In answer to a previous person's email, the judge in the story is indeed passed away. He was my father. He passed on the day of the OJ verdict (although that was not the cause). By the way, please realize that this movie was produced by liberal movie makers who intended to paint the judge in the story as the villain. Anyone familiar with the real story felt my father was correct in the way he treated juveniles who came before his court, and he was re-elected (more precisely, elected after being appointed) in a landslide.
The true villain in the story was the jailer, someone who was a childhood friend of mine, and who tried to take revenge on me because of how determined my father was to get him for raping that girl. The parents should have sued the sheriff in my opinion, since he was the one who hired the jailer and didn't protect her.
I never found out for sure, but Andy Griffith must have met my father before doing this movie, because he reminded me of him in many ways.
