14 minute read
Judge Jefferson Moore
A Man with World Views and Exciting Life Experiences
By Cynthia Orr
Photos by Mewborne Photography
When you ask a child of a military family where home is, invariably the answer is “nowhere” or “everywhere.” Most were born in towns or cities where they did not stay long. Some were born on a temporary assignment. One thing you know for sure about military kids, though, is that—when they are grown— they will choose a place they truly love to call home.
So it is with Judge Jefferson Moore, who was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and now calls San Antonio his home. The secondborn of twins, he has two other older brothers and two younger sisters, so he is one of five siblings in all. His parents met when his dad was attending the United States Naval Academy. His mother was from New Orleans, his father from Denver, and they now live just north of New Orleans. He is close with his family and especially with his fraternal twin Patrick, enjoying a friendly competition about their respective positions in the law. While Patrick was born just ahead of him and is a successful administrative law judge in Louisiana, Judge Moore is quick to smile and point out that he was the first lawyer in the family. If you know Judge Moore at all, this will not surprise you. He is a modest, self-effacing, and amiable person who thrives on making jokes at his own expense.
In his formative years, Judge Moore attended an all-boys school, where he learned integrity, manners, professionalism, to wear a tie and jacket every day, and a little bit about self-reliance. He went on to hone these characteristics through a trying and difficult life, and they show in his bearing, judicial temperament, and unwavering collegiality. Never a bully or unprofessional on the bench, and never arrogant or presumptuous at bar functions, he gives grace to all around him.
After boarding school, Judge Moore traveled the world before settling in San Antonio. He was in the military, gained secret security clearance, overcame tremendous challenges to pass the bar exam, survived a lifethreatening illness, prosecuted in Louisiana under the Napoleonic Code, became licensed to practice law in Texas, was a private defense lawyer, and then became a judge here. He also found the love of his life and married here. He met his wife Aida Rojas Moore at a legal social event, “Magic is the Night,” and says it was a magical evening. She is a Democrat, he a Republican, and they hit it off immediately. They share a love of their families, especially their grandchildren, elegant bar events, and the outdoors—not only hiking and camping, but also hunting.
Before arriving in San Antonio, Judge Jefferson Moore lived an adventurous life. He served in many capacities in the military, traveling the world, learning other languages, and meeting folks from all walks of life in many countries and from many cultures. He says his time in the military taught him about the goodness of everyday people, and he says that those experiences taught him how to judge a person’s situation and make sentencing decisions in criminal cases based upon an individual’s circumstances.
Judge Jefferson Moore
Courtesy of Judge Moore
Judge Jefferson Moore
Courtesy of Judge Moore
Judge Jefferson Moore learned the values of integrity and professionalism in school and in the Army before becoming a lawyer.
Courtesy of Judge Moore
In 1982, he went to Tulane University in New Orleans, where he studied business administration and was in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Two years after graduating, he went to law school and aspired to be a trial lawyer. He attended Loyola University of New Orleans College of Law. He was an engineer for the Army and the National Guard during law school. He served on Guard duty, clerked for a criminal defense lawyer, and provided appellate work for several district attorney offices in the region, where he says he saw a lot of mistakes made. He also enjoyed seeing a lot of his writing picked up in the judges’ opinions. In the lead up to his taking the bar exam, and just after the operation that deposed Panamanian military dictator General Manuel Noriega, he was training for and deployed to Panama and Bolivia with the Army. General Noriega was ultimately charged with drug trafficking and convicted in the United States along with Pablo Escobar. Needless to say, Judge Moore got little time to study during his assignment. Even still, he passed!
On January 2, 1992, he became an Assistant District Attorney in Orleans Parish, taking his first job with then-elected District Attorney Harry Connick. Recounting how much the practice has changed, he recalls prosecuting before the Internet existed. Contacting witnesses and victims was often difficult, he says. When people moved or their phone numbers changed, he would have to rely upon the United States Postal Service, hoping that the people his case depended on had put in a change of address with the Post Office. The fact that Harry Connick was his boss brought additional color to his job. Sometimes Harry Jr., a famous actor and singer, and Mr. Connick’s son, would come into the office, causing all the women there to swoon.
