By Garmah Never Lomo,garmahlomo@gmail.com
Back in May 2019, he flexed his muscles by ordering a 10-day detention of an Associate Magistrate of Compound #3 in Grand Bassa County, Southeast of Monrovia for allegedly extorting money from a party in a case, who was in pursuit of justice
Judge Joe S. Barkon was admitted as Attorney-at-Law in 2011 at the 2nd Judicial Circuit in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County and later to the Supreme Court Bar in August 2018, after passing the Bar’s test.
Judge Joe S. Barkon hails from Grand Bassa County, Southeastern Liberia. He earned a BBA in Accounting with minor in Economics from the University of Liberia (UL), where he also obtained a law degree (LLB) from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law. He is as well a Certificate holder in Fiscal Management from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He went on to become Resident Judge of the 2nd Judicial Circuit after being nominated to the post by the President of Liberia and subsequently confirmed by the Senate on February 12, 2019.
Some of the landmark cases Judge Barkon has presided over since becoming a full time judge include: the Sinoe women torture case in which several women were tortured leading to the death of one. During that trial, a man identified as Dixon Brown was caught and jailed for chanting in court.
Another strange occurrence during the day of sentencing during that trial was that a black car jumped in his car while on his way to court and could not easily be removed.
Judge Barkon also presided over another case in the Circuit that saw a life sentence handed an elderly man who raped and murdered a 12 year old in the Liberia Agriculture Company community and an armed robbery case and a murder trial that occurred in Lloydsville, which resulted in 30 and 36 years sentences respectively.
Judge Barkon is married with four children and several adopted children. He reads widely as a hobby, follows current events and plays sports during leisure. He’s Christian and a member of the First Baptist Church in the Monrovia suburb Oldest Congo Town.
When he delivered his charge at the formal opening of the November Term of Court on the second late in 2019, Judge Barkon went on record for calling on state actors to reintroduce the death penalty, saying then that his plea was predicated on the alarming increase in murder cases in the country.