Judge Boyd spills the tea about court, travel, and her fabulous life

Jen Hardy [00:00:07]:
Welcome to the fabulous over 50 podcast where we encourage, inspire, and empower women over 50 to find their fabulousness and live the life of their dreams. And my guest today has done all of those things. She is one of the most fabulous people I’ve ever met. Her name is judge Stephanie Boyd. She is a real judge in adult felony court in Bexar, Texas. And let me tell you something, she is phenomenal. She’s beautiful. Her smile lights up in the room, and she kinda has the wisdom of Solomon.

Jen Hardy [00:00:44]:
Seriously, you’ve never seen anything like it. You know, when people think about going to court, they have all these fears, they have all these concerns, and a lot of people, judges, just put them in jail. And sometimes that needs to happen, but judge Boyd cares. She truly wants to rehabilitate people. She gives them chances. She gives them opportunities. She gives them lots and lots of work to do, but she genuinely wants them to be better and have their lives be better. I’ve never seen anything like it, and that’s why I had to bring her to you because you have to see her.

Jen Hardy [00:01:19]:
She is truly inspirational. I guarantee some part of her story is going to resonate, and you’re just going to be amazed. I honestly just love her. She is a gem. So without further ado, here she is, Judge Boyd. So alright. Well, I wanna start off by saying thank you so much for joining me. This is I’m just thrilled to have you on the show.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:01:43]:
Aw. Thank you.

Jen Hardy [00:01:45]:
This is so exciting. So judge Boyd is a judge in Bear, Texas, not spelled like you would think when you try to look it up, And she is phenomenal. If you just tell a little bit about yourself, and then we’ll get right into it.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:01:58]:
Alright. Well, I’m originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, I ended up coming to San Antonio for law school. And when I was in law school, all my friends were like, Stephanie, you have to stay. We’re all gonna stay. Now all of my friends are in Austin, Colorado. I’m like, how did you end up in Colorado? And you all told me you were gonna stay here. But it turned out to be one of the best things because even though San Antonio is a big city, it has a small town filled to it. So even though I was coming from a small city, Shreveport, Louisiana, coming here, I didn’t feel as though, oh my gosh.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:02:32]:
I’m a country girl, and this city is so big. I’m still learning locations of things, but hey, that’s what GPS is for.

Jen Hardy [00:02:42]:
Exactly.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:02:42]:
Yeah. So that’s a short piece of me and how I got here.

Jen Hardy [00:02:46]:
Alright. I love it. Well, let’s start by talking about your upbringing because I know when I was listening to your court one day, there was a defendant that was claiming that was his rough upbringing that’s led him to where he was. And you said, you know what? You have no idea where I came from. And I made other choices, which we’ll talk about choices later. I love but can you let us a little bit about your upbringing and what things were like for you?

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:03:12]:
Sure. So as I said, I grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana. I have a older brother and a younger brother. So I’m the middle child. What are you talking about? Her curfew. She’s older than you. You know, stop. So and then whenever I would meet a guy, they all wanted to meet him.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:03:38]:
But my parents divorced when I was very young. So the people who raised me were my mom, my grandmother, and the male figures in my life were my 2 uncles. One of my uncles, he served in Vietnam. He’s since passed. So when I grew up, my mom was all about your work ethic because I always tell this story. My mom, had a bad marriage, so she gets divorced. She comes back to Shreveport because she was in Dallas, And she grew up in this small town called Grand Cay, Louisiana. She got married straight out of high school.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:04:15]:
So when she comes back to my grandmother’s house, she has children, and she has to work. And she put in applications everywhere. She put in an application to work on the garbage truck. And I always tell people there is no shame in working on a garbage truck. Somebody has to do it and they do great work. My mom actually personally knows the people who collect her trash and she considers everybody her children. So they’re like her sons to her. And she she put in an application for that.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:04:46]:
She put in an application for Libby Glass. And she was gonna go start working on the garbage truck. And that was back in the day where, 1, people didn’t have trash bags. They would I don’t know if people remember this. You would have the tin cans, you’d line it with newspapers and put your trash in that, and then they would somebody would get off the truck and dump it. So every 7 days her shift changed, and she would have 3 days off, but 7 days morning, and then 3 days off, then 7 days the afternoon shift, 3 days off, 7 days graveyard shift. So the time that I would spend with her, the quality time was when she would be able to be home to give me my bath. So that’s where our conversations would happen.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:05:40]:
I knew my mom loved me. I knew my mom wanted to be at every school event, but I knew she couldn’t be at every school event. And so from that, my mom taught me, 1, if you have children, your children need to come first because they can’t support themselves. You gotta make sure they’re fed, you gotta make sure they’re clothed, and you still gotta spend that emotional time with them. Believe it or not, in Shreveport, when I was growing up, you didn’t have to attend kindergarten. So I didn’t start school till 1st grade. And I am losing it. I’m having a full meltdown.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:06:38]:
1st grader, having a full melt meltdown. And other children are like, Stephanie, it’s gonna be great. I’m like, no. It’s not. Nobody told me I was getting left here. And so my mom finally calmed me down, and she leaves. But the good thing about it, when I started 1st grade, I already knew how to read. I already knew how to tell time because my grandmother, my mother would teach me certain things.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:07:00]:
I already knew how to answer phones, you know, the basics of life. But the funny thing that happens, I’m at school, and my mom and my grandmother would tell this story to anybody who’s who would listen. Lunch break comes, and I’m thinking, okay. Yay. I made it. It’s done. So I leave the school, walk across the street, and go back to my grandmother’s house. And she’s like, what are you doing here? I’m like, I’m here to watch all my children.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:07:27]:
We’re done for the day. And she’s like, what? And so my grandmother said, the teacher or the principal came down from the school because they knew where she lived, knocked on the door, and they wanted to spank me. And my grandmother said, you will not spank her. She doesn’t know. This is her 1st year in school. And they’re like, oh, that explains everything. We’re good now. And so that was the best experience, and that was a private school.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:07:56]:
And then from there, I went to West Street Westreeport Elementary School. That was a public school. So I sent spent a year there. Then I went to West Shreveport, and that’s where my my older brother was, my cousins were. And my mom purposely wanted me at Center Free Methodist across from my grandmother because she knew that I was gonna have a hard time. I didn’t think I was gonna have a hard time. I was, like, excited about it. But when you get to the point that people aren’t leaving and they’re not staying there with you, Not so exciting, but I came to really, really love school.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:08:35]:
And my teacher at Center Free Methodist, miss Leslie, she said, you need to remember the name all name of all of your teachers. So I did. And then, we were poor. We didn’t know we were poor. Like now for Christmas, you see children getting 30 gifts. You would get one gift and you would be so excited. Like, you got the bicycle. Yay.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:08:57]:
And that will be your one gift. It wouldn’t like, oh, we’re opening dozens of presents. But I learned work ethic because I used to sell Christmas cards. And you know how you have the newspaper article and you would have a little ad, and it would say sign up, sell Christmas cards, and you can get free stuff or you can get money. So I got my Christmas cards in the mail, and I went door to door selling them. And then my brothers and sisters were like, this is great. You’re making some money. Of course, you know, the money I was making, like, $5.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:09:29]:
But $5 was a lot.

