I am writing to urge Adams County citizens to vote on November 4 for Paul Royer for Judge.
I served as Adams County’s Chief Public Defender until my retirement at the end of 2022. Paul worked for me as an Assistant PD for two years, giving up a more lucrative position with a local law firm to do so. Paul came to the Public Defender’s Office both out of a sense of service to our community, and to get the boot camp experience of working daily in the Adams County Court. Public Defenders are in the courtroom nearly every day, doing jury trials, judge trials, bail hearings, parole and probation revocation hearings, juvenile hearings, arguing countless motions, filing appeals, writing briefs and arguing our cases in the Pennsylvania Superior and Supreme Courts. The list goes on. Paul did all of this, very well.
Paul has put in his time in the trenches of courtroom work and he knows how to think on his feet. I have admired his courtroom skills, his clarity of communication, his civility to the Court and opposing counsel, and the kindness and respect he shows his clients. (On a separate note, I have never, in all my days in the Adams County Court, laid eyes on Paul’s opponent in this race.)
I am a Democrat. Paul is an Independent. Working together, we had many good-natured debates about our different political views. We share more in the end than what we disagree on. But politics don’t belong in the courtroom. We both are deeply committed to the right of every individual who comes before the Court, rich or poor, to be heard, to be afforded due process, to be treated as deserving of dignity and worth, and to be granted the inalienable rights that are endowed on us by our Constitution.
Sincerely,
Kristin Rice,
Gettysburg