseloads are heavy - in Norristown, so heavy that the third court was added.

The judges, who make $88,290 annually, need not hold law degrees; according to a state court spokesman, only 150 of the 517 district judges are lawyers. Those who are not - like Scott, a former congressional staffer - must complete four weeks of training by the state's Minor Judiciary Education Board, pass an exam, and take continuing education.

Having nonlawyers on the bench is a subject of debate, said Lynn Marks, executive director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.

"What you want in a judge is somebody who's smart, who's respectful of anybody who comes before him or her," Marks said. "There are plenty of magisterial district judges who still have been excellent without [law degrees]. Then there are people who wonder, 'My goodness, why isn't it required?' "

Scott takes the bench five days a week. One recent morning, he consulted legal books on a nearby shelf while presiding over two preliminary hearings, an arraignment by video feed from county jail, and hearings on municipal code violations.

"There's no doubt in my mind that I do my job at the level or above some of my counterparts," Scott said. "With that being said, I'm fairly new. It's an adjustment."

Norristown is diverse, and its demographics are shifting. The municipality of 34,000 is 40 percent white, 35 percent black, and 28 percent Hispanic, according to the 2010 census. (The total is more than 100 percent because some residents reported more than one race.) A decade earlier, it was 10 percent Hispanic.

"I ran," Scott said, "because it's important that the bench is reflective of the people it represents."

Statewide, Scott said, he is one of just a few dozen African American district judges. None of the judges seated on statewide courts are members of racial minorities, according to Marks, who said more diversity is needed.

Norristown lawyer Barry Miller reached out to Scott when he heard about his campaign. "The fact that we had not had any African American [district judges] in Montgomery County ever . . . I was not happy with it," said Miller, a former county solicitor. "It's something that was long overdue."

Scott said he will share with residents what he is learning in court, starting at a community resource fair this spring. Some cases, he said, could have been avoided by educating people about landlord-tenant rights and estate planning, others by urging parents to be involved in their children's lives and talk about issues such as sexting.

Scott and his dog, Roxi, live in the town where he grew up with his mother and older brother. His interest in politics began with a letter he wrote to Clinton in 1998, saying he forgave him for the Monica Lewinsky scandal and wanted him to keep doing his job. The White House invited him to greet Clinton at the airport on a visit to Philadelphia, and Scott wound up going to dinner with him and other politicians.

While a student at Norristown Area High School, Scott took part in a state program that put students on municipal councils as junior members. He became Norristown's first, participating in every aspect of council meetings except voting.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Chestnut Hill College and a master's degree in organization development leadership from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Scott went on to work as a district representative for Joe Sestak while the Democrat served in Congress and during his 2010 Senate campaign, and for U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah as a deputy chief of staff.

When Scott heard that a new district court was being created in Norristown, he took the four-week course, passed the test, and launched his campaign. There were those who asked him not to run because he was too young, he said - and he ran anyway.

Scott said he is applying to law schools, and hopes to attend class at night. He said he is focused on serving his six-year term, but did not rule out running for other posts in the future.

"This is just a stepping-stone for what he will do," said Netta Hughes Johnson, who has known Scott since he was a child and helped run his campaign. "He will want to do more."

lmccrystal@phillynews.com

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