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We are reshaping or challenging prevailing perspectives on current events. "Change The Narrative" reflects an intention to not only inform but also inspire listeners to engage with current events thoughtfully and proactively.
Announcer 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program.
Wesley Knight 0:04
The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Dave
Rico White 0:30
and welcome to change the narrative where we encourage diverse perspectives, foster critical thinking, promote positive change and highlight unrepresented stories. So we're joined today with a person that I have just now grown to know, Ray Kennedy, who is a judicial candidate for department one of the city of Las Vegas Municipal Court.
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 0:54
Welcome. Thank you. It is my absolute pleasure to be here.
Rico White 0:57
Whoo, that was a mouthful that I had got out. I'm so glad I got it out this time. It's perfect. You did it? Perfect? Did I Yeah, absolutely I'm impressed. Thank you so much. Hey, tell us a little bit about yourself, you know, like, where you're from, what you're doing, that kind of thing.
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 1:10
Sure. I'm a Midwest gal, born, raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an hour north of Chicago. Chi town. Absolutely right. I joke and say, Look, when they migrated from the south, because my dad's from Philadelphia, Mississippi. My mom's from Savannah, Georgia. Then, you know, some people, most people, stopped in Chicago. Some of them just kept going a little bit. So it's just like a suburb of Chicago, okay, okay, but I was born and raised there, went off to school at the University of Michigan, go blue, go blue. And then went back to Milwaukee and went to Marquette University Law School, and I practiced there for about a decade, and then I moved here to what I consider the greatest city on Earth. And why do you consider it the greatest city? I mean, would you like my top 10, top 100 let me just say this, top five, top five, top five, the weather. First of all, okay, I don't have to shovel sunshine living here. You got that right? Okay, okay, so I got, I got tired of the cold weather. Number two, the Midwest, in particular, the Chicago's and Milwaukee is very segregated, and I don't get that feeling here. You certainly have areas of the city where certain groups might choose to come together. But Never have I ever felt as though I was unwelcome in any part of the city. And I love that the rich diversity here. Number three, we have world class everything. We have world class entertainment, food, shopping. It's amazing. And as a teen, my parents were a little strict, so I didn't get to go to a lot of concerts, really, and I did not. And so every act comes through Vegas, I get to relive those years. And you know, music, it takes you back to that time. It doesn't matter how old you are, you get to go back. Okay, so I've gotten to see all those acts I missed, which is fantastic for me. Okay, number four, of course, is that you can be whoever you want to be in Vegas. Say it again, it is the land of opportunity. It's the land of reinvention. There's just so much here to do. See, be anything which is amazing, okay? And for me, number five, I think it is that I love the fact that we have, you know, so many ways in which you can get involved in our community. We have, what we kind of jokingly say, a part time legislature, okay? And there's pros and cons to that, but one of the pros is you can see your elected officials at the grocery store. That is, they're not untouchable, and that's why, part of why I love, I want to be that kind of public official that you can walk up to and say, hey, you know, I have an idea. Okay? And so I love how accessible folks are here in our community, and it's so easy for you to be able to get involved. So that's just my top five, but I absolutely think we have the greatest city on Earth, and one of my goals is to make Las Vegas Municipal Court the greatest Municipal Court in the country.
Rico White 3:58
Okay, so if we had to talk about some of your background and experience. Can you tell us about your your legal background and the experiences that have prepared you for a role on the bench itself?
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 4:10
Sure. So I've been a lawyer for about 21 and a half years. Yeah, I know. I know. I don't look, you
Rico White 4:17
don't look. No, not
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 4:18
at all, which is a luxury I appreciate okay, but I've been a lawyer for 21 and a half years. About half of that legal time has been advocating for individual clients. I was a criminal defense attorney. I was a public defender for eight years. Oh, that's a tough that is, that's a tough gig. That is a tough gig. And so my my education helped me in doing that, because I say it was about half legal skills and half social work skills, and then the other part of the time advocating for individuals is what I do now. I work at Legal Aid Center. I represent kids in court, and I have the privilege of giving them a voice, okay? And then the other half of my legal career has been advocating for systems change. And so that has been. In family court and in the criminal legal system, and so I used to work at Municipal Court as an administrator, and that's really was the impetus for me deciding to run for Judge.
