Judge Roosevelt Dorn

While No Matter How Loud I Shout has no one main character, Roosevelt Dorn probably receives the most attention over all. Born in 1935, Dorn was in the US Air Force from 1954 to 1958 and served as a bailiff in Superior Court between 1961 and 1969. Receiving his J. D. in 1969 and passing the California State Bar, Dorn served as an assistant to the City of Los Angeles as a city attorney until 1979. By 1980, Dorn was serving as a judge in the LA Country Superior Court. Dorn has several children and is an ordained minister.

In the book, Dorn was a widely controversial judge. Often seen as erratic, Dorn believed that he was key to reforming the LA County juvenile justice system and had his own plan for restructuring the system. Dorn argued that the juvenile court system should revive "status offenses" or arrestable offenses for minors that were not...