While the lack of modern-day technology made it difficult to practice, he says the limitations taught him that professionalism makes the day, and that diplomacy is important when interacting with anyone connected to his case. He also learned that the clerks, bailiffs, and staff were the people in the system with the real power. “So many times,” he says, “lawyers are short with staff or will even snap at a judge. They’ll show up late to court and casually lie. But this lack of professionalism reflects on these lawyers, and actually hurts their clients and their own reputations.”
Judge Jefferson Moore at the Landa Library
Photo by Mewborne Photography
He learned how to try cases in those salad days, he says, even working for a time in the juvenile division. He tried 110 cases in 2.5 years. He recalls one judge who yelled and remembers telling himself that he would never conduct himself in that manner. He says that, in his experience, judges who yell are typically the same judges that do not know the law very well.
After he practiced law for twenty years, Judge Moore says he realized he would never know all the law. So, he says, he got comfortable with the fact that he would continue learning throughout his legal career and is always ready to pick up and consult a law book whenever necessary. He says this is what it means to be a good lawyer and an even better judge.
In the Army, he was an engineer, and it was there that he learned to blow up roads and buildings. But after serving as an engineer and working as an assistant district attorney for a few years, he decided to change both his legal and military careers by applying for admission into the United States Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. He left New Orleans for active duty as a military lawyer. Following his graduation from the Army JAG Corps basic school, he volunteered to go to Fort Benning paratrooper school. He was a captain and a lawyer, surrounded by 500 infantry and sergeants. He had to answer to his enlisted instructors, but he was also a captain, so ironically they had to call him, “Sir.” They would ask him legal questions that he could not answer, and as punishment for his not knowing the answers, he would have to do extra push-ups. He also admits that, during this time, he jumped out of perfectly good airplanes. After jump school, he reported to the 101st Airborne Division (Screaming Eagles). There, he attended the United States Army Air Assault School and received helicopter training, learning to work with different landing zones and to dangle from a rope dropped down from a helicopter. He got to do things that he had never dreamed of doing. He also remembers learning that very nice people would join him in teamwork that led to great results, whether they had GEDs or advanced degrees. He says this experience made him a better lawyer because he learned how to talk to people and work with them. “When speaking to a jury,” Judge Moore says, “you need to be able to talk to people from all walks of life. Whether a plumber, electrician, or a chef, people are intelligent and capable.”
Judge Moore’s experience as an Army Engineer and lawyer took him all over the world.
Courtesy of Judge Moore
Judge Jefferson Moore
Courtesy of Judge Moore
Judge Jefferson Moore
Courtesy of Judge Moore
Judge Moore’s work in the military also saw him deployed to Egypt. He spent six months in the Sinai with an International Force comprised of Americans, Italians, French, Fijians, Dutch, Hungarians, Colombians, and Australians. He was an American lawyer for an American battalion handling disciplinary matters for them and advising the service on international matters in Egypt and Israel. As Judge Moore explained, “We were serving as a buffer between Israel and Egypt. Israel had captured Sinai, and when they left Egypt, no one was allowed to put any forces there.” He remembers that summers were very hot—up to 135 degrees during the day and in the 80s at night. Because of the heat of the day, those 80s at night felt very cold. He climbed Mount Sinai and visited Petra, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee, and the Red Sea. After he got back to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, he was sent to South Korea, which was quite a change in atmosphere due to the extreme cold. There was thick ice on the roads in Korea, he says, and he remembers the contrast when, in the same deployment, he would be sent to nearby Japan, warmed by the Pacific. He learned to read Korean while he was there and performed courts-martial.1 While in Asia, Judge Moore took a trip to Tokyo, visited Australia and Thailand, and spent time in Bangkok, including the jewelry district.
From there, he was set to move back stateside and recalls he had a big decision to make. For the first time in his life, he was choosing where he would live and stay, where he would call home. He wanted a military facility that was near a sizable city, and Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, quickly became his top choice. He came here sight unseen, found that he liked the city, and of all the places in the world he had to choose from, he found that he truly loved Texas.
