Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991 TAG: 9104110417
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
And Tucker's position in the Montgomery County office raised the eyebrows of a few police officers.
"Some of them would look at me and say `What are you doing here? You don't want to listen to all this stuff' . . . You get called a lot of names."
It was true.
Tucker, now chief magistrate for the 27th Judicial District, has been called a few names by irate or jail-bound citizens.
"One time I got a tennis shoe thrown at me," she said. "But he apologized the next day. I think someone told him he'd better say he was sorry."
No doubt about it, Tucker has seen people at their worst.
"When they go before the judge, they've calmed down," she said. "But when we get them . . ." She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.
Tucker said she was never really afraid when she worked in the office, doing bond and probable cause hearings.
"But when you tell someone they're going to jail, you don't know how they're going to react."
It is rare these days that Tucker tells someone to go to jail. From her office over the Christiansburg Police station, she is working the administrative end of the business.
About once a month, she can be found in Bland or Grayson County - or any of the other eight offices in her district.
"I check on problems, keep abreast of the changes," she said.
And she keeps in touch with the other magistrates as they cope with budget restrictions from Richmond.
Tucker has held this post since Feb. 17, 1987. The date rolls off her tongue without any hesitation - it is also the birthday of Polly Myers, clerk of Montgomery County Circuit Court. The two women have been close friends for years.
"It makes that day easy to remember," Tucker said.
When Tucker first took a job as a magistrate, it was part-time, to earn extra money.
Now, 16 years later, it has become a career.
This year, Tucker was elected as president of the Virginia Magistrate's Association. She is the first woman to hold the position.
"I'm pretty proud of that," she said.
She also is involved in setting up a new magistrate's office where late-night arrests will be handled via television.
The program will help Blacksburg, which does not have its own magistrate, by allowing officers to appear with their suspects on video before a magistrate in Christiansburg.
The station should be operational by summer and will be the operation of this type in the state.
"Down the road, when the money is short, or in rural areas, this could become pretty popular," Tucker said.
Memo: correction