Man with Jefferson Ties Appointed to Maine District Court

Governor Paul LePage administered the oath of office to seven new judges and justices May 2, including one new judge who grew up in Jefferson and graduated from Lincoln Academy.

In a ceremony at the Kennebec County Courthouse, Maine District Court Judges Andrew Benson, of Athens, Barbara Raimondi, of Auburn, William Schneider, of Durham, Eric Walker, of Belmont, and Lance Walker, of Falmouth, and Maine Superior Court Justices Daniel Billings, of Bowdoinham, and Robert Mullen, of Waterville, took the oath of office.

The oaths for Schneider and Billings were ceremonial as LePage had given the men their oaths April 15 and April 4, respectively.

LePage said many applications were reviewed in the judicial nomination process, and the applicants selected “are the best of the best in their fields.”

Chief Justice Leigh Saufley, of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, praised LePage for his nominations throughout his term, which includes the appointment or reappointment of 29 of the 60 people that sit on Maine’s courts.

“The Governor has maintained a non-partisan approach to the nomination of judges that will ensure competent, fair, neutral and accessible judges for Maine people far into the future,” Saufley said. “One of the most significant and lasting responsibilities of any governor is to choose carefully the people who are nominated to the position of a judge. Judges have a profound impact on individuals’ lives and on their communities. Their nominations must be undertaken thoughtfully.”

“Judges who accept the oath of office will be called upon to make some of the hardest decisions we ever ask human beings to make,” Saufley said.

Judge Eric Walker was born on Long Island, N.Y. but moved to Jefferson with his parents when he was around eight years old.

Mostly recently Walker served as deputy district attorney under District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau in Belfast, but started out working at the Bond family’s hardware and general stores in Jefferson, painting houses, mowing lawns, and “even selling nightcrawlers” as a teenager, Walker said.

Graduating from Lincoln Academy in 1985, Walker went on to study at Norwich University in Vermont with hopes of attaining a commission as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force.

When it became known Walker had physical issues that would preclude his becoming a pilot, he declined to accept a commission and instead went on to study at the New England School of Law in Boston.

Walker held several internships while in law school, the most significant of which was at the district attorney’s office in Wiscasset, where he worked with then-Assistant District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau, and then-District Attorney William Anderson, now a Maine Superior Court justice.

“I found that to be fascinating work. Really, it was just amazing,” Walker said.

There were no openings in the district attorney’s office when Walker graduated in 1992, and he returned to practice law out of an office in his parent’s Jefferson home.

“I mostly did court-appointed criminal work here in Augusta, I did work in Bath, Wiscasset, Rockland, mainly; just did a circuit. I put 50,000 miles on my car in the first year,” Walker said.

Walker eventually became an assistant district attorney in Rockland in 1994 and shifted to Belfast in 1997, where he served for 14 years before his promotion to deputy district attorney.

Becoming a judge was not something Walker had in mind during his career.

“You work so hard in the job I just left, you don’t have time sometimes to think about other jobs,” he said.

However, when two different district court judges encouraged him to apply within a few months, Walker gave the prospect some serious thought and discussed the pros and cons with his family.

“You know the job so well as a prosecutor for 20 years; it’s close to home, a 10 minute drive for me, I’m able to work my hours to make it as family-friendly as much as I can so I can see my kids’ plays, ball games, all the graduations and not miss that, so that was the concern that I had: ‘Am I going to start missing these things?'” Walker said.

“I don’t want to become a good judge and then be a lousy father, or a lousy husband, I don’t think that’s a fair trade,” he said. “But I’ve talked to a lot of judges and they’ve assured me they’ll work with you on that.”

Walker first interviewed for a judge’s seat in Ellsworth about a year and a half ago but was not nominated. This time through, he interviewed with the Judicial Selection Committee in January; was nominated by LePage Feb. 8, and was confirmed by the Senate April 4.

As it was in his earlier positions, Walker said he is focused on the task at hand.

“I’m not thinking beyond this job at this point, and I’ve known a lot of really good district court judges in my career, and [I may] just want to remain in the district court. I see the good work they do,” Walker said. “I just want to be the best district court judge I can be, and we’ll see where that goes from there.”

Walker expects he will initially be placed outside of his current district – possibly in Bangor or Augusta – and will not return to Belfast for several years.

“It would be awkward obviously for me to go back,” Walker said. “There are still cases I’ve worked on in the pipeline, and I can’t have anything to do with those.”

It will take time for those cases to work their way through the system, Walker said.