Autobiography James R. Thies, Sr.

     Thumbnail Sketch:  Personal Pictures of me.

Born:  January 13, 1948    Place of Birth:  Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Height:  6'4"     Hair: White and falling out!      Eyes: Blue      

Over 2500 criminal clients, to include capital cases (50%)
Over 750 divorces (15%)
Over 750 domestic actions (15%)
Over 450 contracts (10%)
Over 300 probate matters (6%)
Over 250 Tort matters (4%)

I have tried a total of over 150 criminal cases representing both the prosecution and defense side.  I have tried over 25 civil jury trials and over 250 non-jury trials of civil and domestic cases.  I have tried cases in Federal, Military and State Courts.  The state court cases have been throughout the State of Florida.  I have handled administrative hearings before Federal, Military and State Agencies, the DPR and the Florida Bar.

 I have been the Attorney of Record on 22 appeals, both criminal and civil – one case being argued before the Florida Supreme Court.  I have had a number of other trial court cases that have presented issues before the appellate courts some advancing to the Florida Supreme Court.

 I was a civil and county court certified mediator for approximately five years.

Location:  Clay County, Florida since 1952  (south of Jacksonville, Florida)

Likes:  good company, travel, food, water activities, intelligence, humor, common sense, creativity, cultural ability and the arts that come from them to include thinking and expression, nature and natural activity. (not in any particular order!)

Indifferences:  I find people to be very diverse with each having their own particular views, strong points and mischievous ways.  I think they are totally entitled to that and therefore  categorically I am indifferent to these attributes.

Dislikes:  With few exceptions everything not mentioned in Likes and indifferences.

Political Views:  May we keep the government moving without total self-destruction!

Philosophical Views:  "Luddite"

If you are still with me, here is a more narrative version:

           I was born on January 13, 1948, in the strategic World War II military town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  My birth name was Ernest Henry Messenger, Jr.  I was the youngest of three boys of Mary Louise Taylor and Ernest Henry Messenger.  I was adopted by Joseph and Alma Thies, a Military submarine family in February 1950. They had an older daughter, DeOtta Lee Turner and later had another daughter, Wilma Patricia.

          Most of my life has been experienced in the Jacksonville area.  My father retired from the United States Navy in 1952.  We moved to Jacksonville because my father’s youngest brother, Frank Thies lived here with his family.  Uncle Frank was in the country western radio business and was a celebrity of North Florida for over 35 years.

           I attended first grade at Bayview Elementary in the Lake Shore area of Jacksonville.  That was considered the burbs in the mid-50s.  Over the years as Jacksonville's population grew, I moved to one new school after another – all on the west side of Jacksonville. In 1962, our family moved to Clay County where I graduated from Keystone Heights High School.

         In November 1963 when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I was an impressionable ninth grader working on a homecoming float in Keystone Heights, Florida for the big homecoming football game the following night.  Everything in my life seemed to start changing that day. From that moment on and throughout high school it became my life’s goal to become an attorney and correct the evils and wrongs of the United States.  At the time that was a far out dream for me in that at that particular time I lived in a very poor family that resided in a tent, had no electricity or running water, and cooked meals on a Coleman stove. 

           I finished my High School Senior year as an average student among the 15 graduates of my class.  My greatest high school accomplishments were: 1) playing sports (all area basketball player) and, 2) working on the school’s yearbook where I was the editor my senior year.  I generally felt that school was for the purpose of having a good time and finished with average grades that were admittedly below my potential. 

            After high school I attended for one year Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida on an academic scholarship for the sciences.  This was a disguise for me playing basketball.  It was a humiliating year in basketball.  I think we went something like 3-26.  The next year I decided to transfer to the University of Florida to get back on track of pursuing my goal of becoming an attorney. 

            My plans to continue with my education were again interrupted by the Viet Nam Conflict.  Foolishly I let a friend talk me into joining the Marine Corps under the impression that I would be able to further my college education at the government’s expense.  I did further my education.  Unfortunately it was not in college, it was in Viet Nam where I was a 6’4” “grunt” who became a walking target as the radioman for my platoon.  Eventually the enemy hit this particular target -- I was wounded and medically transported back to the states.  I often tell the story that my one claim to fame is that during the time I was being transported back to the United States in May, 1968, Robert Kennedy was assassinated.  I was at that time still an impressionable young 19 year-old coming back from what I thought was a war.  I sat on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base and watched the United States Government unload from a plane flown in right behind mine the body of Robert Kennedy.  My resolve to become an attorney and make a difference in this world was again renewed. 

            After Viet Nam, I made the decision to marry.  My goal to become an attorney again seemed to be nothing more than a far off dream in that now I was now starting a family which required me to work to support them.  My wife and I had four beautiful children born between the years of 1970 and 1976.  Those four children, now grown, were the best decisions of our lives and now live their own very successful lives. 