Jen Hardy [00:09:31]:
Yeah. It wasn’t.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:09:32]:
You could go to the mom and pop store around the corner and just clean up $5. But I would do that, and I I would also rake yards and make money doing that. And it was great to have money too. You go to the store and, like, I’m getting a pickle. It’s 5 it’s it’s 25¢. So those were great days, but it was always work ethic. And then it’s a shame that some children will not have the upbringing that we had. Even though it was my mom, my they were divorced.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:10:09]:
We would do things like you could walk and pick peaches, walk and pick pears. There was a guy who lived up the street from us, and he would always say, hey, be sure let the children come pick the pears and everything. And we would go. You could walk, pick pears, and walk around, not worry that somebody was gonna kidnap you. And we would just go play outside all day, and then we would have to be home before the lights came on. And it was funny because when the street lights came on and it was still light outside a little bit, we would be begging, please let us stay out. I mean, drinking from the water hose, people don’t do that anymore. I don’t know if you can survive that now.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:10:53]:
But my childhood was really a lot of fun, and there were up and down hills, things that we had to go through, but it was great childhood.

Jen Hardy [00:11:03]:
It’s amazing. And I think a lot of it is perspective too. You know? Because some people might say, oh, we only have this or only have but, no. But you had a love too, and you had people directing you and teaching you. I think that was the big it’s such an important part of growing up, is having that positive influence. And that’s something that you try to do in court, which I love, and the parenting classes, having people learn. Because a lot of people, when they grow up, they don’t know how to be a parent.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:11:29]:
That is so true. And I don’t think people realize that when you have a child, my mom always told us, hey. If you’re gonna have children, you gotta put your child first because they can’t support themselves. And now I think that people will have children, and their child is still not first. Like, what are you doing? Child can’t support itself. You And what I’ve seen in my time as a defense attorney and prosecutor, what ends up happening is you have somebody who has a child, they go to the club. Let’s say on a Friday night, they meet some guy. They bring that guy back to their house, and that guy just never leaves.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:12:23]:
In what world are you bringing strangers into your home? I would have clients all the time, and I would say, hey. Let’s say you, go to this house, and there’s a complete stranger, and it’s 2 men. Are you gonna stay there? You don’t know them. You’re just gonna stay there. And they say, hey. Come on. Yeah. You can stay.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:12:46]:
Here’s the bedroom. Are you gonna stay there? They’re like, no. I’m like, that’s what you’re doing with your children. Guess what? Thieves are strangers to them. And you’ve just brought them into their world and they’re thinking that you’re supposed to protect them. So they’re thinking, oh, surely this adult who loves me knows what they’re doing by bringing in this complete stranger, and they really don’t.

Jen Hardy [00:13:15]:
Yeah. That’s not something I didn’t really think about before. But it probably happens more than a lot of us realize.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:13:23]:
Oh, it does.

