FORT MYERS — Fort Myers native Judge Hugh Starnes has shared some interesting stories with us about his life on the Corkscrew ranch. After learning about the captivating characters and the hardships that were a part of the Corkscrew culture, it is time to take a look at the other element that comprised the Judge’s extraordinary life: the courtroom.

It was in the courtroom where the Judge spent most of his adult life, and it was here where he met someone who was perhaps the most interesting character in his life story. Actually, this one person proved to be several different characters! Join me as I help the Judge recount this other aspect of his fascinating life.

Judge Starnes attended the University of Florida where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 1962. Following in his father’s footsteps, he then went off to law school. Fortunately for the Judge, he had a position waiting for him in his dad’s law firm when he finished school. He spent thirteen years with this firm practicing real property law.

A position for the Circuit Judgeship in Lee County opened up while Judge Starnes was still practicing. He was one of three individuals who was nominated for this position, and of course we all know that he received that position.

Hugh Starnes spent the next thirty years of his life as a judge, with twenty years focused on family law. It was in this field where he was able to help develop a new way to practice family law, or what he calls a “leading edge way.”

“We tried to squeeze out adversarial practices of law and use more productive methods,” the Judge tells me.

Judge Starnes and his team developed the Association of Family Law Professionals which focuses on an interdisciplinary method of practice. Lawyers, mental health specialists, and CPAs are some of the types of people who were a part of this association. It is respected on a national level and is actually utilized as a model for other organizations in the country.

While it led to wonderful benefits for most of the families, not everyone agreed with the tactics of this model organization. Judge Starnes recalls a story about a certain person who was disappointed with the outcome of his case. This man actually carried around a billboard for three to four years that stated “Judge Starnes is unfair to fathers and children.” It was situations like this that made the weekends on the ranch in Corkscrew seem like therapy to the Judge.

Before he found his niche in family law, Judge Starnes took on various other cases within the first years of his judgeship. The most memorable case involved the murder of woman in a hotel room.

Hugh Starnes had been a judge for less than five years when the criminal case of Juanita Maxwell came up. Maxwell was a maid in a local hotel who killed another woman staying at the hotel. The woman had accused the maid of stealing, so Maxwell hit her over the head with a lamp that knocked her dead.

All the evidence placed Maxwell in the guilty seat, but her young public defender had a different argument. He had just seen the movie “The Many Faces of Eve” which was about a woman who had multiple personality disorder. The public defender was confident that his client was also suffering from this disorder, so he brought up a competency hearing.

This strange twist in the case caused the attorneys to agree to have a non-jury trial, and it also drew national attention; it was one of the first cases to feature television cameras in the courtroom.

To enhance his argument, Maxwell’s defender brought in a therapist from the state hospital to attempt to bring out one of his client’s other personalities. Using the techniques of hypnosis, the therapist drew out the personality that called herself Wanda Weston. In just mere moments, this simple, timid maid named Juanita Maxwell had transformed into a pot-smoking party girl. Maxwell’s defender argued that it was this dominant personality – Wanda Weston – who actually killed the woman in the hotel.

This heated case grew even hotter as the state claimed that Maxwell was faking the whole thing. As it turns out, Maxwell really did have multiple personality disorder as a result from a childhood of prostitution. She was later found “not guilty” by way of insanity. Maxwell was taken to a mental facility where she spent many years recovering from her disorder.

After thirty years of being a judge, this is obviously Judge Starnes’ most memorable case. It was, after all, one of the first to bring cameras into the courtroom!

This has been a wonderful journey into the life of Judge Hugh Starnes and I would like to thank him for sharing these memories with us. It is always a pleasure to sit back and learn about the local stories and the hidden treasures of history in our own backyard. I hope you all have enjoyed this as much as I have!