Rico White 5:10
Okay, so if you had to say, what specific experiences distinguish you from other candidates that are actually running,
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 5:18
so there's several that I think we only have a half an hour. I know. Okay, let me try to pare this down. Tear it down. So right now that I know of there are two candidates that have thrown their hat in the ring for department one, but what I think distinguishes me are a few things. First is education. So beyond just having one bachelor's degree, most people have a bachelor's degree in their law degree. I have two bachelor's degrees. I have a master's degree as well. And I mentioned that master's degree is in social work, okay? In addition to that, it is the experience. So I there's two categories of law. Cases fall into two categories. It's either criminal or civil. Okay, I have experience in both. Okay, that's an advantage. That's an advantage. And when it comes to criminal because that is the majority of the cases that Las Vegas Municipal Court handles. They handle low level criminal cases. I've handled every type of criminal case that you can handle, from the lowest of maybe loitering or jaywalking all the way up to homicides. Oh, wow. And I have experience in doing jury trials in each of those types of cases, okay? And that's different from a trial that just where a judge hears the evidence and makes the decision okay. So that distinguishes me, particularly from most of the judges sitting on Las Vegas municipal court now, but also from my from my opponents. I also have experience in policy development, and so one of the things that I've tried to do with this campaign is to not right? My goal is to get elected, of course, but I also want to educate our community about what judges do, and specifically what Las Vegas Municipal Court judges do, and most people don't know that the judges create the rules for the court so that every person that comes through that court is gonna have to follow those rules. Okay, those are the rules the judges make. Okay? So you want judges up there that have made good rules before, okay? They know how to make good rules, rules that are going to be put into place, implemented and evaluated to make sure that they're actually doing what they need to do to help our community. Okay, I have that kind of experience. I've been doing policy development for over a decade. I also have experience managing people. And again, people don't think about judges as managers or supervisors, but they actually manage the employees who are assigned to their courtroom. And for Las Vegas Municipal Court, that's at least seven people. Okay, you have clerks, you have the equivalent of a probation officer, somebody that's running your specialty court and your Marshal, and I've seen firsthand that if you don't have management experience, that courtroom kind of devolves into what is like a middle school environment. You don't want that. Okay, you don't you don't want that. And what's interesting is I have a friend, Judge Jonathan Cooper, who was elected to North Las Vegas Justice Court. Bench. I sat down with him recently and I said, which I love to ask a lot of judges, what's the biggest surprise that you felt you had after getting elected? And he said, managing people, I wasn't expecting to have to deal with that. Even people who have been doing this, it's a surprise for them. So you have to have that experience. And I've been managing people for 15 years, so I think that distinguishes me. And then lastly, it really is the diversity right Las Vegas Municipal Court has never had a black judge, male or female. We've had it in our Justice Courts. We've had it in our Supreme Court, in our district court, never in Las Vegas Municipal Court.
Rico White 8:36
So you would be the first person or first black judge to hold that office that is period, man or woman, man or woman, that is correct. That's that's significant, okay?
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 8:46
I think it is because I think that our our elected officials should be reflective of the rich diversity in our community, and representation does matter.