Jen Hardy [00:13:24]:
And that that kinda leads us into okay. I love it when people say they made a mistake in your courtroom because there are no miss a lot of times, they’re not mistakes. They’re they are choices, and you have something that you tell everybody. And I just I think if you’re listening and maybe your child or your grand whatever, they say, I made a mistake. This is the greatest way of knowing. Is it a mistake, or is it a choice? Because, unfortunately, a lot of the things we do, most of them, they’re choices. Yes. You know? So

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:13:55]:
My mom and my grandmother always explain it to this to me this way. And they always say life is about choices. And so my mom will always call me from Shreveport, and she’ll say, Stephanie, it’s gonna rain today. Be sure to take your umbrella. So I always tell people, this is the difference between a choice and mistake. You know it’s gonna rain. You bring your umbrella. Your umbrella is black.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:14:20]:
You’re in court. You sit next to another person. They have a black umbrella. You know it’s raining, you finish with your case, you leave, you go outside, you’re thinking, hey, I’m glad I brought my umbrella because it is raining. When you open your umbrella, it has somebody else’s initials on it. That’s a mistake because you brought a black umbrella. You just picked up the wrong one. Here’s a choice.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:14:45]:
Let’s say my mom doesn’t call me to say it’s gonna rain. I go to court. I finish my cases. People are coming in with their umbrellas, and I can tell, hey. It’s been raining, and it still is raining. Somebody has an umbrella next to me. I know I didn’t bring one, but it’s raining. So I pick it up, and I walk outside, open the umbrella, and walk off.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:15:06]:
That’s a choice. You know you didn’t have an umbrella, but you’ve made a calculated decision. You know what? I don’t wanna get wet. I didn’t bring my umbrella. I’m taking this person’s umbrella. Those are choices.

Jen Hardy [00:15:20]:
I love that. I don’t know why it just it just sticks with me. And and and the attorneys that come and I know they’ve been in your court before. And they’ll say, my, you know, my he’s made a choice or he’s made a mistake. And I’m like, oh, no. You know what happened. Why are you saying that? I don’t know.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:15:37]:
No. These are choices. And I think if people start realizing, hey. I’m making choices. You may not be making good choices, but there’s still choices you’re making. Like, when I have people who don’t report for probation, And you say, well, I had to go to work. Alright. So you’ve waited out, and you’ve waited out, and you said, you know what? I’m gonna go to work.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:15:59]:
I’m not gonna report to probation. When in my court, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call the probation officer. Hey. I’m gonna lose my job if I report today. Is it okay if I report tomorrow? And the problem is that sometimes people have never been raised for in their lifetime, have had to make decisions and know how to handle when you can’t meet certain obligations. Their response to obligations is, okay. I’m just gonna throw my hands up, and we’ll see what happens. You know? If you can imagine some of them are from homes where they’ve been in child protective services.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:16:48]:
And then they go from child protective services to here. And so I have some people that I have come in, like, once a month or every 3 months so I can check on them and make sure that they are in line with what they’re supposed to do. And sometimes I will have what’s called compliance hearings because those are people who are on probation. Some of them are young, and they don’t understand the process because they’ve been in other courts. Other things have happened. So they’re still in fear of telling probation, hey. You know, I’m struggling. I’m using drugs.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:17:21]:
I’m sorry. You know, I can’t stop when all you have to do is come into court. And if it’s something that we can help you with where you can be rehabilitated, then we can see about doing that. But a lot of times, it’s like, oh, I’ve used they’re gonna know I use. I’m gonna be positive. So I’m just not gonna report, and then everything past.

Jen Hardy [00:17:50]:
Yeah. And but I think I’ve been watching several different judges, and I think you have a safe place for people to go where they can say, hey. I messed up, or I can’t stop. But it seems like some of the some some of the judges make different decisions than you make.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:18:08]:
Yeah.

Jen Hardy [00:18:08]:
And and it seems to be and and that let’s see. I’m trying to phrase it right. Yeah. So it’s pretty open, the decisions that judges can make. And so if someone gets in your courtroom, you will you truly want to rehabilitate them. You don’t want you’re not just looking at punishment. But it seems as though many judges are just looking at punishment, maybe, and they just get you in and get you out kind of a thing. And do those I don’t know.

Jen Hardy [00:18:38]:
Do you do most judges want to do what you want to do? And

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:18:43]:
I don’t know. I will tell you. All of us go to Judge’s School. Right? And at judge’s school, they always tell you to say as little as possible on the record. Me, I’m not that way because I think communication is key. Even when I have to send somebody to prison, I take no joy in sending the peep people to prison. But I try to let them know the reason why. And then sometimes they’re like, okay, I understand why you would do this.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:19:11]:
Even my brother called me one time and my brother said, oh, my gosh. How is he thanking you for giving him 15 years in prison? He’s like, I would be very upset. I said, well, I’m hoping that he understands the reason why. But I always tell people, when I place you on probation, I want you to succeed. If I didn’t think you were gonna do this, you know, I don’t have a crystal ball, of course, to say this person is gonna commit a crime. But I want you to succeed. I wanna give you the tools to succeed. Obviously, the state wants you to have probation, otherwise, they wouldn’t have offered it.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:19:47]:
You’ve agreed to do it. Hopefully, you think you can do it. And that’s my goal. I hate when people have to come back, and I have to send them to prison. Because when you’re sending something to prison, you know, you’re hoping that they’ll they’ll then get rehabilitated in prison. But to get rehabilitated in prison, you have to really want it because there are hundreds of people there who are not rehabilitated, and they’re not looking to get rehabilitated. Especially when I send people who are super young to prison. That sort of breaks my heart a little bit because they’re 18, they’re 19, And I already know prison life is not gonna be easy for them.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:20:30]:
But I always think of people who come to my court not as defendants. I think of them as a human being. And I always wonder what got them to the place they are at. You know, surely, when you’re in elementary school, you’re not saying, oh, you know, I wanna go out and steal cars or, oh, I wanna be a prostitute or, oh, I wanna be a drug addict or a drug dealer. I don’t think that was your goal in elementary school. So I’m always trying to figure out why are you here? Is there any way that we can change your thought process so you won’t come back here? So that, that’s my thought process. And, of course, at the forefoot of my mind is always protecting the community. So there are some people who are dangerous, and I’m just like, hey.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:21:18]:
We can’t have you in the community for now.

