By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
May 4, 2011

Judge Wayne Cagle isn’t another Judge Judy.

This well-mannered judge greets each defendant with a pleasant “good afternoon.”

There’s no condescending tone, no brashness.

Talking to the defendants, he uses a gentle, yet authoritative voice.

“Sounds like you’ve gotten it all taken care of, which is wonderful. Now, do you need some time to pay the fine?” he asks a defendant.

For 21 years, Cagle has served as Kansas City’s housing court judge, listening to property maintenance and nuisance code violations, along with cases that involve dangerous buildings, flood control, mobile homes, fire safety and zoning and building codes.

On April 30, he retired.

Cagle grew up in Kansas City and described his younger self as a bookworm who valued school.

“I loved sandlot baseball. You don’t see very much of that anymore,” he said.

Cagle didn’t originally plan to become a lawyer or a judge.

It wasn’t until his junior year of college that he decided to pursue a career in law.

“I took a political science course and really liked it,” he said. “It turned my head towards law.”

However, he continued with his current major and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.

To earn money for law school, he worked as an engineer for Standard Oil Co., now Chevron, in El Segundo, Calif., and later as a chemist for Armco Steel in old Northeast. He also worked one summer as an industrial hygienist for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“I did something few law students do. I made some good money during the summers,” he said.

After graduating from law school at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Cagle and his wife, Perri, moved to Decatur, Ill., for Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), a program designed to fight poverty. While there, Cagle worked for a legal aid agency and handled cases regarding social security, disability and welfare. Following his year-long service to VISTA, Cagle worked as a law clerk for a Missouri Supreme Court judge, as a lawyer for a federal agency and finally opened his personal practice in 1979 in Kansas City.

When the city approached him about working as a city housing code prosecutor, Cagle said yes.

For Cagle, it was an avenue to advocate for the neighborhoods and improve the quality of life.

“When I started prosecuting, there wasn’t a housing court,” he said. “The housing cases were consolidated on dockets and those dockets were rotated from judge to judge on the Kansas City Municipal bench. There are studies that show if you have one judge that sees all the defendants and the judge gains some expertise in the housing codes, he will be more effective. The judge will recognize repeat offenders.”

It was Cagle, along with others on the city’s Property Maintenance Advisory Committee, that proposed creating a separate housing court for Kansas City.

The committee proposed the concept to the city council in the mid-1980s and Kansas City voters approved the charter amendment, adopting it on March 31, 1987.

On Dec. 10, 1990, Cagle became the second housing court judge for Kansas City.

Asked what he enjoyed about his job as housing court judge, he said, “Solving problems. It’s possible to improve a house, perhaps a block, perhaps an entire neighborhood by effective code enforcement…

“As a prosecutor and as a judge, I have seen the efforts of code enforcement bear fruit. We’ve seen people paint their house, put a new roof on, repair the porch, pick up trash around the house, cut weeds, and all that leads to a better home and hopefully, a better neighborhood and community.”

With a smile he added, “I get to have the final say in the case. The prosecutor job had some facets that I enjoyed, too – you get to determine some prosecution policies – you don’t always get to control the policies as the judge, but you do have the final say in what happens in the case.”

Cagle’s most memorable case occurred early in his career in 1994. In that case, he imposed jail sentences totaling more than 3 1/2 years and fines totaling $12,500 for 25 violations against one defendant. The defendant was an absentee landlord and chronic offender, Cagle said.

“After the sentences were reported in the media, defendants seemed to take the code enforcement process much more seriously,” Cagle said.

When asked to describe himself as a judge, he paused for moment.

“I’ll leave it for other people to judge the judge,” he said.

He paused again.

“I try to be fair. I try to listen to both sides. I try not to make up my mind until all the evidence is in.”

Every Friday, Cagle called the housing court docket, which he began at precisely 12:30 p.m.

Throughout his career, he’s presided over 100,000 housing code cases and at one time, averaged 1,500 cases per month.

“I love hearing those kinds of cases,” he said. “Sometimes I’m at my happiest, other than being around my wife and daughter, when I’m in court hearing housing cases. Yeah, you can get tired, but it’s a good tired.”

Asked what misconceptions the public has about his job, he said, “There are many. First of all, I think one of the most significant misconceptions folks have is that all the bad property in Kansas City is owned by the people on the east and west coast. In fact, most of the property in Kansas City that’s the subject of code enforcement actions is owned by Kansas Citians.”

Another misconception involves fines, he said. Some citizens believe he fines both the wealthy and poor the same.

“That’s just not so,” he said. “If I determine that somebody is poor and they live in the piece of property they own, then they’re going to get a break when it comes time for sentencing because my philosophy has always been the fine process shouldn’t force someone out of their home if they’re making an effort to comply with the ordinances.”

The most Cagle can fine someone for a violation is $1,000. However, if a defendant has no prior convictions and is working to solve the problem, he fines him or her the minimum of $85.

One defendant pleaded guilty to several code violations April 23 and told Cagle, “Thank you judge for working with me.”

Cagle commended the man’s “great work” and wished him “good luck.”

Now, with the road to retirement ahead of him, Cagle plans to pursue several interests.

One of those includes coaching middle schoolers for the Science Olympiad Program, a national program designed to test a student’s knowledge in various areas of science. Currently a chemistry coach at his daughter’s former middle school, he plans to expand the Science Olympiad Program to other area middle schools.

He also plans to publish both fiction and nonfiction books, including a nonfiction book about Kansas City’s code enforcement process and Kansas City’s Municipal Court.

“I’ll write about what I know about, which is law and municipal court,” he said. “I think I’ve got a good novel in me.”