Rico White 8:54
Okay, well, look at you all right. Well, let's talk about this. How would you describe your judicial philosophy is, does that kind of
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 9:03
absolutely that makes complete sense. Okay, cool. So I'll start by saying what a lot of judicial candidates say, which is, you know, my philosophy is to treat everyone with dignity and respect. You know, a judge's job is to make sure that the proceedings are fair, that people are granted their due process. Okay, right. Beyond that, though, I think that my job, also, and my philosophy, is to give everyone what is referred to as procedural justice. So procedural justice refers to anybody who comes into your courtroom. It's the way that they feel when they walk out of your courtroom, okay. And what I have learned in representing individual clients is that no matter the outcome, when they feel that they have had their opportunity to be heard, they walk away feeling satisfied and they can reconcile the outcome if they believe that they have had their chance to be heard. Okay? So you have a lot of courts where judges simply want to move the cases along as quickly as possible. Do right? And in some courts, I can understand that when you have a very high caseload, the reality, though, in Las Vegas Municipal Court is that the caseload is not as high as those judges would like you to believe. I was an administrator there. The case filings have been going down for the past decade. They have more time than unfortunately, they allow themselves to give, and I will give those individuals that time to be heard. You have to balance that, of course, but there is no harm in giving someone a few minutes to speak their piece. And when they walk out, they will walk out feeling as though, regardless of the outcome, this person listened to me. I had my day in court, as we like, to say, Okay, and so for me, that's my philosophy. My philosophy is making sure that everyone walks out feeling as though they've been hurt. Okay?
Rico White 10:48
Now, I've watched a lot of TV, and I don't know if that's good or bad when it comes to some of these law shows. So how do you view the balance between enforcing the law and ensuring fairness and justice.
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 11:01
So I'm going to chuck a little bit. I don't watch, I don't watch the shows about lawyers, because it is so unrealistic that I'm yelling at the
Rico White 11:08
TV. So then there we go. There we go.
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 11:12
I'm sure, you know, I have some doctor friends, and they say the same thing. I can't watch those shows because this is not realistic. Okay, so I don't, I don't watch them because they're they don't make any sense to me, but what I will say is, and this kind of goes to that whole thing about educating the public, right? So just very briefly, we have three branches of government, right? The legislative branch makes the laws, the executive branch enforces the laws, the judicial branch interprets the laws, okay, so my job as a judge is not to enforce the law, it is to interpret the law. Okay, okay, so the police and the prosecutors, who are part of the executive branch, they're going to enforce the laws. There's the ones that are going to decide who's getting arrested and who's getting prosecuted once they're before me, as the judge, I'm interpreting the law, right? So my philosophy in terms of balancing the interpretation with justice, right? I look and I say, first, as I interpret this law, laws are written very vaguely intentionally in order to give the individuals who have to interpret it some discretion in interpreting it. Because if a law said, for example, if you steal, you must go to jail for X amount of time, then the person interpreting it in this case, the judge would have no discretion to take into account the differences in the facts between person A and person B. Okay, and most people looking at different facts are going to feel differently about what the punishment or the response to that behavior should be. Most people agree that if individual a was stealing food because they are starving, right? That that, that the response to that theft should probably be a little bit different than Person B, who decided to steal the latest iPhone just because he didn't want to wait for Christmas when his parents was going to actually interpret that is stealing, stealing, Stealing is stealing, right? Because, because the prosecutor has decided that they're going to enforce that law, right? But how I get to interpret is I get the ability to take those different facts into account, okay, and decide what the response to that stealing should be, okay. And so what I do is I get to listen, and that's the most important thing, right? But if I'm just moving these cases along so fast that I don't give that person the opportunity to tell me what was going on, why they decided to make that decision, then I might just give everybody the same I might respond the same way to everybody's case. I got to listen. Why did you make that decision that day? So my philosophy, my way of balancing that is, one, I have to listen to the facts. And then two, which I think is really important, is I want to know from that individual what justice means to