Jen Hardy [00:21:21]:
Yeah. So if someone’s listening and they’ve got maybe they’ve got a child or a grandchild that’s dealing with legal issues, they keep getting in trouble. And as parents, a lot of times sometimes it is our fault because we’ve enabled or done whatever. But sometimes they’re just they’ve made choices to do the things that are not what we taught. Do you have any advice for someone who’s maybe looking at someone in their family who’s going through all these things ways that we can help from the outside. I mean, I don’t have a child in that situation. You know? But people who do?

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:21:53]:
Well, I will tell you, I lecture at UTSA. So all of my students who thought they wanted to do criminal work always try to find mentors for them in the field that they’re looking at going into. Because I always say before you spend what’s gonna be the equivalent of a mortgage, you need to know what’s what. So they would love going to do the tour of the jail, tour of the prison. The prison we couldn’t do as much because of COVID and everything. But for parents who have a child who’s being rebellious, I would talk to whoever your sheriff is or your police chief is and see if they could arrange for you and your child to have a tour of your local jail. You know, not a scared shape, straight type of thing, but just to give them information because you’d be surprised at what happens at the Bear County Jail here. For example, one thing that people never think of, you all are sharing the same underwear.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:22:55]:
There is no, oh, let me put your name tag on yours. It’s like they all go go into the washer. They all come out the same. If you want bathroom tissue to use the restroom. You have to go to the sergeant’s desk and say, hey. I’m going to use the restroom. Could I have some sheets? And based upon what you’re doing, they’ll determine the amount of sheets and that you’re showering with everybody. To me, I think just seeing where they shower, where they sleep, what the food they eat would help your child say, oh, well, I really don’t wanna be here.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:23:37]:
That’s one big help. And the other big thing is, I would always tell young people, you need to make sure that you know who you are with, who your friends are. Because as a defense attorney, I would never, well, I would always have young people. Majority of their offenses, they work at a department store, and they’re giving people discounts. And I always tell people, if that is not your family, you know that’s illegal. They’re like, what? I’m like, yes. I said, so when you have your friends come in and they’re just like, hey. Can you just give us a discount? And you do that.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:24:15]:
That’s a problem. I had a couple of clients who had that situation. And I always tell them those cases where you’re dealing with money, those are crimes of moral turpitude. And if you have a crime of moral turpitude, that eliminates a lot of job opportunities for you. Anything that involves you having a license, you wanna be a nurse, you wanna be an attorney, you wanna be a doctor, all that that requires state licenses. If you have a crime of moral turpitude on your record, doesn’t matter if it’s deferred adjudication with no conviction or not, that’s gonna be a stumbling block for you. And I tell them, make sure you know who you’re getting in a vehicle with. And I guarantee you, your friend is not gonna say, Excuse me, I was the one who had those drugs.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:25:09]:
Not them, take me. That is rare that they do that. So young people need to know, seriously, who they’re hanging out with, who their friends are, and parents need to start getting more in their children’s business. My mom was always in our business, and I appreciated it. I was the child. My mom always says, you were the perfect child. I’m like, no. I wasn’t.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:25:33]:
She’s like, no. You weren’t. But I always saw things. Hey, Stephanie. These are the rules. If you conform to these rules, your childhood would be just fine. So my mom would have a curfew. I’m like, okay.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:25:48]:
My curfew is 10. I would love it if it was later, but it’s at 10. Everybody, I’m gonna start going home at 9:30 because I wanna make sure I’m there at 10. My brothers would push the envelope on curfew, and my mom is like, no. There’ll be no pushing up envelopes on curfew. And so I would talk to my brothers, and I would say, hey, why don’t you just follow the curfew? And maybe if you follow the curfew, my mom would say, they’re responsible. We can extend the curfew. I’m like, I don’t know why you all are bucking up against the system.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:26:18]:
So I was always a conformist in the house. If my mom said, hey, you’re not allowed to go outside while I’m at work. I’m like, okay, I won’t be going outside. But my brother’s always want to test things. So sometimes you have children who are gonna test boundaries. But what I have discovered about children is they love boundaries. And when parents don’t give them that, that’s an issue.

