CHARLOTTE — Justin Tucker says he was in trouble with the law growing up, even becoming a fugitive at one point, but now he’s turned over a new leaf as a lawyer, helping people who can’t afford representation.
“I grew up in Miami,” Tucker told Channel 9’s Jason Stoogenke. “I just started going down the wrong path.”
Tucker says he was around 15 or 16 years old.
“I got in a lot of trouble, a lot of stupid trouble,” he said. “Breaking and entering, auto theft, grand theft auto, driving while license suspended.”
Tucker says he spent some time in jail as a teenager. He said it was “eye-opening” and “scary,” but not scary enough.
“I kept getting pulled over for driving with license suspended or cracked windshield or a taillight out,” Tucker said. “The judge told me, ‘If you come back in front of me again for this, I’m going to send you to prison for five years.”
Tucker said he was in a car wreck and had a suspend license.
“I bonded out of jail, and I remembered what that judge said,” he told Stoogenke. “Me and my wife talked. I hopped on the next Greyhound to North Carolina.”
Tucker was a fugitive on the run, but while he was here, he did something unexpected. He went back to school, and graduated from Fayetteville State. Then, he applied to Charlotte School of Law even with his criminal record.
That’s because it’s up to the law school to decide whether someone’s past is a deal-breaker. They may feel you can turn a negative into a positive, which could make you a better student.
Tucker said he broke down in tears when he learned he got in.
As time passed, Tucker was still wanted in Florida. He says he feared his past would catch up with him at some point, so he hired a lawyer. The state actually dropped that charge.
“This is what the system is all about. You see what this man came from and look where he is now. You don’t want to prosecute this young man,” he said.
Then back home, Tucker passed the Bar on the first try, but Bar officials wouldn’t license him to practice law just yet. They still had questions, but Tucker had faith he would get licensed.
“I’m right at the finish line, and I just need to get over it,” he said. “When you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing and God is watching over you, there is nothing that is going to stop it from happening.”
Tucker said when he got his license in the mail, he broke down crying and thanked God.
Now, he’s helping people who are facing eviction.
“To now be doing this work that I so know is needed, it’s just surreal man,” he said.
Tucker says various lawyers helped him along the way and left an impression.
“The saying is: when you love what you do, it’s not work, and that’s exactly how I feel,” he said. “This is a job that I know I can leave every single day from knowing that I put good into the world.”
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