Former Cochise County lawman Jimmy Judd died Friday, leaving a legacy of the sheriff who rode the trail from the Wild West days of enforcement into the modern era.
Judd, 72, died in Sierra Vista after a long struggle with cancer, diabetes and other health problems, said Larry Dever, the current Cochise County sheriff and a longtime friend of Judd's.
"He's an icon, a piece of Cochise County history that people will revere and scrutinize forever," said Dever, who worked his way up the ranks to become Judd's chief deputy before winning the office himself in 1996.
Judd - a native of St. David, a small community near Benson - was revered by law-enforcement officers statewide for being a straight shooter who served a record four terms as sheriff, said Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik.
He worked to transform the department from the "good old boy" system to one more capable of handling complexities of modern-day law enforcement, other officials said.
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Judd also will be remembered because of the Oct. 23, 1982, shootout in Miracle Valley between sheriff's deputies and members of a fundamentalist black Christian church. Two church members were shot dead in the melee in Palominas, a community about 20 miles south of Sierra Vista, and several deputies were wounded or otherwise injured.
Afterward, surviving members of formerly Chicago-based Christ Miracle Healing Center and Church sued Cochise County. The case later was settled out of court, although the sum never was officially disclosed.
Dever - a sergeant who ran the department's SWAT team at the time - said Judd did all he could to head off the confrontation between church members and deputies that had been smoldering for years.
"The man did his best to keep a lid on a boiling kettle, and it just finally blew on Oct. 23, 1982," said Dever, who was wounded in the shootout.
Dupnik, who sent a SWAT team to Cochise County in the tense days following the shootout, said he and many others believe Judd could have headed it off, but that intervention by state officials and others aggravated the problem.
"He was a very feisty leader. A lot of us, myself included, looked up to Jimmy," Dupnik said of Judd, his longtime friend and associate.
Judy Gignac, a former member of the state Board of Regents who was serving as a Cochise County supervisor at the time of the shootout, said Judd "brought a sense of stability and professionalism during that very, very difficult time."
"Without him, it could have been a whole lot worse," she said.
Gignac said she will remember Judd as the sheriff who worked hard to modernize the department.
"Prior to Jimmy Judd, it was kind of a good-old-boy kind of operation," Gignac said. "I believe Jimmy Judd started the process toward more professionalism in the department."
Judd began required regular training for deputies and an organized system of promotions.
"Under Jimmy, we managed to convince the electorate to pass a fairly hefty, for our county, bond package to build a new jail," Gignac said, "the first new jail in 50 years."
The new jail, built just east of Bisbee on Arizona 80, replaced the old jail on the top floor of the county courthouse in Bisbee, which was built in the 1930s.
"When you would go into the courthouse, the prisoners would be hollering out the windows, dropping things on you," Gignac said.
Dupnik said Judd gained the respect of Arizona law-enforcement officers during his tenure as president of the Arizona County Sheriffs Association.
"He always was a true gentleman," Dupnik said. "His word was his bond - kind of a dying breed, unfortunately, in this day and age. When Jimmy told you something, you could go to the bank with it."
He said Judd will be remembered as "one of the last of the true Western sheriffs."
"He was a Westerner though and through, a cowboy who grew up in Benson," he said.
Judd also was "a heck of an athlete," Dupnik said. "I played baseball against him" in the early 1950s, when Judd played for St. David High School and Dupnik played for Bisbee High School.
Ray Judd said his cousin Jimmy excelled at baseball, basketball and football before graduating from St. David in 1951.
Jimmy Judd served two years in the Navy and another two years on a mission for the Mormon church before returning home to start his career.
He married in 1956. He and his wife, Edna, had two daughters and two sons.
Judd worked several jobs, including as Benson's justice of the peace, until he was hired as a sheriff's deputy in 1973.
In 1976, he won the first of his four terms as sheriff - a feat never accomplished before or since.
After retiring in 1992, he took a few years off before moving to the bench, holding the titles of Benson's magistrate and justice of the peace.
Although Judd was a registered Democrat, Gignac, a Republican, said he never allowed party affiliation to interfere with his job.
"That's the way Jimmy looked at it," she said. "I think that is something that is missing today in politics."
Visitation will be 5-8 p.m. Tuesday at Richardson's Remembrance Center, 725 E Fourth St., Benson, and again 9-10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Stake Center, 381 N. Pomerene Road (exit 306 off Interstate 10 in Benson).
A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the stake center, followed by a graveside service at the St. David Cemetery, about three miles south of St. David on Arizona 80, with sheriff's deputies and other officials participating. Burial will follow.
