Judge Stephen Mirretti

DateNovember 1988

MediumEmulsion on paper

Dimensions5 x 5 in. (12.7 x 12.7 cm)

ClassificationsDocumentary Artifact

Catalog number2001.19.5800

DescriptionJudge Stephen Mirretti - Warp Speed Ahead, from Tempe Magazine, Winter 1988

"If you have three different paths to take, you can carefully analyze which one will give you the best chance of making it. Or...you can choose one at random and run as hard as you can. If it leads nowhere, you can turn around, run back and try the next one. I tend to do the second thing." This is how Judge Stephen Mirretti describes his approach. However, it is not often that Judge Mirretti has had to turn around to try another path.

Judge Mirretti graduated from Oklahoma City University after only 23 months of day, evening and summer classes, instead of the usual 33 months. When school officials decided to delay his diploma, Mirretti found a 90-year-old statute that enabled him to bypass the school and be admitted into the Bar. By age 23, he was Chief Public Defender of Oklahoma City.

Two years later, he came to Tempe. While waiting to take the Arizona Bar exam, he decided to become a Tempe Police Officer, but "The line to apply was 300 men long. Long lines are for people without initiative." Instead, he applied to be the Chief Magistrate and at the tender age of 26, he became Judge Mirretti.

"When I first took the job, we were a small court in the old Safeway building. We had two judges and four administrative personnel, hearings were set 8-12 months ahead and all records were kept on 3x5 cards." However, Judge Mirretti's management style is that of constant change. "There was not a time when I would come out of my office and say 'I've got another idea!’ they would say 'not another one! Can't we leave everything the same for a week?."

Today, the court has twenty-seven employees, four full-time judges, pro-tems, traffic hearing officers and is housed in one of the most modern court facilities in the state.

Judge Mirretti played an important role in designing the new court. First, he lowered the judge's bench to eye level. The he had comfortable chairs installed in soft, unassuming colors. "We don't want to intimidate anyone," he explains. "We look at ourselves as performing a service, and the people that appear before me or one of my judges are our customers. We want people to feel they can tell us anything because they can."

Additionally, Judge Mirretti has a goal of total automation because, "You’re going to deny someone justice if the system is too onerous." He attacks this goal with much fervor. In his office, he has not one computer, but two. He isn't satisfied with learning the software, he is writing programs. Are these the signs of a compulsive? "Absolutely," he admits.

He doesn't leave his compulsiveness at the office. Judge Mirretti spends his time off training for Ultra Marathons, some of them 100 miles long. Why does he do it? "A man with limited athletic ability has to seek his challenges where he can find them. I'm like a cross-eyed discus thrower - I may not set any records, but I'll keep your attention." Judge Mirretti professes his life and work styles would not be possible to maintain without the support of his wife Anne and three and a half year old son Jonathan.

When asked why he chose Tempe as his home, he says, "As far as Jonathan is concerned, Tempe has the best schools in the state. Tempe has everything. I can't think of anything I can't do here."

With his philosophy of "keep moving forward, never stand still, put it to the edge...", there is nothing Judge Mirretti can't do. His license plate sums it up perfectly. It reads, "NO LIMIT".
The film negative of this photograph is housed in box 2G9-B.

Status

Not on view