Mary Jane Henderson stood at the front of Central Baptist Church in Daytona on Sunday afternoon, of all days, and waxed poetic about how wonderful her 19-year career on the bench has been, laughing off her own daily tardiness as a mirror-image of her Alabama country doctor father and how, and most of all, loving a husband she has in Clay Henderson. Mercifully for those really in the know, her time at the "pulpit" was mercifully limited to three minutes.
The charade and embarrassment that is Mary Jane Henderson shone brightly on a hot, sweaty afternoon in a house of worship where the 30 or so candidates for office far outnumbered "ordinary" people as Mary Jane has so eloquently described the people in her courtroom in her towering ads in the Daytona Beach News-Journal. It is this fallen newspaper's pages where Clay, the prominent environmental attorney, is given rock-star status.
Clay celebrity status wasn't lost on Mary Jane, who spent almost as much time talking about him and their marriage than the reason she and other candidates were invited -- to talk about their campaigns. In reality, she was defining herself through Clay and family values of marriage and family, without a mere mention of the criminals she's gone out of her way to help away from the bench.
I was really rooting for Mary Jane to use the opportunity to put her sordid past in the past in a place many of us God-fearing Christians view as sacred, a place where prayer and forgiveness are paramount. Mary Jane had the opportunity to explain that she had made some honest mistakes in judgment as a 19-year jurist, cavorting with not one, but two convicted felons, both in the Big House. She could have explained that in spite of these misgivings, she's learned her lesson and wants another chance to be a judge who puts integrity and honor first. Imagine how that could have carried forward, not only to those in the church, but to the public at large through the media there.
Instead, she played the role of entrenched candidate, on the run instead of one running. She had the pulpit all to herself without her opponent, Robert Sanders Jr., far away in Deltona, putting up signs and talking to the voting public directly.
I've known Mary Jane for 15 years and her understanding and application of the law is something few could argue about. In those early years, she went against the grain, challenging the legal establishment by allowing those arrested for DUI to avoid an overnight stay in jail, an issue that the Florida Court of Appeal ruled was not appropriate, but she enjoyed a sort of cult status.
There was another side to Henderson, though that had been a point of consternation for years: She is habitually late for court and works through lunch, which means court personnel have to wait on her and skip lunch as well. She dismissed her actions in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, a real metro newspaper, as "Henderson Time."
Clay's newspaper connections are limited to the former Mighty Metro that sits half-staffed in Holly Hill so he was unable to hold Mary Jane's hand tin front of journalists who aren't afraid to ask the tough questions.
The Orlando Sentinel, unlike the Daytona Beach News-Journal, does endorsements. The Sentinel had no problem giving its full endorsement to Sanders after meeting with Mary Jane.
But on Sunday, Mary Jane was in the Lord's House, and instead of acknowledging for the first time in public that she was wrong to try to manage the affairs of a common criminal with a rap sheet that includes 60 arrests and coming to the aid of a dirty ex-cop who shot an unarmed man in the back who wrote to her from prison to help his mother straighten out her bank checks, she was silent. Instead, it was prototypical damage control. Place the happy marriage card. Put Clay's name out there as a prop in hopes of assuring the audience the power couple were as strong as ever.
So were the array of judicial candidates for circuit court and their spouses and supporters in the pews, many of them rolling their eyes, bowing their heads and smiling sarcastically, a few shaking their heads. And what of her campaign challenger Sanders?
He's portrayed by Mary Jane and her loyal supporters as a slimy criminal defense attorney all too eager to get criminals off, especially those facing the death penalty.
The truth is, Sanders, the tough-talking death penalty specialist in the courtroom and among the circuit's most dedicated lawyers, is the kind of attorney circuit judges relish in the courtroom because he's on time and represents his accused clients as vigorously as any top-notch trial lawyer would be expected to do.
The difference between the two is Sanders works to ensure the worst of the worst accused get a fair trial. And what of Mary Jane, who has never ascended to circuit court and away from her "ordinary people?
Mary Jane, the impartial judge, well she's personally come to the aid of convicted killers, low lifes who would take an innocent man's life by shooting him in the back.
Because Sanders has campaigned on Mary Jane's record of shame, or as some are calling it her reprimand of shame, Mary Jane, supposedly tough on crime, goes out of her way to limit her time as a jurist on the bench, even though the Supreme Court made it clear in her reprimand she is a judge 24 hours a day.
In Volusia County where the rich and famous, the politically connected with deep pockets, the elite run in the same circles, Mary Jane and Clay are still the ultimate power couple, even with all of the ever-growing whispers here in New Smyrna Beach.
Regardless of Tuesday's primary where the Hendersons have rallied their high-powered friends (check out Facebook and you'll see a prominent County Council member up for re-election yucking it up with Clay), Mary Jane's status as "reprimand du jour" will not fade.
Even if Sanders comes up short with an expected small voter turnout, he's already a winner, even if he doesn't have the connections of a power couple like Mary Jane and Clay.
Sanders, at least, had the guts to challenge a sitting judge, a rarity in this circuit, and an arrogant and disgraced one in Mary Jane Henderson, who had a chance to leave the bench after her term this year with some dignity.
She needs this election to justify her career, to show it wasn't as bad as some made it out to be. After all, she wasn't accused of a crime: Just poor judgment off the bench.
Mary Jane's judgment off the bench wasn't confined to Wheeler. She helped an even bigger dirt-bag: Former Edgewater cop Ronald Robbins, the one who shot an unarmed man in the back because the victim looked at his prostitute-girlfriend the wrong way.
Robbins, a trained marksman and cop who was forced to resign months before the homicide, used the fleeing man as target practice. Robbins sent to prison wrote to his dear friend Mary Jane from his prison cell, the one authority figure he knew would do his bidding for him as he rots in prison.
Mary Jane had to seek re-election after all of this. Her pride was on the line. Simply going away was something she would not embrace.
Mary Jane, who looks down at the "ordinary" people in her courtroom from her elevated bench, thought she could do what no court system or jail could ever do -- reform a lowlife like Wheeler. The same man, who in police reports, told New Smyrna Beach police that he and Mary Jane had a sexual affair, an accusation she has vehemently denied. The same man, who barged into the courthouse demanding his money and screaming expletives.
And while no "ordinary" person could expect to just walk into a judge's chambers, Wheeler had special treatment. He also was intoxicated. And it took four deputies to throw him out of the courthouse.
Any "ordinary" person would have been arrested on the spot, but not Henry Wheeler. He had special treatment. It didn't matter that he also showed up at Mary Jane and Clay's home, either.
Despite a 911 call from Clay, Mary Jane didn't want Henry Wheeler arrested. After all, he had special treatment.
Wheeler, at the center of a murder investigation, was driving an SUV that was being chased by drug dealers who were firing at the lead vehicle at high speeds through the streets of New Smyrna Beach. The gunfire that woke up the sleeping, struck a passenger who was found dead in the SUV and left abandoned by Wheeler.
Scum like Wheeler and Robbins are part of Mary Jane's shameful legacy, win or lose in today's primary election.
The NSBNEWS.net video above was produced by Sera Frederick.
