This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
After years of fighting for people as a criminal defense attorney, Heather Brereton could soon deciding their fates as a judge.
The Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved Brereton as a 3rd District Court judge. Given confirmation in a full Senate vote next week, she will fill the vacancy left by Justice Constandinos Himonas, who joined the Utah Supreme Court in February.
"I'm excited that you come with a defense background, and even better an indigent defense background," said Sen. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George. "Our bench needs to be rounded, and it's nice that we have that perspective coming onto the bench."
Most current judges in Utah were previously prosecutors or civil attorneys.
Kent Hart, executive director of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, later told The Tribune that "there is a subconscious bias in favor of prosecutors," as they are viewed as "upholding the law [and] doing what is just and right."
But when Hart thinks about it "from a defense perspective, we would argue that if you're going to talk about what is just and right, [defense attorneys] are trying to enforce constitutional rights and making sure people are being treated fairly."
Brereton is currently a trial attorney and the misdemeanor division chief at Salt Lake Legal Defender Association. She has represented clients in death penalty cases and defended the mentally ill — a quality that Gov. Gary Herbert highlighted when he appointed her last month.
"Her knowledge and work as a criminal defense attorney, specifically with our mental health court system, will be a tremendous asset as we implement criminal justice reform," Herbert said in a statement.
So much of what "we call crime is mental health," Urquhart pointed out Wednesday. "I think a lot of us, we watch news reports and we see the things that people do and we just ask, 'Well who in his or her right mind would do such a thing?' And that's it right there: No one in their right mind."
To Brereton, the six years she has spent working in the mental health court — where mentally ill offenders are encouraged to take their medications and participate in counseling — "is truly the best thing I've been involved in in my career," and a big part of why she applied for the judgeship, she told the Senate Committee.
She added that "having the participants see a judge as someone who cares about them and is a constant force in their lives, interested in the decisions that they make, and who also imposes consequences for those decisions really does have the ability to change the lives of those who are involved."
She was "a kind of loud-mouthed, argumentative kid," who found an outlet for that in her high school debate team. They won the state championship her senior year, when she was team captain. The experience led her to law school.
Brereton never met a lawyer before she entered the University of Utah's program. But she loved learning the law, the analysis, and she knew early on that she wanted "to be the kind of lawyer that was in court" — which led her to criminal law. She spent her days at police academy and studied for the bar exam at night.
As a clerk, she picked 4th District Judge Steven Hansen's brains for hours. After a stint as a judicial law clerk in the Utah Court of Appeals, she joined the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association and "found a family of people … who are dedicated to serving a very difficult population, to doing it with respect and integrity, and I've been very proud of the work I've been able to do there."
She plans to show respect to everyone from the bench, as well. "I have worked for the past 15 years defending individuals who are charged — in many cases — with heinous offenses, and people who face huge consequences when they walk into court," Brereton said. "In my mind, a good judge is one who listens to all parties [and] treats them fairly — regardless of their background — within the confines of the law."
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