Chief Judge of Mega-City One - History - Chief Judges

Chief Judges

• In 2027 Eustace Fargo was appointed Special Prosecutor for Street Crime by President Thomas Gurney, during a massive upsurge in violent crime. With Gurney’s backing, Fargo campaigned for the necessary constitutional amendments to allow the dispensing of instant justice in the street, and at the same time created academies to train the elite force of street judges which would exercise these draconian powers. In April 2031 Fargo, now Chief Judge of the United States, personally led his men into action, and over the next twenty years oversaw the growth of his new force. He insisted on the strictest standards of behaviour from his judges, including a rule of celibacy. When he himself broke this rule in 2051, he resigned and then shot himself. This was covered up and a more heroic death in the line of duty was fabricated.

• Fargo’s deputy, Hollins Solomon (2051–2057), was appointed to succeed him by President Foreman Pierce. A year later, when America’s three mega-cities were granted autonomy in domestic policy matters, Solomon’s role was reduced to chief judge of Mega-City One, and the other two cities chose their own chief judges. After six years of fighting political battles with Congress, by which time the office of chief judge had become strictly a desk job, Solomon tired of politicking and retired, returning to his original role of law enforcement on the streets.

• Clarence Goodman (2057–2100) became the city’s longest-serving chief judge, serving for around 43 years. During his term Goodman built Justice Department up into a force to rival the military. In 2064 he authorised Morton Judd’s cloning project to create new judges from the best available genetic material (the first batch included Judge Dredd in 2066). In June 2070, when President Booth started the global Atomic Wars, Goodman overthrew the constitutional government of the USA and seized power for himself, provoking a civil war which lasted into 2071. The United States broke up into three independent city-states. Thirty years later, Goodman was assassinated by renegade judges in a coup d'état orchestrated by his own deputy, Cal.

• Judge Cal (2100–2101) became chief judge by blackmailing and recruiting corrupt judges, and then murdering his opponents. He became completely insane and began a reign of terror, and eventually sentenced the entire population to death. After surviving a revolution led by Judge Dredd and various assassination attempts, he was killed in 2101 after three and a half months in office. Dredd was nominated to replace him as chief judge, but declined, nominating his former tutor Judge Griffin instead.

• Judge Griffin (2101–2104) was elected by acclamation, following his crucial role in fighting Cal. He was wounded early into the Apocalypse War and sent out of the city for safety, only to be captured and brainwashed into supporting them as a propaganda tool. Since rescue was impossible, Dredd shot him instead.

• Hilda Margaret McGruder (2104–2108) took command as she was the only surviving member of the Council of Five after the war. She proved to be an outstanding leader, overseeing the reconstruction of the city and the reformation of Justice Department. After four years she resigned – despite the entreaties of her colleagues – when she questioned her own judgement following her mishandling of a crisis. On her way out, she dismissed her supporters from the Council as they had shown flawed judgement.

• Thomas Silver (2108–2112; 2113) was unanimously chosen by the Council of Five. He brutally suppressed the peaceful campaign movement for a return to democratic government. When Dredd resigned (partly due to Silver’s questionable methods of quashing dissent), Silver covered it up and replaced him with an imposter. At the beginning of the city’s occupation by the Dark Judges, Silver was killed by Judge Death but reanimated as a zombie. In 2113, a year after McGruder returned to office, Silver challenged her for his job back, citing her own resignation as a disqualification. Dredd (having returned also) ruled in Silver's favour but then convicted him of gross dereliction of duty for deserting his command in time of war. Dredd then killed Silver once and for all.

• McGruder’s second term (2112–2116) was initially successful, despite the mental health problems which she had acquired during the interval, but her mental impairment became worse over time. She suspended the Council of Five (as noted above) in favour of calling forums of senior judges if and when needed. Among several misguided policies was a controversial scheme to use robot judges to alleviate a serious shortage of human judges, continually trying to force the scheme through even though the robots repeatedly malfunctioned and killed people. After a robot attempted to kill her, allegedly seeing her as a threat to the city, she was eventually persuaded to resign again. An Interim Council of three judges ruled briefly until a new chief judge was elected.

• Hadrian Volt (2116–2121) restored the Council and instituted sweeping reforms to the office of chief judge (described above), and also restored the elected mayor and elected council of Mega-City One. Blaming himself for failing to prevent the Robot War of 2121, he shot himself. As with Fargo’s death, this was concealed from the public and more creditable circumstances were invented. He was succeeded by his deputy, Judge Hershey, who was elected in her own right in 2122.

• Barbara Hershey (2122–2131) was Mega-City One's third longest serving chief judge, after Goodman and Fargo. She ruled over a relatively stable and prosperous period for the Mega-City, her greatest test perhaps being the terrorist atrocities committed by the pro-democracy movement Total War. Ruling with a steady hand, she brought into force many minor changes, such as giving Wally Squad, Justice Department's undercover department, a voice on the Council of Five for the first time. While generally open, honest and perhaps the most left-wing chief judge to date, she proved to be quite prepared to sanction "black ops" missions when it suited the city, and was heavily involved in Mega-City One's forceful overthrow of Ciudad Barranquilla's corrupt government. Her most notable legacy, and her undoing, was agreeing to Dredd's request to repeal the Mutant Segregation Act that kept the irradiated denizens of the Cursed Earth barred from the city. The resulting disruption and unrest saw the tide turn against her, and she was voted out of office.

• Dan Francisco (2131–2132) was a street judge made famous by a 24-hour reality TV show following his exploits. Due to his fame, in 2131 he was chosen as a candidate to run against Hershey for chief judge with the intention of bringing back mutant apartheid. He was put forward as a candidate by Judges Sinfield, Cardew and Millan, who believed he'd be a controllable front man, and won by a landslide after the anti-mutant Norm Supremacists organised a mutant gang attack on him (so as to rally support behind him). On his first day in office he reinstated the ban on mutants, but against Sinfield's wishes he implemented this policy with some measure of compassion, insisting that exiled mutants be rehoused in decent accommodation outside the city. Frustrated at what he regarded as Francisco's profligate spending on the new mutant townships, Sinfield drugged Francisco with a powerful hypnotic drug and persuaded him to resign.

• Martin Sinfield (2132) was appointed deputy chief judge by Francisco in 2131, in which capacity he assigned Judge Dredd to supervise the mutant townships being built in the Cursed Earth, and attempted to control Francisco (largely unsuccessfully). Sinfield became acting chief judge in 2132 when Francisco resigned, and immediately set about instituting even harsher new anti-mutant policies and causing great damage to the Justice Department. When Sinfield prematurely called off a search for a missing judge in the Cursed Earth, endangering his life, Dredd lodged a formal complaint against Sinfield with the Council of Five. When the Council dismissed Dredd's claim, Dredd decided to stand for election for chief judge himself. However the election was cancelled after Sinfield was arrested when evidence came to light that he had used illegal means to force Judge Francisco to resign. He was sentenced to 20 years hard labour on Titan.

• Dan Francisco (2132–2134) returned to office and appointed Dredd to the Council of Five. His first year was relatively peaceful, despite the economic damage Sinfield had done, but he then had to face a lethal weaponised protozoan unleashed against the city by Soviet agents. After the "Chaos Bug" killed seven eighths of the city's population he resigned, appointing Hershey as an interim chief judge.

• Barbara Hershey (2134–present).