Kris Kringle goes on trial

Kris Kringle was on trial in Sussex County.

As part of a statewide program, Superior Court presented three performances Dec. 10 of the classic movie “Miracle on 34th Street,” starring real-life judges and attorneys.

In the first performance in Sussex County Superior Court, students from Lulu Ross Elementary School in Milford watched an abbreviated take on the 1947 movie that won a best supporting actor Academy Award for Edmund Gwenn, who played Kris Kringle. 

Kris Kringle, portrayed by Family Court Judge James McGriffin, was found competent. Prosecutor Charles Coates, a retired attorney, arbitrator and mediator, presented strenuous objections, but defense attorney Jane Brady, a retired Superior Court judge, convinced Judge Richard Stokes that Kringle was Santa Claus. Brady has been involved with the performance since 2004.

Sacks of letters dumped on the judge’s desk, written by children at Macy’s department store to Kringle, were all the proof Judge Stokes needed to dismiss the case. U.S. Postmaster Sean O’Sullivan, the court’s chief of community relations, testified that letters sent to Santa Claus are real because it’s a federal offense to falsify one’s identity to receive mail. 

Brady’s case was also helped when the daughter of the prosecutor, played by Claire Nagle, pointed Kringle out as the person her father told her was the real Santa Claus.

The cast also included attorney Rob Gibbs as Dr. Herbert Westover; Terri Davis as Mrs. Macy; and bailiff Tony Summers.