The view of the Strawberry Mountains from Kathy Stinnett's airplane.

In the old days, the justice of the peace would ride a horse from courthouse to courthouse, adjudicating matters of the law.

Grant County Justice of the Peace Kathy Stinnett is a different kind of circuit rider: She takes to the sky.

Stinnett, who has presided over Grant County Justice Court since her election win in 2012, got her pilot’s license in 2016 after two years of flight training in Caldwell, Idaho, and La Grande. 

Now she uses her own airplane to travel to other Oregon counties to substitute for other judges when needed.

Stinnett has served pro tem, as a substitute justice of the peace, for other justice courts in Harney, Gilliam, Baker and Morrow counties. The Grant County Regional Airport, just a short distance from the Grant County Courthouse, is where Stinnett keeps her 1964 Cessna 172XP four-seater aircraft.

“Historically, JPs would ride from community to community on horseback, and so I guess I just go by plane instead,” she said. “They have airports, and I have never flown into Fossil, but I have landed in Arlington, which has a grass runway.”

She said she’ll serve pro tem in other justice courts in Oregon anywhere from six to a dozen times a year. An Oregon statute, she said, allows any sitting justice of the peace to fill in for another JP at no cost to the counties, she said.

“I really like the responsibility of going and assisting them and fly rather than drive,” she said. “It’s quicker and it gives me an opportunity to fly.”

Beginning her work at the Grant County Justice Court as a clerk in 2009, Stinnett said she got her first taste of being justice of the peace when she substituted for her predecessor as a pro tem judge.

She said it was the most fun she’d ever had.

“I just like listening to people and sorting through their arguments and discerning what’s credible and what isn’t,” Stinnett said of her job. “I found out that — late in life for me — that I absolutely love the law, and basically I’ve spent all of my time in justice court learning the law and I never get tired of it. I’ve really learned to grow with the law and the processes we have here.”

This past year, when discussion arose in county court meetings over the possibility of dissolving the Grant County Justice Court to save money in a tight budget, Stinnett and others spoke about the need to keep it going.

“The justice court has value and should be retained,” Grant County District Attorney Jim Carpenter wrote in a letter to the county court. “This is an informal place where local citizens can resolve minor issues including traffic tickets, tenant/landlord disputes and small claims. While the state circuit court may be willing and even advocate for taking on these responsibilities, with the promise of saving the county money, it will come at a significant cost to your county citizens.”

The county court in August unanimously decided to not move forward with a motion to dissolve the Grant County Justice Court as a way to save money.

Overall, Stinnett said the justice court provides access to justice for people without an attorney.

“It’s easier to navigate, it’s less formal, it’s less intimidating, and filing fees in justice court are generally less than the circuit court, sometimes significantly less,” she said. “The purpose of government is to provide services to the citizens, and that’s what we do on a face-to-face basis every day. We provide Grant County citizens with access to justice in a format that they can feel comfortable with.”

Stinnett is currently president of the Oregon Justice of the Peace Association and advocates for this type of system, which has been more prevalent in more rural Eastern Oregon than in Western Oregon in recent years.

“I’m currently president again for one more year,” she said. “I’ve served an earlier term, and I agreed to do it this last year because I believe in our existence.

“I think the east side has kept their justice courts better than the west side has, and I believe that’s just the difference in how the west side functions. They have bigger cities and they have municipal courts. Justice courts are more needed in the rural areas of Oregon because, for one thing, we don’t have the number of attorneys available, and I think the rural areas tend to be more self-sufficient and like to take care of their own matters.”

Next year will be her last as Grant County justice of the peace. Stinnett plans to retire at the end of her second six-year term of office in 2024. Retirement will no doubt provide her more flight time to add to the 300 hours she’s already logged.

Stinnett’s husband, Frank Stinnett, had been a pilot since the 1970s, and she became interested in earning a pilot’s license by just being a passenger on his flights.

“I was always afraid of heights, and I didn’t necessarily love the feeling of flying when I first started,” she said. “It’s something I made myself overcome. But what I found out is once you learn about the physics involved, the plane will fly. It’s not just going to drop out of the sky.”

The “XP” in Stinnett’s Cessna 172XP means “extra power,” which means 180 horses. Landing speed is 70 to 80 miles per hour and cruising speed is 120 mph.

“We put a new engine in it to give it more power, and it’s equipped with oversized tires and a stall kit,” she said. “It’s able to land on grass or gravel. It’s a very good plane for rural areas.”

Oregon is beautiful from the ground, but Stinnett’s photos from above are majestic. Favorite spots for Stinnett to fly over include the Cascades, the Wallowa and Elkhorn mountain ranges and the Strawberries.

“One of my favorite local flights to do is fly along the north side of the Strawberries,” she said. “I turn south through Summit Prairie and fly along the back side of the Strawberries and glide down Canyon Creek to the airport. I pull back so there’s not a lot of power. It’s a really cool local flight. I can get up real close to the Strawberries and see the goats up there.”

During a recent visit with her son who lives in North Carolina, Stinnett said she was able to take off in a plane from First Flight Airport at Kitty Hawk, site of the Wright brothers’ historic first powered aircraft flight in 1903.

Stinnett said being able to pilot an aircraft is therapeutic for her.

“I think it’s the ability to be up in the air instead of the surface of the earth,” she said. “It’s a totally different perspective of the world and where we live every day, which is on the ground, and there’s something about being up high where you’re looking at the world from the bigger viewpoint. That is really good for my soul. That’s pretty much how it makes me feel. It puts everything in the right perspective again.”

NAME: Kathy Stinnett

AGE: 64

RESIDENCE: John Day

OCCUPATION: Grant County justice of the peace

AFFILIATION: President of the Oregon Justice of the Peace Association

CLAIM TO FAME: Flies a plane to fill in as a pro tem judge at other justice courts in Oregon