            In 1975 after discovering I had an adversity to manual labor that was my new career from the moment I got out of the Marine Corps, I decided it was time for me to attempt a college degree.  Between 1975 and 1981, I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice, a Master of Arts in Public Administration, and my Juris Doctorate.  All of these degrees were earned from the University of Florida.  My growing family and their desire to eat required me to work full-time while obtaining these degrees, a factor that is reflected in my average grades.

            In looking for a job that would complement me attending college, I read an ad for correctional officers at Florida State Prison that was shift work.  I interviewed at Florida State Prison and told them that I wanted to work the evening shift so that I could attend college in the mornings.  I worked at Florida State Prison for approximately two years and never once worked the evening shift.  Most of that time was spent on the midnight shift.  This was the beginning of my career that now covers 29 years in the Criminal Justice Field.

            My tour as a correctional officer at Florida State Prison was an impressionable and rewarding period.  I met such famous criminals as Willie Soloman, Bob “Catch Me”  Eler, and Jack “Murf the Surf” Murphy.  I was the correctional officer that handled the prison release of Freddie Pitts & Wilbur Lee.  My last year there was spent as an administrative supervisor in charge of death row.  I became very familiar with the crimes, families and personalities of Death Row inmates such as John Spinkalink, Robert Sullivan, Ernest Dobbert, and Jacob Dougan (of the BLA killings) who is the only one of the four who has not been executed and is still on Death Row.  It was during this period of time that I became interested in corrections as a study and changed my major to criminal justice at the University of Florida.  I realized that I was not going to become wealthy in the correctional field, but it was a very interesting study in human behavior.  A correctional officer in the mid 1970’s made around $7,000.00 per year and supervisors did not make much more than that.

            In 1976 corrections was a division of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.  In 1976 the legislature decided that the Division of Corrections had grown large enough to make it a department under the direction of Louie Wainwright.  During that period of time a new experimental institution was being developed in Gainesville, Florida for the Department of HRS known as North Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center.  I was offered the position of Chief of Security for that new institution.

            The institution was a controversial concept in both the political and public eye. It presented a major in-house fight between the Department of HRS and Department of Corrections as to who would have control over this institution.  The Department of HRS won.  As the designer of the security systems to be used at this institution, it gave me the opportunity to try many innovative techniques in the housing and security of dangerous inmates.  It gave Louie Wainwright the opportunity to send some of his worst criminals from the Corrections System to an institution that he publicly stated would fail.  The new security concepts used at this new institution included the absence of weapons and barbed wire fences.  From the beginning and over the years, these innovations have been proven to be effective. 

            By this time in my life I was deeply entrenched within corrections programs and had decided I wanted to obtain advanced degrees in criminology from Florida State University.  But it was bad timing in that I was required to support my family. Moving four small children to Tallahassee and disrupting their lives was not in their best interests.  I therefore went on to get a Masters Degree in Public Administration.  By the time I completed that degree I had become a professional student and decided to continue at the University of Florida to obtain my much dreamed about law degree. 

            Upon completion of my law degree my career took a swing away from corrections thanks to a Federal Judge by the name of Susan Black.  I had become a finalist for a clerkship handling Inmate Writs. Judge Black felt that because of my age (33) and experience I had put myself in a career position where I would not be happy with a clerkship.  She told me that I should become an Assistant State Attorney for Ed Austin.  I told her that I actually was making more money than a starting Assistant State Attorney who at that time in 1981 made $13,000.00 per year.  Judge Black arranged an interview for me with State Attorney Ed Austin who hired me on the spot and gave me a $3,000.00 per year raise over my then salary.

            As an Assistant State Attorney, I was able to participate in many diverse criminal justice functions.  Not only did I prosecute in excess of 2,000 cases over the next five years, but I spent considerable time working with grand juries and eventually became the chief prosecuting attorney for my home county of Clay County.  I handled all of the high profile cases in Clay County during that time period.  It also gave me the opportunity to become involved in a number of highly visible political campaigns such as Governor Bob Graham’s 1984 run for the Senate. 

            In 1986 I had the opportunity to go into private practice.  The idea of being able to earn more money for the support of my family was very attractive.  I left the State Attorney’s Office in 1986 and have been in private practice since that time. 

            In private practice I have continued my involvement in the criminal justice system.  I have represented over 2,500 criminal defendants for every crime imaginable from petit theft through the other various misdemeanors up to and including capital sexual battery and capital murder.  I have also handled a broad range of white-collar crimes and special prosecution cases.  These cases have been in the State, Military and Federal Courts to include various Appellate Courts including the Florida Supreme Court.