Judge Moore gained a reciprocal license to practice law in Texas, even though he had a degree in Napoleonic law and never took the Texas bar exam. As a government lawyer for ten years, he remembers he never thought he would defend criminals. Nevertheless, he did engage in private criminal defense practice, and also did a little family law, labor law, probate, and military administrative law. But he thrived on criminal defense work and enjoyed success in it. It was Jimmy Parks, he remembers, speaking at a continuing legal education program, that taught him the importance of the criminal defense lawyer. “America owes a great debt to criminal defense lawyers,” Judge Moore says, “because they support and give life to the United States Constitution and are the cutting-edge defense between the rule of law and lawlessness every day.” Having fought to defend our Constitution in the Army, he enjoyed being a criminal defense lawyer.
Courtesy of Judge Moore
Courtesy of Judge Moore
Photo by Mewborne Photography
Judge Moore found a home and the love of his life in San Antonio, but he has not lost his sense of adventure.
Photo by Mewborne Photography
But Judge Moore was not finished with the Army. Twice, he was recalled to active duty to fight in the war on terror. In 2003, he was deployed to Germany and served as the Deputy Chief of International Law for the United States and Africa. It was there that he did secret work. When the Northern Option2 was cut off because Turkey would not grant access, and after the fall of Baghdad, he thought the war was over and asked to go back into private practice. The Army also thought the war was over, and Judge Moore was released back to civilian life.
Judge Moore brought his myriad life experiences to bear in his judicial decisions.
Courtesy of Judge Moore
But these were the early stages of the War on Terror, and the Army was experiencing a high state of flux with personnel management, so the day after Judge Moore came home from Germany, he got called back to active duty. The Army sent him back to Germany, where he was put in charge of the Army Legal Center. He supervised various departments on administrative law, environmental law, and even German labor law; and there he met one of the largest challenges of his life. After a routine dental appointment in 2004, Judge Moore got an infection that spread to his heart. It took him two years to recover, and he barely did, he says. After his dental exam, he became weak and could not catch his breath. He went on to lose nearly forty pounds. The Army sent him to a local German doctor, which he calls “the best piece of luck.” His German doctor did an echocardiogram and sent him immediately to the emergency room. He had a very serious heart infection and was in congestive heart failure.
Once he was in the German hospital system, local law would not permit him to leave. This law saved his life. At one point he took a terrible turn for the worse and was saved again by a remarkable twist of fortune. The director of the hospital, Dr. Helmut Volkleschlager, was very good friends with an expert heart surgeon, and it was because of this friendship and a phone call, that Dr. Detrick Burnbaum was able to operate in time, repair Judge Moore’s heart, and keep him alive. Judge Moore’s health scares were not over, though. He had a stroke a couple of years later, and is practically blind in one eye.
Judge Moore retired from the Army Reserves after twenty years of service. He had seen a lot of different judges in over twenty years of practice, and he remembers thinking that he knew he could be a good judge himself. In 2014, he was elected a Bexar County District Judge, hearing criminal cases. In 2018, he was unopposed and won a second term. In his time on the bench, Judge Moore
recalls making some tough decisions, especially regarding sentencing—having to decide where people should land. He had prosecuted for ten years and was a defense lawyer for thirteen, but none of it was at tough as this. He had to sentence one man to life imprisonment, and in all his time on the bench rejected only two proposed plea bargain agreements. During sentencing, he listened to both sides carefully and read the reports, he says, and also used his own experience when making a decision. Although he decided not to run for a third term in 2022, he will continue to serve as a visiting judge.
Judge Moore celebrated his official retirement in 2022.
Courtesy of Judge Moore
Judge Jefferson Moore is an amiable, humble, and very accomplished person with a gusto for life and interest in new experiences. This author, for one, is grateful he chose to call San Antonio home.
ENDNOTES
1A military court action to determine if a service member violated military law.
2The Northern Option “was a major effort of plan development until the government of Turkey denied Coalition requests for support and access to its territory, thus preventing introduction of [the Fourth Infantry Division] from the north [to control Iraq and eliminate weapons of mass destruction].” Peter J. Schifferle, Ed., Bringing Order to Chaos; Historical Case Studies of Combined Arms Maneuver in Large-Scale Combat Operations, Army University Press 2018.
Cynthia Orr is a criminal defense attorney and the managing partner of Goldstein & Orr. Recently, with the San Antonio Bar Association, Cynthia obtained health law reform in Congress for cancer survivors.