him or her. I want to know from the victim what justice means to them. I'm always going to hear from the prosecutor what they think the justice should be, because they're going to give me a recommendation about what the response should be, what should be the punishment, right? But if you've ever listened to kids in particular, like I go to schools, and I do these talks with kids, and I try to help them understand how the court system works, and we'll do a fake case, and we usually use Goldilocks as the example, right? Because Goldilocks broke into the three bears house, right? She really committed a burglary. She went in there and ate their food and broke their bed and all of this stuff, right? We do that as a mock example, and we say, what, what should the punishment be? Okay? Now, these kids are really different. They're hard on Goldilocks, okay? If you ask them what the punishment should be like, Goldilocks supposed to go to prison, okay? And generally, when you ask people, and this is my experience as a criminal, as a criminal defense attorney, what they think the response should be, they're actually much harder on themselves than any judge. Is okay? Okay? So listening from to them. Well, you know, Mr. Johnson, what do you think I should do in this situation? Right? And listening from the victim. Now. Victim who's had their stuff stolen. Okay, what do you think Justice should be? And that goes back to this procedural justice thing, right? I think too often judges assume what they think Justice should be, and it really should come from the individuals involved in the process. So that's how I balance, how I have to interpret the law, which is, I listen to the facts of the case and justice, which is I seek from the individuals involved what they believe justice in that situation would be, and then I try to take all of that into consideration when I decide what the response to this behavior is going
Rico White 15:35
to be, okay. I heard you mentioned earlier when you were talking about wanting to be that person, that someone can walk up to and somebody can just engage with you, whether it's in a supermarket or whether it's at the gas station. So how do you plan to engage with the community as a judge? Well, I plan
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 15:50
to continue to do exactly what I do now, which is, I do a lot of community service, and I engage with the community in different ways. Okay, so I'm on a couple of different boards in our community, I sit on the board of the foster care Chamber of Commerce, which works with kids who are aging out of foster care to make sure that they can be launched into adulthood successfully. I also sit on the board of a new, hopefully a new, public charter school called purpose Leadership Academy that's going to focus on the needs of our minority students and teaching them project based learning and socio emotional learning. I'm also still connected to the Milwaukee community and Marquette University Law School. I sit on their diversity recruitment committee so that we can recruit diverse talent from across the country to attend Marquette and give them the opportunity to go to law school. And then I do a bunch of just community events, right? I work with a ton of folks on things like community cleanups and teaching our youth about their constitutional rights and how to interact with police when they have an encounter, and all those, yeah, exactly, all those sorts of things like, I tell them, do not watch the YouTube videos and think that that's the way to interact with the police. So I will continue to do that as a judge, and probably even more, because I imagine I'm going to get even more requests from schools and community organizations to come out and speak to folks, but, but that's what I intend to do, is, is to do nothing really different than what I've been doing, which is be extremely involved in the community for the past several years. Okay?
Rico White 17:22
So right now, there are a lot of issues that are facing the courts, good and bad. So what do you see as one of the major challenges facing the Las Vegas Municipal Court, and how would you address them?
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 17:36
One of the things that I think that Municipal Court faces is, I think it's, it's sort of out of touch with the community in a couple of different ways. Okay, I was going to ask you in what ways, one of the ways is, is in the way in which they allow people to to deal with the court's obligations. So I'll give you one example, which is the fine. Okay, so let's say that you had a moving, in fact, a traffic infraction, okay? And you have to pay, you have to pay your fine. Okay? In a lot of circumstances, they want individuals to pay that fine with a credit card. Yes, well, we have or a debit card, right? So it's either, it's either credit card or it's a debit card tied to your your banking account. Okay? We have a large segment of our community that doesn't have a bank account. That's right, okay? And so what we have asked them to do is to go and buy a prepaid card, okay, prepaid credit card, visa or a card? Well, we know that when they have to do that, they have to pay extra for a Visa card, right? If I want to buy $100 Visa card, there's like a $5.95 fee. It sure is to buy that