Jen Hardy [00:26:45]:
Yeah. They definitely Kids need boundaries. They they really they feel safe, and they feel loved. You know? And my gets mad at me. It does seem to be the boys, honestly, my youngest son. But, you know, I tell him if I didn’t care, I’d let you do whatever. Right? I I don’t let you do whatever because I care. And, okay.

Jen Hardy [00:27:02]:
So we talked a little bit about about growing up, and I think this kinda the differences in people. Mhmm. When I was growing up, my parents had friends from all different groups, races, countries, whatever. But it seems like right now, everyone’s at odds with each other. Like, everyone’s fighting about whatever it is. And so I was reading an article about you, and you were talking about on the bench. But but you said, I wanna see male, female, all different races, all different creeds because I think it just makes us so much better. Yes.

Jen Hardy [00:27:33]:
And I think, how do you think, as a culture, we can I don’t know? I wasn’t perfect before, certainly. Yes. But we can take a little bit of what we had before and make it so much better into the future because it seems like right now, every day almost, there’s one more reason for people to argue with each other and have factions.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:27:54]:
Well, I think we have become extremely impatient. Right? And you’re right. We become less tolerant. You just have to meet people. For example, when I grew up at Centro Pee Methodist, there were only black students. West Street Port Elementary, only black students. I think, and then I went to Jess Clark Junior High School. Now they’re called middle schools.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:28:26]:
Only black students. Brigadier t Washington, which is a historic school in Shreveport, that was the first school for African Americans that was built in Shreveport. Great school. So that is the first time that there were any white students in our class. And they were and there were 2, right? And they were not in my class because we were in different grades. But, when I left there because in the neighborhood I lived, there were all different type of people there. White people, black people, Hispanic people, everybody. And we would just play together.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:29:06]:
And that, again, that was back in the time where you would just send children not to play. You weren’t concerned that somebody was gonna kidnap them. And so you would end up at the basketball court just playing with a bunch of people. Somebody has a ball. Hey. You wanna play kickball? Yeah. Let’s play kickball. And so you got to know people.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:29:23]:
Then when I went to undergrad, grad, and law school, that’s when I started meeting people from all over the world. People who were speaking different languages, and I love love love different languages. Some people in my class spoke 6 or 7 languages, and usually those were the people who were from the middle Middle East. They spoke a lot of language. I’m like, man, I would love to be able to speak all these languages. And what you would discover if people would just take time to listen, people are basically the same. Guess what? I want you to treat me fairly. I want to be heard.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:30:05]:
I want you to listen. There was some meme that somebody had, where it shows a sponge and a brick. And water is drop dropping on the sponge and the brick. They’re like, the sponge is listening to what you’re saying and internalizing it, and the brick is just getting ready to respond. So we need to start actually listening, internalizing because everyone has a reason, hopefully, for the way they feel. And I think with all of the turmoil we have, if you would just stop once somebody says something to you, then say, hey. Why do you feel that way? For example, somebody got upset and they told my coordinator, I don’t like her because she gave people credit for getting the COVID shot, right, in in lieu of community service hours. So I told the person, I said, you know, I hear you, and I understand what you’re saying.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:31:04]:
I said, but let me just tell you the reason for that. During COVID, there was nowhere to send people for community service hours, and community service hours were required. I said, I gave people choices. If you wanna get the COVID shot, then and if you were to get the COVID shot, then your community service hours will be waived. I didn’t force anybody to say, hey, you gotta get the COVID shot. And I would tell some people, if you wanna pay it off, you can pay it off at the cost of minimum wage. I said, but I suggest the food bank because they’re running low on food. And then when I told the person that they’re like, oh, okay.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:31:48]:
I’m like, yeah. I don’t force anybody to get shots. I’m not a doctor. I’m not trying to interfere with whatever your religious beliefs may be. These are just options for you, But I cannot let you leave probation without having done community service. And they’re like, now I understand. I said, so people, don’t go on the stove and be balling until you figure out why people are doing things that they do.

Jen Hardy [00:32:16]:
Yeah. And and that’s that that is the secret. Right? You’re just listening. Listening to it’s it’s so true. And speaking about people complaining, some attorneys are having a hard time with your court being on YouTube.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:32:29]:
Yes.

Jen Hardy [00:32:29]:
And I saw I was reading about that. So what’s your opinion on that, and why do you think it’s so important for courts to be transparent?

