Dearest X, thought you would get some pleasure out of reading about a truly decent individual. I know the Judge this story is about, but this is an unusually fine gesture - an excerpt:
"Typically on a Friday, Fairfax Judge Donald P. McDonough operates at assembly-line speed: 150 landlord-tenant disputes, one right after the other. But at 10 a.m. yesterday, McDonough's efficient system of justice paused. Something about the middle-aged deaf couple standing before him, and facing eviction for falling $250 behind in their rent, got to him.
Though no one yet knew it, this dispute would be different from any of the thousands McDonough had heard in more than a decade on the bench. When the landlord insisted on a judgment against the deaf couple, McDonough abruptly left the courtroom, returning a minute later with two crisp $100 bills and a $50 in his hands.
"Consider it paid," he said, leaning over the bench and handing the money--his own money--to the landlord's stunned attorney. As a sign-language interpreter translated for defendants Deborah Morris and Louis Swann, Morris pressed her hands to her chest in unaffected rapture, according to several people who were present." More at -
washingtonpost.com |
