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Lorenzo Mejia overcame a difficult past By DANI DODGE,Mail Tribune Jun 04, 2002 12:00 AM A A New judge wanted to make a difference More than 100 people crowded into a stuffy Jackson County courtroom Monday to watch Circuit Court Judge Lorenzo Mejia be sworn in. Another 75 or so pressed themselves into the open doorway or stood on tiptoes outside the courtroom to get a peek. What they saw was a Mexican-born man who overcame the loss of his father, childhood poverty and three drunken driving arrests to live out his own personal American dream ' to make a difference in society. And after he was sworn in by retiredJudge Ross Davis, whom he is replacing, and after he was helped into a judicial robe by senior Judge Ray White, Mejia gave the assembled attorneys, court staff members, friends and family a sense of who he has been and who he will continue to be as a judge. There's a little bumper sticker on my desk, he said. 'Justice Do It.' That's my goal. That's my hope. And that's my prayer for my judicial career. Gov. John Kitzhaber appointed Mejia, 48, of Medford to the position in April. Mejia, a former public defender, will face re-election in November. No one has announced plans to challenge Mejia. And if they did, it would be far from the first challenge Mejia has faced. After Mejia's birth in Mexico, his father went to the United States to find a better life for his wife and three children. When his father got a job driving spikes into railroad rails, he sent for his family. Mejia was 3. The growing family settled in Reedsport. Life was good for awhile. The Mejia children went to public schools, but when Mejia was in second grade, his father died. Although the man was only in his 30s, his organs shut down, a result of an untreated childhood infection. Mejia's mother, Hortensia, was left alone to raise her eight children. The family moved to North Bend, where there were other Mexican families. Hortensia and her children survived on survivor's benefits, Social Security and the money she earned working in fish canneries in Charleston. It was only when I was about ready to graduate from high school she started working at Weyerhaeuser, Mejia said. That pulled us out of poverty. But the young Mejia already had decided upon his destiny. the time I was in junior high, I had an aspiration to be an attorney, Mejia said. The '60s were a turbulent time and I began to realize how important the law was in shaping society, especially civil rights laws. The barely honor-roll high school student went on to the University of Oregon, where he began studying broadcasting. He eventually shifted to history. It took nine years for him to earn a diploma. I had a severe alcohol problem, he said. With that problem came three convictions for driving under the influence of intoxicants in 1976 and 1977. Mejia spent five days in jail and paid fines. He was ordered into alcohol treatment, but it didn't take. He started working in a mill. My dream of becoming an attorney or anything else was going by the wayside, Mejia said. I was approaching 30 and realized if I didn't do something about it, I would be working in a mill all my life. It's honorable work, but not what I wanted to do. So in 1980, he enrolled himself into a 28-day residential treatment program. He hasn't touched a drop of alcohol since. He went on to law school, where he met his future wife, Philippine-born Cristina Sanz, although they didn't start dating until years later. He seemed like a nice person, a regular guy, not a show-off, but dependable, Sanz said. Mejia was in the top third of his graduating class when he earned his law degree at U of O in 1986. After clerking for a judge in Eugene and then working for the Oregon Department of Transportation doing contract law, Mejia took a job at the Jackson County Public Defender's Office. When Mejia and his wife got married ' at a golf course because it had the best buffet around, she joked ' she moved here and started in a private practice. Now she works as a court mediator. Mejia's difficulties were not over, however. When his daughter, Carmen, was 3, she developed puffiness around her eyes. At first, doctors thought it was simply allergies, but when it worsened, they realized her kidney wasn't working right. It's been three years of doctors, hospitals and daily medications, but now, at age 6, Carmen is doing well. Although she will never be free of the disease which could lead to dialysis treatments or a kidney transplant, she is in every other way a normal fun child, her mother said. Mejia left the public defender's office in September after 13 years. He would have set up a private practice if he had not been appointed. But he was, and Monday, Mejia choked back tears as he thanked the three women who have been so important in his life: his mother, his wife and his daughter. They all give me unconditional love, he said, looking at each one.After the ceremony, Carmen hugged a stuffed panda as she smiled shyly at all the well-wishers. Yet when the tiny girl with big dark eyes spoke, strings of well-formed sentences flew from her mouth. I think my dad is very happy being a judge, Carmen said. He might have been very nervous, but I think he did well. Judge Davis reflected on the transition. He said the last thing he put in his judicial scrapbook was the invitation to Mejia's swearing-in ceremony. It was a wonderful conclusion to a wonderful career, Davis said. Lorenzo has an honest commitment to the judiciary and the heart to see that justice is done. Jackson County's newest judge, Lorenzo Mejia, right, chokes back a tear as he dons his robe for the first time during a ceremony at the Jackson County Justice Building Monday afternoon. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell - Mail Tribune Bob Pennell