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:32:36]:
Because these are elected positions, and everybody I think that everybody needs to know what what is happening in your court. And the courtrooms legally, they’re supposed to be open to the public. But here in Bad County, we had an incident where there was a big fight in the courtroom. Right. And so I’m always trying to make the deputy’s job as easy as possible because the deputies are in charge of security. And when you think about it, the deputies, who do I have to protect? The judge, the attorneys, the inmates who are in the box. And then you have some people who are on the docket and charged with offenses who are just in the gallery, that everybody’s bringing their family. And so you may end up with you could easily end up with a 100 people in the courtroom, and my courtroom won’t hold a 100 people.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:33:24]:
So now people know, hey. You know what? I don’t have to come down to the courtroom to see what’s happening. I can watch it, and I can know if I really need to be there for my relative or, you know, if I just wanna see what’s going on. And I don’t have to come down and pay parking. Parking has gotten so outrageous in Bexar County. $30. A defendant just came before me and said, well, I was trying to find parking because it’s $25. So my thing is the courtroom should be open to the court.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:33:54]:
And you’d be shocked how many people who complain about YouTube And then people tell me, they say, Judge. Justin, as a side, I’m like, what? And these are other attorneys who come up to me. They’re like, you know, that attorney has a TikTok with their cases on it. I’m like, what? They’re like, yeah. I said, well, I really don’t. Me? State actually set up YouTube for the judges for COVID. So the most I can do, and they say this is the older person’s thing, the most I can do is post on Facebook a couple of times. But as far as TikTok, Instagram, and I know all of these because I have to read it when I’m doing the charge charges.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:34:40]:
TikTok, Instagram, Myspace, Facebook. No. Facebook, I’m good at. Twitter, all of that. X, I don’t really even do any of that. But they tell me they’re like, oh, that attorney, you know, they’re on YouTube. Do you know they actually have one of their cases that they did in front of you? They put it on their YouTube page. So I’m like, oh, well.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:35:04]:
The the public will know what’s going on. Because to me, being on YouTube really is no different than allowing, the media to come into your courtroom and film everything. And if you can imagine, courtroom is packed, and then you have all those large cameras in there. That’s taking up more space. So

Jen Hardy [00:35:28]:
Right. You see, I agree. I really like it. But what do you think about the people who watch? Now some people, there’s other guys who take your court cases, and then they film it on their own. They put it on their own channel Mhmm. And comments about judges and attorneys and defendants. And and what’s your opinion about that?

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:35:45]:
Well, I would hope that people would be nice because these jobs that we have, they are not easy. And I remember when I was a defense attorney, people would say, how can you represent that person? And I have to tell them, you know what? Everybody’s presumed to be innocent. Otherwise, why do we even have a legal system? You think somebody commits a crime? You just do street justice. Right? So I would hope that people would be nice. We really need to be kind to each other because honestly, everybody is just trying to do do their job and do it to the best of their abilities. And even when you have, the accused before me, I always tell people you you don’t know what that person’s life story is. There are some cases that I had as a CPS attorney, and I represented children. And I always tell everybody, look.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:36:47]:
I already know this child is going to have a bad life. And unless they 100% say I’m changing, I’m doing this, they’re going to end up waiting for my case to be calling something else. And I hear the name, and I tell his attorney, hey, I can tell you things about this if he he wants me to tell you things about his life. I said, but his life was horrible. He’s like, what? Really? I’m like, yes. I said, but see if he wants me to talk to you about it. And if he does, I will. And so I did.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:37:26]:
He’s like, oh my gosh. I had no idea. So when people stand before you, you never know the trauma they’ve been through and what has gone on with their lives. So we should really try to be more understanding and sympathetic and not just fly off the handle and say, oh, what a horrible person. You know, you don’t know where they’ve been.

Jen Hardy [00:37:50]:
Yeah. That’s that’s true. And, you know, the things that some people grow up thinking are normal, they’re not normal, but they don’t know.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:37:56]:
Yeah.

Jen Hardy [00:37:56]:
They don’t know. So, yeah, that’s that’s really good. Okay. Now for some more of the fluffy stuff, the flowers on your desk.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:38:04]:
Yes.

Jen Hardy [00:38:04]:
There’s always fresh flowers. And I thought it would be better for you to tell about the flowers and why.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:38:10]:
Alright. So my mom always told me. She said, the most time you will spend is at work and at home. And she’s like, you may end up spending more time at work than you actually do at home, which has always been the case with me. She said, you should have flowers. And she’s like, you should have flowers every week. And so believe it or not, the flowers I get every week, they probably are maybe $20 tops. Right? And she would say, you work hard.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:38:41]:
If you can’t afford to send spend $20 on yourself a week, then why are you working? So that’s why I have flowers. And then some people will give me flowers because I speak at a lot of places. Like, I’ll go speak at senior with senior citizens to talk to them about the law and, you know, maybe when they would think about getting an attorney. And I speak at book fest, that type of thing, and they will end up giving me flowers. I’m like, oh, thanks. So sometimes when it’s like a flower shop, it’s because I’ve spoken at different events and people are like, Hey, here’s the flowers, here’s the flowers. So I’m like, Yeah. And right now, I’m living in a hotel, so I can’t really do anything.

Jen Hardy [00:39:24]:
Okay. And the purse, is it a different purse? It’s not a different purse every day. You put these beautiful purses up, flowers.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:39:32]:
Alright. So let me just tell you about that. I don’t buy any of my purses. Right? My mom actually buys purses for me. So how many I have? I don’t know. My mom gets them for me.

Jen Hardy [00:39:47]:
I love it.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:39:48]:
I saw this. I’m like, oh, thanks, mom, but you don’t have to. She’s like, no. No. No. So yes.

Jen Hardy [00:39:55]:
It’s it’s it’s just me. It’s a it’s a signature thing, and I think right. And another thing along the same lines is, when I first started watching you, I thought you were in your thirties. But then you kept saying something about that whatever time

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:40:07]:
twilight of my life. Yeah.