card, I still only get $100 on that card, right? But now that cost me $105.95 which would cost the other person that has a bank that just $100 that's right, okay? And so we're asking people to have to take on an additional fee just to get that card, okay? And what I say is we need to offer additional avenues for payment. We have the technology there, and we already charge individuals a technology fee that was allowed by our city council in order to keep up with technology needs. There's no reason why we can't accept cash, app and Apple Pay and other forms of electronic payment that most of our folks have. The people who are coming through our system are not getting older, they're younger, right? We're not ticketing a bunch of 95 year olds, right? People are not carrying around checkbooks anymore, right? Ask anybody under the age of 30 whether they have a checkbook or or a credit card. Most of them have their cash in, in the in the E world on their phone. They want to, if they have to come in or make that call, they want to be able to do an electronic transfer of their funds. And that's not possible at Municipal Court. That's just one way that we're out of touch. Another way that we're out of touch is, again, I think, in the in the in the individual. Who we have on our bench right? Five of the six judges are former prosecutors, really, that is correct. We do not have any sort of balance of thought or diversity on our bench. So when you walk into and they're all Caucasian, so when you walk into the court right, which I think a huge segment of our community feels the weight of the history of the court system, when they walk in, when they walk in, and then they don't see very many people who look like them, right? There is already a perception that they're not going to get a fair shake. And I think that that is important. We have to acknowledge that with folks so that when they do come in, we are creating because Municipal Court is the court closest to the community. That is right? We are creating an environment where people feel like they are welcome to come in, whether they have business there or not. They are welcome to come in and observe. It is a public forum that they have paid for with their taxes, tax dollars, and if they have business there, that they're going to be given a fair shake, that they see other people who look like them, and there is a level of some level of comfort that they can feel in believing that they're going to be granted or afforded procedural justice and legal justice, okay? And so I think those are the kinds of things that our court needs to deal with, because right now, courts across the country have, there is a crisis of confidence that our communities have in whether or not judges are actually following the law, whether they are in fact, making decisions based on their own personal or political views, and Whether or not people are actually going to get their their rights protected. I think that this is the time where our courts have to take a stand and say, and reiterate, we stand behind the Constitution of the United States, and we, in fact, will follow the law that you will be given a fair outcome when you come into this courthouse.
Rico White 22:01
Okay, so on that note, excuse me, how would you promote diversity and inclusion within the judicial system?
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 22:07
So I think it's important. First, I would vote for me, but I'll be on my ballot, so I'm certainly gonna vote for me, but I would vote for candidates that are reflective of our community's diversity, right? And not just in terms of race or culture, but in terms of socio economic background, because when you have a judge who is, who is determining what the fine is going to be for a particular offense, right, that fine shouldn't be the same amount for everybody, because somebody who walks in making $200,000 a year probably shouldn't have to pay the same amount as somebody Who walks in making a million dollars a year, or this, or a person walking in making $20,000 a year,
Rico White 22:46
right? But isn't a crime? A crime, Sure, absolutely.
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 22:49
I mean, but you have a constitutional right to have an individual determination of what your punishment should be. Okay. That is a constitutional right you have, and judges need to follow that. They need to believe in and make sure that they're following the constitution. So when a person comes in, if the judge has decided that the response to this behavior is that a fine is appropriate, then they are required to determine what your ability to pay that fine is. They need to inquire about your finances, because what will deter you in the future is dependent upon how much you make, right? Exactly. If you make $20,000 and I give you a $200 fine, that's probably going to pinch you enough that you're going to think twice the next time you decide to speed on the city street, okay? But if you make $200,000 that $200 might not be enough to deter you in the future. I understand. So that is why you have to figure out what they're able to pay, and you want to go to the amount that's going to deter their behavior. That is your goal as a judge in responding to that behavior.
Rico White 23:55
Okay, educate a brother. Educator brother.
