Clarence Shattuck has spent most of his life on the front lines of other peoples’ mistakes.
As a Hamilton County General Sessions Court judge who has wrestled with cases involving everything from motorcycle wheelies to murder for nearly 30 years, he likes having the opportunity to scare or inspire people into getting straight.
PERSONAL GLANCE* Name: Clarence Shattuck* Job: Hamilton County Sessions Court judgeAge: 75* Education: Bachelor’s degree from Tennessee Tech University and law degree from the University of Tennessee* Family: Shattuck lives with his wife, Ruth, in Hixson and has three sons
And sometimes what he says on the bench works, he said.
“Just last week, I was going through McDonald’s to get an Egg McMuffin and there was a woman at the window and she said, ‘You were my judge back when I was bad, but you and some other people taught me to get right,'” Shattuck said. “People come up and say, ‘I was in front of you, but I haven’t come back.’ You do feel like you get through to some people.”