Jen Hardy [00:40:09]:
And I thought, woah. Woah. Woah. Wait a minute. So your skin care routine is is amazing. It must be. Can you let us in a little bit on that? Because your skin is flawless.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:40:19]:
Okay. See, you’re so awesome because I my mom always says, you’re your worst critic. You’re your worst critic. Because I always think my skin is going through changes. Right? So I’m 56. And what I do my skin routine has changed a little bit because I used to do Biore. I guess that’s b j o r e. So I do use the Biore strips for the nose.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:40:45]:
But now, I realized that since I’ve been at this hotel, my skin hasn’t been moisturized, getting as much moisture as it should be. So now I’ll use LANEIGE. Lanage has a great product. They have the toner. So I use their cleanser, which is the water cleanser. It’s in the blue bottle. And so once you use that, then the next step you use is you use the toner. And the toner is water based, so it really helps with the moisturizer.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:41:16]:
And then they have a vitamin c serum, which I use. So toner I’m sorry, wash, toner, vitamin C serum, and then they have a cream that is

Jen Hardy [00:41:37]:
it glows. And I’m gonna be 56 in

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:41:39]:
Oh, hey.

Jen Hardy [00:41:40]:
There we go. We’re close.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:41:42]:
Yeah. Birth butt.

Jen Hardy [00:41:43]:
Thank you. I know. Isn’t that crazy? Oh my goodness. Yeah. So I didn’t realize

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:41:47]:
skin is beautiful as well. I’m like, what are you talking about?

Jen Hardy [00:41:50]:
I don’t know. I I’ve aged. I age about 30 years in the last 4 years. It was wild. I look like I was 30 when I turned 50. Mhmm. And boom. I don’t know.

Jen Hardy [00:42:00]:
Somehow

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:42:00]:
No. But your skin looks beautiful.

Jen Hardy [00:42:02]:
Oh, I appreciate that. That’s good.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:42:03]:
Because you’re all worst critic. See?

Jen Hardy [00:42:05]:
All worst critic. Oh my goodness. It’s so true.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:42:07]:
But yes. That’s what I use. I had never used toner before. I only started uni using toner probably about a month ago because somebody said, hey. You should use this toner. I’m like, alright. Let me try. And I saw all of these things would, say, oh, lanage lanage.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:42:43]:
Somebody had put LANEIGE cream in the back and I’m like, this feels so great. And I’m like, let me see what that product line is about.

Jen Hardy [00:43:00]:
Now does she live in the same town as you now, or is she still in Shreveport?

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:43:04]:
No. She’s in Shreveport.

Jen Hardy [00:43:06]:
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And as

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:43:07]:
a side note as a side note, so I’ve been living in the hotel, since about October because my house flooded. So little known fact, the hose that goes from the toilet to the wall, you’re supposed to change that out every 10 years. So people check those hoses.

Jen Hardy [00:43:27]:
Really? I didn’t know.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:43:28]:
And you’re supposed to change out the hoses to your washer every 10 years.

Jen Hardy [00:43:33]:
Alright. Well, that’s good to know. Yeah. My house is 60

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:43:36]:
years. Hey. You you need to do it. You gotta do it.

Jen Hardy [00:43:40]:
Okay. Well, shoot. Yeah. I had a ice maker line leak once and flooded the whole downstairs. But, yeah, we had 4 kids in the house and lived in a hotel for a week, and that was enough. Mhmm. I don’t know how I get maybe one person is better, but

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:43:55]:
Oh, my mom said, refer to it as my vacation home. So I’ve been at my vacation home. So that’s how I’m thinking of it.

Jen Hardy [00:44:00]:
There you go. Well, do you have people is it the kind of one where you can have people come in and change out your things every once in a while?

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:44:05]:
Oh, yes.

Jen Hardy [00:44:06]:
Oh, well, so there we go.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:44:08]:
Oh, I come back and I’m like, oh my gosh. Somebody cleaned the bathroom and the bed. Yay. Yeah. That’s nice.

Jen Hardy [00:44:15]:
That’s nice. Well, the that is the things that I really wanted to touch on. Is there I don’t know. Life in general?

