ALL RISE: Popular Hampshire Superior Court Clerk Jekanowski retiring
Published: 12-29-2024 11:08 AM |
NORTHAMPTON — Inside his Hampshire Superior Court office, Harry Jekanowski Jr. produces an old photo of himself, taken in 1983 for an article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
The photo shows a young Jekanowski, then a newly-appointed assistant clerk at the county courthouse, assisting former Clerk of Courts Norma June Thibodo with the court’s very first public access computer.
“I had hair back then,” said Jekanowski in a recent interview, delivering some of the self-deprecating, caustic wit he’s become known for during his 41 years working at Hampshire Superior Court. “We’ve come a long way with computers and how we rely on them. When they go down, we go down.”
Jekanowski, who took over as clerk of courts from Thibodo in 1994 and has been elected to five consecutive six-year terms, will be step down from his role this week after a lifetime of service in the court system. Though an elected position, Jekanowski has been unopposed through the entirety of his tenure.
“I have no idea why not, because I’m not that bright,” he said.
It might have something to do with the fact that in his long career, Jekanowski has cemented himself as a cornerstone of both the court system and the greater community within Hampshire County. Not only has he become one of the most recognizable faces in the courtroom, but he also is recognized in the community for playing Santa Claus in the Florence Holiday Parade and Look Park’s Christmas festivities.
In 2023, Jekanowski was awarded the James Brennan Award by the Northampton St. Patrick’s Association for his service in both the community and courtroom (despite Jekanowski himself being of Polish, not Irish heritage, an irony not lost on him).
“A person’s reputation always says a lot about them,” said Elisha East, who works with Jekanowski in the clerk’s office as a case coordinator. “Before I accepted this position, I was already told by multiple people he’s a great person and a great person to work for. When I had my interview I could already tell he was a good person.”
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From a young age Jekanowski showed interest in a legal career. His father, Harry Jekanowski Sr., had been a judge, first in the district court and then in the probate court in Hampshire County, and his son inherited his inclination for law. The junior Jekanowski attended Boston College, before graduating from Suffolk University Law School and passing the bar in 1979.
“Everybody used to just travel down to Boston, and the group en masse would take the oath of office,” Jekanowski recalled. “John Powers was the Supreme Judicial Court Clerk at the time, and he would always tell everybody, ‘I want you to remember one thing. And the one thing I want you to remember is that a judge can hurt you, but a clerk can kill you.’ And it’s not until I became a clerk myself that I really understand what that meant.”
What Powers meant, Jekanowski explained, is that a clerk can be a vital resource for lawyers on what they can expect in any given case. With a good rapport, a clerk can provide attorneys on what they can expect with a certain judge, or how they should proceed given a certain set of circumstances.
“Some of them would say, ‘Listen, I’m not getting the results that I want. Should I file a motion or should I do something differently?’ And I would consult them, and they sometimes they would take it, sometimes they wouldn’t,” Jekanowski said. “Apparently, I was helpful to a lot of lawyers who are now judges when they first started. I’m getting a lot of thank you cards like that.”
Jekanowski has presided over countless cases in his more than 40 years in clerking, but there are a few notable ones that stick out. One of them was the case of Kenneth Phoenix, a Belchertown State School employee who in 1988 was found guilty for the killing of his boss, Raymond Green, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The primary evidence in the case was a single fingerprint on a paper bag believed to have hidden the murder weapon the prosecutors said matched with Phoenix.
“A lot of questions still swirl around to this day whether, in fact, he was innocent or guilty, but it was very impactful,” Jekanowski said. “All cases are impactful, but that one had a particular effect on me. I still think about it to this day, just because it was so contentious.”
Though Jekanowski has seen his fair share of grisly cases, he said it’s the cases where the defendant shows rehabilitation that he’s most grateful to have been a part of during his time in the courts.
“The most gratifying thing is when you see somebody that is convicted, they’re put on probation, and they complete that probation process successfully, and they’ve done everything they can, and their probation expires and the judge will congratulate the defendant for a job well done,” he said. “That person a lot of times has been an addict of some sort, whether it’s alcohol or drug related, and they overcome their addiction. That is a very, very great moment that we all share.”
He also credited his staff for weathering the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition to holding court cases over Zoom, crediting them for preventing a backlog of cases in the courts during a period of online only hearings.
“Though we didn’t do trials, we were very active by Zoom and sometimes in person, doing pleas, motions to suppress and motions to dismiss,” he said. “We kept the train moving, and I’m very proud of the staff and the way they pulled up their bootstraps.”
During his time in office, Jekanowski was known to seldom take time off or vacation, and plans to finish his duties until the end of the year. But once he’s retired, he wants to take it easy, with plans for an Alaskan cruise with his wife and focus on his hobbies of golf and fly fishing.
“It’s going to be strange for everyone to be here without him here every day,” said Melissa Doran, the first assistant clerk for Hampshire Superior Court. “There’s not many people who work in the legal community that don’t know him in that position. So it’s going to be a big change for everyone. But it’s well deserved.”
Jekanowski’s position as the court clerk will be filled by Dan Carey, the former Easthampton state representative, who will take the oath of office on New Year’s Day following Jekanowski’s retirement.
“He [Carey] will do a great job. But there’s a bit of a learning curve to this, and it’s going to take a while,” Jekanowski said. “I’ve been here 41 years, and I still learn something new every day.”
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.