By Ed Housewright
The Dallas Morning News
Mckinney, Texas (AP) -- Few people took John Payton seriously when he ran for Collin County justice of the peace two decades ago.
After all, he was only 18 and in high school.
The incumbent, 50-year-old Jim Murrell, called Payton's campaign a "lark."
But the serious-minded Payton, carrying a briefcase and wearing a suit, received 52 percent of the vote in the 1990 Republican primary. He later won the general election.
The kid JP received nationwide news coverage, was recognized by Guinness World Records and appeared on TV with David Letterman. His Guinness record as the world's youngest judge still stands.
Since his unlikely victory, Payton has won re-election four times, most recently on Nov. 2. And over 20 years, he has gained a statewide reputation for his creative handling of truancy cases.
"It's been the most exciting career I could have ever gotten involved with," said Payton, 38. "Each child, each family that comes before me has a different set of problems that need a little different kind of help."
Justice of the peace courts occupy the lowest tier of the justice system, handling small claims, evictions, hot checks, truancy and other issues. Defendants don't need lawyers, and JPs aren't required to be attorneys.
Payton developed an intense interest in truancy early on and now hears about two-thirds of the county's cases. On a recent day, he had eight truants in his East Plano courtroom, teens 13 to 17 years old.
He required them to stand up straight, look him in the eye, take the gum out of their mouths and answer "yes, sir" and "no, sir."
He had forceful words for a 16-year-old who was pregnant and attending school only sporadically.
"You have an even greater burden to receive a high school diploma," Payton told her. "It's time to get serious about your education. It starts right now. Do you understand that? You have forfeited your ability to be selfish. Am I clear?"
Local school officials not only praise Payton, but they also choose to file most of their truancy cases with him because of his stern, stay-in-school message.
"He can be tough when he needs to be and compassionate when he needs to be," said Jody Lyons, truancy-prevention facilitator for the Frisco school district. "I love the fact that he commands respect in the courtroom. He makes the student be accountable."
Payton routinely sentences kids who miss school to community service, building houses with Habitat for Humanity. Sometimes he picks up a hammer and works with them.
"It's leading by example," said Payton, who lives in Allen with his wife and 15-year-old daughter.
He can also assess fines, suspend driver's licenses, send kids to wilderness programs and order counseling and anger-management classes.
"I have a lot of different tools," he said.
As much as Payton preaches the importance of staying in school, he has failed to achieve his own goal of getting a college education. He has a two-year degree from Collin College and is working toward a bachelor's degree at Dallas Baptist University.
He said he has always placed his JP duties ahead of completing a degree. He often holds hearings into the evening and does community-service projects with youths on the weekends.
"I threw myself into the job," he said. "I wasn't able to attend school as much as I would have liked."
Payton admits his work has also kept him from being more mindful of his health.
Throughout his 20-year tenure, he has waged a public battle with obesity. He weighs about 525 pounds, matching his highest weight ever, he said.
A few years ago, with dieting and exercise, he dropped to 300, but the weight came back.
Payton, who is 5-foot-9, said he recently contacted a trainer about beginning a program to help shed the pounds. He said he wouldn't consider lap band surgery.
"I've got to make a commitment to myself to step away from this job and work out and eat healthy," Payton said. "This is something I've done to myself."
When Payton first filed to run for justice of the peace, he was a senior at Plano East Senior High. He didn't have a driver's license, so his mother drove him to neighborhoods after school to campaign door to door.
"I remember sitting in the car for hours and hours and hours," Lorri Payton said.
He fell just short of collecting enough signatures to get on the ballot without paying a filing fee. So his mom anted up the $300.
"I told him, 'If you win, you have to pay me back,' " she said. "He did."
Some adults dismissed and even ridiculed his campaign, Payton said. But Jerry Madden, who was chairman of the Collin County Republican Party, did not.
"I thought he was an energetic, very bright young man," said Madden, now a state representative from Richardson. "He very much wanted the job and was working his tail off."
After losing to Payton in the primary, Murrell ran as a write-in candidate in the general election. Payton buried him, receiving almost 83 percent of the vote.
Murrell, now 70, said he has no hard feelings. He laughs about it now, but it was no laughing matter on Election Day.
"It was a terrible surprise, a shock," said Murrell, who served for six years. "I didn't campaign. Everybody in the world, including me, said nobody is going to vote for him over a sitting judge who is doing a good job."
The two men run into each other occasionally at political functions. "We're always friendly," Murrell said. "John has done a good job."
These days, Payton earns an annual salary of $94,752, plus $50 for each wedding he performs. He estimates he does six to 10 weddings a week.
He once talked of seeking higher office. No more.
"This is his passion," said Lorri Payton, her son's first campaign manager. "I can't imagine him doing anything else."
Payton said he might attend law school. But he said if he becomes an attorney, he would give up his justice of the peace seat.
Although some JPs are attorneys, Payton said he thinks a law degree is a hindrance. JP courts should be a place where plaintiffs and defendants "can express themselves with loosely put together evidence, tell their side of the story and not be bound" by the rules of law that govern higher courts, he said.
"A lot of times lawyer JPs - and this is a blanket generalization -- have so much training in the background and critique of the law, and a JP court is really almost the opposite," Payton said.
Though Payton's long tenure has stunted his formal education and adversely affected his health, it has won him the respect of other officeholders, who laud his efforts against truancy.
"He's kept a lot of children out of the juvenile detention center," Collin County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland said. "He's helped hundreds of families."
Frequently, students who have faced Payton on truancy charges send him graduation invitations and photos. He keeps them piled high in a box.
"Thanks Judge Payton for the kick in the butt!" one student scrawled on an invitation. "Could not have done it without your help."
Parents also thank him.
"We are forever grateful to you," one mother wrote. "You were able to put the 'fear of God' into my daughter. She's focused and moving forward now, and you are largely responsible.
Published: Mon, Dec 13, 2010