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:44:28]:
Oh, well, life in general, I will tell you. Aging is great. And I know some people will think of aging because this is fabulous. Over 50. 50. And people like, oh my gosh. No. But, hey, either you’re gonna age or you’re dead.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:44:43]:
Right? I I think you learn so much, and you really start getting your life together, and you learn what’s important. Right? And you can move about. But one thing you should always do, this is what an attorney told me. He said, Stephanie, if something were to happen and this is when I was maybe I was in my thirties or I just turned 30, and I never took a vacation. It was like work, work, work, And I would be working on Saturdays. I would work on Sundays. I would always see my clients at the jail on Saturday, and I would walk to the jail and visit them even if their case wasn’t set on a specific day just to let them know they hadn’t, been forgotten. So he said, Stephanie, if you were to die tomorrow, you know, I would miss you terribly.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:45:39]:
But what do you think would happen? You know, me, I’m thinking he’s about to say something flowery, like, they’re gonna shut the city down. Everybody’s gonna be in tears and distraught, and we just don’t know how we’re gonna go on without you. And he said, Stephanie, I will miss you dearly, but they’re gonna say, okay. Who’s taking her cases next? And I think, you know, of course, people have to work because I understand financially, you just can’t, like, I’m taking off going to Europe or something. But you need to be able, if you can, just take one day off and do absolutely nothing. If you can take just plan to take one day off every 3 months if possible and just do absolutely nothing. Don’t clean the house. Don’t, do the dishes, just walk about, exhale, and enjoy life.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:46:36]:
Even if it’s just for one day. And so what ended up happening to me is, and you can tell we were young, on a flight, $300 round trip. So we were like, oh, look, we’re going to Paris. And it was my first time going to Paris. I was spending probably, like, $200 a day because, you know, seems like play money because it’s so big. And so then I said, you know what? I need to go back to see if I really love Paris or if I was just living like I was extremely wealthy and I was not. So then I went back the next year. I’m like, oh, man.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:47:32]:
I love this. And then until COVID hit, I was going every single year. So believe it or not, if you wanna have a good time in Paris for 9 days, people think it’s, like, super, super expensive. For airfare and hotel, it’s $1500 for 9 days. And if you can start setting that aside and just look at some place where you’re like, you know what? I always want you to go there. Start making a plan of how you’re gonna get there and then just enjoy it. Like, I realized that money is tight because believe it or not, people think attorneys are multimillionaires. Every attorney you see is a billionaire.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:48:11]:
But on the criminal side, defense attorneys are not millionaires and billionaires. You’re just doing it because this is your passion and this is what you love, but set aside some time, some money to do one thing that you want to do. That that’s my advice and you’ll enjoy it.

Jen Hardy [00:48:31]:
Yeah, I think that’s great. And and it’s true about age right? And there’s all this antiaging stuff. Well, yeah, if you don’t age, you’re dead. So we might as well you know? And I think a lot of women, when we be when we turn 50, we we get our voice for some that we we just finally can say no. No. Or this is what I wanna do and move on, and I think it’s so wonderful. But I love that about going and doing the things. Right? Because if not now, when you gonna go?

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:48:59]:
Oh, and drink plenty of water.

Jen Hardy [00:49:03]:
I love those cups, those Bubba cups. Those are my favorite. Is that

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:49:06]:
Oh, gosh. And you know what the best thing about it too is they do not you don’t have the condensation.

Jen Hardy [00:49:12]:
Yeah.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:49:12]:
I’ve had a cup that I’m supposed to be drinking. I’m trying to drink, you know, all this water during the day, but the condensation is a killer. So I’m like, okay. I’m going back to Bubba.

Jen Hardy [00:49:25]:
Well, in those, you can put the big straws, so you can drink a smoothie with a fat straw in it.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:49:30]:
Oh, I didn’t think about that.

Jen Hardy [00:49:32]:
Yes. And you can put a boba straw in there if you’re into that sort of thing. But, yeah, you can because I’ve had the same smoothie every morning for 8 years. It’s ridiculous. But those are the one cup that I can use.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:49:41]:
Awesome. Oh, and the other thing, if you all are in San Antonio, they have the book fest that’s going on April 13th. I’m always one of the escorts for the authors, which is great.

Jen Hardy [00:49:52]:
Well, that’s fun.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:49:53]:
Yeah. Oh, it’s a lot of fun.

Jen Hardy [00:49:56]:
Oh, I wanna go.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:49:57]:
Yeah. And you have authors from all over the world who are who come here for that book fest, and you get to see of course, they have a lot of activities for the children, and you get to see the children. And I get to shop for books for my niece, which even though she’s only 2, I’m like, should she be reading War and Peace now? What’s going on?

Jen Hardy [00:50:15]:
That’s so funny.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:50:16]:
My and my brother’s like, Stephanie. She’s finally starting to say a couple of sentences. Let’s not rush her. I’m

Jen Hardy [00:50:24]:
like, okay. Yes. And you have fun things. You have the fiesta and all kinds of great things down there.

Judge Stephanie Boyd [00:50:30]:
Yes. But the fiesta, sometimes I’m here for it. Usually, I’m not because I, my mom’s birthday is April 22nd, so I usually go back to see her. But I do have Fiesta medals. So if people want Fiesta medals, if you will send me, self addressed stamp I mean, sorry, self addressed envelope, then I can mail it back to you. Otherwise, I would send it and say, oh, I’ll send it for you, but that gets to be extremely expensive when you’re sending it to everybody. So you can get them while they last.

Jen Hardy [00:51:09]:
There we go. Awesome. Okay. Well, thank you again for joining me. This has been so amazing. I appreciate you taking the time to join us, and, I look forward to talking to you again soon. Oh, thank you so much. It has been a joy.

Jen Hardy [00:51:22]:
I, absolutely love it. Oh my goodness. Is a judge Boyd fabulous or what? There’s just something about her. She’s got this amazing endearing personality, but also she is honestly about as wise as Solomon. I have been watching court cases like crazy, and I’ve never seen anyone quite like her. So the link is in the show notes. You’ve got to go watch some of her courts. She’s amazing.

Jen Hardy [00:51:48]:
And she’s just a genuinely great human being. And I love that Judge Boyd spills the tea. Honorable people like her is what the world needs more of. And that’s why I’m sharing her. I just needed you to see her. And I know you’re gonna love what we’ve got going on next week. So stay tuned and stay fabulous.