Ronald A. Wilson, 43, was nominated as Chief Magistrate over the city of South Tucson on March 3, 2002. From his Sixth Avenue office, he recounts the exact date because it was such a milestone for him.
“I was the first African-American presiding judge in my position in the state of Arizona,” Wilson said. “It was a great honor and a huge achievement, and it speaks volumes about the city of South Tucson and the people who appointed me.”
Wilson earned his bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University, and his jurist doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law in New England. A rare auto-immune disorder, Sarcoidosis, forced him to move to Arizona’s dryer climate in 1999, where he began working with the Tucson Prosecutor’s Office.
“I miss the change of seasons,” said Wilson, “but I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t walk and I was in pain. I didn’t believe that a change of climate could make this much of a difference.”
Wilson has served as a professor at the University of Arizona and a chairman of the American Bar Association Mental Health Courts Committee. He’s the founder of the Alcumus Institute: a national youth outreach, mentoring and crime-prevention program. Wilson has also received both the NAACP Rosa Parks Living History Makers Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Award in 2006.
Despite Wilson’s resume, the office in which he does most of his work is an old storage closet at South Tucson’s municipal courthouse. He doesn’t own his own car, and borrows his stepfather’s old Cadillac to get to work until he can afford a minivan for his family. Wilson doesn’t seem to mind.
“One of the reasons I love being a judge in South Tucson is that I’m able to improve the quality of life for people here,” he said. “I’m very fortunate and blessed to be able to help people out.”
For Wilson, however, the gavel is heavier some days than others. His toughest cases involve the mentally ill. Wilson was raised in foster homes with siblings who suffered from mental illness, themselves. According to Wilson, he was raised with more than 400 foster brothers and sisters throughout his childhood, about 90 percent of which had some form of learning disorder or mental illness.
“These cases usually involve small, petty, quality of life crimes. People aren’t getting the help they need, and they self-medicate, drink, take drugs, and get arrested before they come to see me. It’s really hard for me to see them in front of me.”
Wilson works closely with South Tucson’s community to prevent crime and help people before they come to his court. Wilson enjoys being able to connect people to social services and programs that can help them; and such agencies can refer people to Wilson.
“If someone has an outstanding warrant, it won’t be dismissed—the law is the law. But I try to help them if I can,” Wilson said. “I would like for people to think I’m a fair, merciful, compassionate judge. If you treat people with dignity, respect and fairness, they’ll usually reciprocate.”
