Snipes Ruiz sworn in as district judge

The new judge for state 12th Judicial District covering Chouteau, Hill and Liberty counties was sworn in Wednesday morning in the district courtroom in the Hill County Courthouse.

Kaydee Snipes Ruiz was sworn in by 17th Judicial District Judge Yvonne Laird of Chinook.

Snipes Ruiz said at the end of the ceremony that being sworn in felt surreal but she also felt hope, hope for the community and hope moving forward.

She added that, moving forward, there are many challenges facing the district but that by working together these challenges can be overcome.

"The change is coming," she said. "We have to be willing to re-evaluate the status quo, we have to be willing to innovate, we have to be willing to employ technology to maximize efficiency without taking out and compromising that human interaction.

"Change takes time, it takes patience and it takes hard work," she added. "... Together we can rise up and beat this challenge."

Snipes Ruiz, who joined the state bar and started practice in Havre in 2011 and has served as the regional deputy public defender for the area since 2014, was appointed by Gov. Steve Bullock to take the place of Judge Dan Boucher.

Boucher retired in November, days after being elected to a third term. He was appointed in 2010 to replace Judge Dave Rice, who retired that year. Boucher was unopposed in his bid for re-election in 2012 and last year.

Snipes Ruiz said her family taught her to work hard at whatever she did, and she added that she will apply that to her position on the bench.

She said she was the second child of a working-class family and she couldn't remember a time that her mother did not work two jobs. The commitment her mother displayed inspired her to do the same, Snipes Ruiz said.

She said her mother pushed both her and her brother to attend college and follow what they wanted to do.

"My mom is the most hard-working woman I've ever met," she said. "... She instilled in me a work ethic that I have carried forward."

Praise for Snipes Ruiz

Great Falls attorney Ben Snipes, Snipes Ruiz' older brother, said he was very proud of what his sister has accomplished and that she is "the type of judge you want to have on the bench."

She is intensely dedicated, which she exhibited at a very young age with her extra-curricular activities, he said. In college, she became dedicated to community service, in particular child advocacy, which she carried on into law school at Gonzaga in Spokane, Snipes said. She received the Gonzaga Student Bar Association Civic Award for public service as the most outstanding public servant at the university for two years.

As regional deputy public defender she earned the Governors Award in 2016, the highest honor that someone in that sector can acquire, he said.

He added that his sister has dedication to her community. He said Snipes Ruiz donates time and effort to veterans and children organizations within the Havre community, as well as offereing pro-bono representation as a public defender.

This provided her with perspective and keen insight into her community, he said, adding that he is very proud of her for that.

Snipes said his sister has a heart for the community, serving in many different organizations and groups in the area, dedicated to being ingrained within the community. He added that she declined taking a job in Helena because she wanted to stay in the Havre area.

"My sister has arrived today to this position that she is very excited and very humbled to be a part of," he said.

Snipes said that his little sister graduated from C.M. Russell High School with distinction, then graduated from Montana State University in Bozeman where she graduated with distinction before finally graduating from Gonzaga University Law School.

She moved back to Montana, he said, because "once it is in your heart, once it is ingrained, that sense of community hits you. It's very difficult to stay away."

He added that Snipes Ruiz had many opportunities to practice law outside of Havre and outside of Montana but wanted to stay in her home state.

She first started out in private practice, he said, but soon moved to public service as a member of the public defender's office, where she became the regional deputy for the area.

Snipes also told a story of when he and Snipes Ruiz were children during family movie night, his sister stuck a popcorn kernel in her ear. He said that he called their mother into the room and they took her to the hospital to have the kernel removed.

This effectively ended movie night for that day, he said, but, "I think that was probably the worst decision Kaydee's ever made," Snipes said. "I feel that her best decisions are still ahead of her."

If the past tells anything about the character of Snipes Ruiz, Snipes said, she will pour her heart out into the job as district judge as well as to the community.

"I am proud from here on after to call my sister, your Honor, but even prouder to just be her big brother," he said.

Blaine County Justice of the Peace Judge Perry Miller said he has known Snipes Ruiz for the eight years she has been in north-central Montana and that she holds the highest standard of judiciary, with a moral character that is unquestionable.

Miller told Snipes Ruiz that after taking his certification test 25 years ago, former Montana Chief Justice Jean A. Turnage made a statement to him and 167 other judges that has stuck with him.

"As jurists, we must always remember that the matters that come before us, no matter how large or how small, criminal or civil, are the most important matters ... at that time, and as judges we must never forget to treat them as such," he said.

Laird said that she has only known Snipes Ruiz for a few years, but she was honored to swear her in.

She said she grew up in Hill County and she remembers the judges who came before Snipes Ruiz, and she never thought that she would be a part of swearing in the first female judge of District 12.

"Our community has changed, and it is evolving for the good," she said. "But don't ever think that Judge Ruiz is the judge simply because she is a woman. ... She is clearly qualified for this job. She will continue to carry our Hi-Line community forward and make a positive change in the community."