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 23:59
So you want diversity of thought, but I'll give you one more example. Right? We have marginalized folks who come before the court all the time, right? One of the things that our statute requires is we're supposed to be asking every person who comes through the court, are you a veteran? Why do we why are we supposed to do that? Because we know that, on average, our vets need extra support and help, especially if you have a vet who's gone through combat, who served in who's seen action in a war, right? You want to be able to then say, oh, you're a vet. Okay, let me have an extra chat with you about some of the services that maybe we can wrap around you to provide you with extra support. When I started as an administrator, none of the judges were asking that question, and I had to remind them, hey, this is the law. You all need to be asking that, and it's an important question to ask, right, right? That's the kind of thing that will net I will never forget to ask that and other important questions to make sure that when somebody comes through, we are providing them with the support they need. Because ultimately what we want. Want is for that person to never come back through the courts, the courthouse doors, right? And but you know, when I started as an administrator there, my assumption was that we were all on the same page about why we were there, okay, that we were all there to help people. My assumption was wrong. Okay, you know what happens when we make assumptions?
Rico White 25:19
I can't really say it on air, but can't say it on you
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 25:23
and me. It's you and me, you and me. Yeah, it's not a good idea to do that. Not a good idea. So I can tell you that I am there to help people. Okay, it's been, it's been my goal in every role I've ever had. Okay? And so I will make sure that I'm asking certain questions of folks to make sure that they're getting the services and the help they need.
Rico White 25:43
Okay, so in conclusion, here, because this went fast, I could talk to you like, what day i know i love this, and I try not to interrupt. I like to listen and and give you the platform that's necessary to express your points in your view. So if elected, what do you hope to accomplish during your term on the bench? That's a great question. Well, thank you. I'm glad
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 26:05
I asked so I have, I have a vision for the court, and I have found that not a lot of judicial candidates have a vision for the court, for their role, because I believe, like I'm so in love with the the idea of law, right, as a, as a, as a concept and as an institution, and I have such respect for it that I believe I'm supposed to leave it a little bit better than when I found it Okay, okay. And so I have a vision for our court. I want to create a court that is centered in our community, right, that is innovative, transparent and efficient, and I rarely find judicial candidates who actually have a vision for the court. Most judicial candidates, when they're asked, they stop with, well, I'm just, I want to get elected, and I'm going to treat everyone with dignity and respect, and I'm going to be fair. And that is great, but that's sort of like being at a job interview, and the interviewer says, Why should we hire you? And you say, well, because I'm going to show up every day and do my job, that's not quite what they're asking, right? They're asking what's going to distinguish you from every other candidate? Because we really expect everybody to show up every day and do their job. And so my vision is for the court to be centered in the community. Again, the court that is closest to the community should have the community's best interests at heart, and should absolutely be listening to the community about what the community needs. So if elected, I plan to create a community advisory council that I'll meet with on a quarterly basis from folks across the valley, because I want them to tell me how our court is doing and hold me accountable. The other thing that I want is I want to make sure that we're innovative. So talking a little bit to that whole piece about creating new avenues for us to collect revenue that's more convenient for our community, so that folks don't have to physically come down to the courthouse, but also making sure that we're transparent, I plan to make all of the court's data transparent to the public. The public has the right to know what your tax dollars are being used for and how this court is doing try to find recidivism rates right now. You can't do it okay, and I want to make sure that we're efficient. And so what I want to do is implement evidence or research based policies that we know are effective in addressing crime. We have 70 years of research that tells us what we what we need to do. And unfortunately, when a lot of people get elected, they decide that their ideas are better than what 70 years of research tells us is effective.
Rico White 28:25
Okay? You know what? It has been an absolute pleasure sitting here with our excuse me, judicial candidate for department one city of Las Vegas Municipal Court. Ray Kennedy, and I really appreciate you. I could, like I said, I could go on all day. We could have talked about a few other things. And I love to have you back whenever you want to come back.
Raeshann “Rae” Canady 28:49
Oh, that's amazing. I would love to come back. This has been a great conversation, okay,
Rico White 28:52
and so I'm looking forward to to that. I'm going to hold you to that now I'm going to call you bluff. Hold me accountable all the time. Okay, all right. Then again, like I said, we will be coming back to you next month on Sunday, and it's the first Sunday of every month that we are on. And you can catch us on every platform, 25 different platforms, 24/7 365, you you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai