Character Analysis
Judge Fielding seems like a good egg. Even though he's described as appearing to be half asleep for most of the trial, he's actually pretty honed in on everything that's going on. He frets about making sure that the trial is handled properly and seems to take his job seriously.
Also—and this is important in a judge—he's invested in being fair and unprejudiced. He was very reluctant to give Art Moran a warrant for Kabuo's boat on the basis of Etta Heine's racism-infused theory that Kabuo had it out for her family. He required that Art give him a few different pieces of evidence before he would approve a (limited) warrant.