            Through the years, I have been very active in many outside interests associated with the criminal justice system.  I helped implement Teen Court in Clay County, Florida, have been involved with the Department of Juvenile Justice both through the Clay County Juvenile Justice Council and as a statewide member of the Department’s Business Partner’s Committee.

            I have had a full, interesting and diverse career with the criminal justice system.  My children are grown and have started families of their own. I have reached a point in my life that I am interested in doing things that are of more intellectual interests to me.   I feel that I can return to my strongest interest, which is the study of the criminal justice system and all those involved in making it a continuing institution. My immediate goal is to teach at the college level.  I want to share not only the educational aspects of my background, but my true life experiences with young people starting out on their own life adventures and who will continue the never-ending process of handling people that break the laws of our society. 

            It is also a time where I can relax a little and enjoy the experience of updating my knowledge of what is going on in the areas of research and programs as it deals with crime.  I have many diverse interests in my own studies.  I will say upfront I am more likely to take a qualitative as opposed to a quantitative approach to research although I know the latter is more popular in the criminal justice field.

Foremost, I love the historical aspects as to how this societal issue has been handled throughout the world throughout the times.  I am clearly a “Luddite” in my philosophical approach to most societal issues including crime.  The historical time frame I find most fascinating is the post-industrial revolution when I feel there was a greater sharing of intellectual minds among a wide range of subjects.  My favorite persons of that period would include William H. Taft, Mark Twain, Bertrand Russell, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. & Jr., Clarence Darrow, Albert Einstein, and a host of other individuals covering a broad range of subjects.

I have more practical interests as well.  I am very interested in the study of international slave trading of women and children, crimes against humanity, society’s outside groups and how they are treated by our criminal justice system (juveniles, the mentally ill and those who we determine don’t have rights such as terrorists), and, the inequities of the juvenile justice system.  I have two areas of interest in the study of courts: a) work groups as decision-makers within the courtroom and, b) Segal & Spaeth’s research on what influences decisions of the Supreme Court Justices.  Lastly, I still have my original love for the corrections system.  In this area my interest concerns what drives the United States to be more punitive than the rest of the world.

I have taken a number of courses at Florida State University towards my Ph.D. in criminology.  I am now thinking of switching to History and becoming more involved in Criminological History specifically in America. 

By now, I am sure you are convinced that I am an old geek and maybe that is so.  But, I do have other more interesting hobbies:

I love to travel any place and every place.  The more I travel the more places I realize I have not yet explored.  In the United States it is hard to say one place is my favorite.   The obvious places I love when discussing the love of history is Washington D.C., Boston and Chicago.  Other favorites include anywhere around my home state of New Hampshire and Maine; and San Francisco and the Pacific Highway south to San Diego.  My weakest part of visiting the United States is in the Southwest, primarily because it lacks historical interest to me.  But, I love the out of doors especially mountains and water. 

Traveling overseas is like being born all over again. For Americans it is hard to realize what infants Americans are in the context of time and history.  To me there is nothing like drinking a beer or eating a meal where others before me have been doing that same thing for thousands of years.  As to my favorites, I tell everyone that if you never visit any other place in Europe, you should make every effort to visit Rome.  Seeing the remains of the Roman Empire is a must, but that is secondary to visiting the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica.   And while on Italy, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast are a must.  You will not be disappointed in the Italian food either.  Outside of Italy, I really don’t know what I would recommend.  I have been to Belgium, France, Austria, Germany and England.  Each has its own unique and memorable characteristics.  The cultural atmosphere of each locale is one that you will simply want to soak up.

All my travels require a full compliment of no less than three cameras plus lens which I carry on my back in a camera backpack (another geek attribute).  I take B&W which I can develop, enlarge and frame myself.  I have albums that contain color pictures of every place mentioned above and more. 

After traveling and photography, I guess my collection of presidential memorabilia would come next.  I collect election items, personal items and books surrounding our past and present presidents and their families.  The study of presidents is the root of my interest of American History and I have a pretty good selection of books in this area.  I find as I travel, my interest in World Historical Events is expanding. 

I love the water.  I have always been close to the St. Johns River or some lake around Keystone Heights, Florida where I grew up.  I have a boat and I love to cruise the river in the evening, listening to music, drinking beer and having good conversation/no conversation.  I will travel to get a great meal and then cruise home. I like the ocean, but, generally I am not a beach person.  In other words, I like ocean cruises but, not sitting on the beach.

Last but surely not least, I love a good meal whether I cook it, it is cooked for me or it is in a fine restaurant.  I tell people that the success of my travels generally depend on the quality of two things, the pictures I take and the food that I eat.

I hope you have gained some perspective of my interests and a little information about my life.  I have enjoyed my life and wouldn't change too much that has happened.  I have lived through very interesting times and marveled at so many things that have occurred -- not all good.  But then, that's life!

Personal Pictures of me.