Marine Veteran Becomes Bailiff on CBS Show ‘Adams Law’

There’s a military connection to the new CBS Media Ventures’ television courtroom show, “Adams Law.”

The courtroom bailiff on the set, who keeps order, hands notes back and forth to the judge and stands watch over the audience, is Operation Desert Storm Marine Corps veteran Rodney Young.

The show, created by TV’s “Judge Judy,” features her son Adam Levy, a former New York district attorney, following in his mother’s successful syndicated TV footsteps.

In an interview with Military.com, Young said his military background, his more recent work as a private security guard and a little luck gave him an edge during casting auditions for the show.

From Infantry to the Courtroom Set

“I’ve been doing private security since probably 2005, and I work for a very high net worth family with some connections. So that’s kind of what led me to the position,” he said.

“There’s a lot of word of mouth involved. When studios do list certain jobs, a lot of times, if a family works with a person, then they look to that person to kind of bring in the next guy, rather than just putting an ad out or something.”

At 57, it’s been a long road to television for Young. His military service began in the Marine Corps in 1989, with four years on active duty, including being stationed at Camp Lejeune and a deployment to Operation Desert Storm during the Persian Gulf War.

Young’s final rank was corporal before retiring from the military and starting a years-long career in security.

“I was in an infantry unit, which is a combat unit, and just the way you train, everything is about vigilance and attention to detail,” he said. “Your job is to kind of spot any kind of threat before something happens. You want to be the first line of defense.”

Turns out, that’s almost the exact job description of the role he landed as the bailiff on “Adams Law.”

“To be honest, it’s weird that I kind of feel at home on set because it just comes naturally. My job there is basically to make sure that people follow the rules of the court.

If the judge is saying something and he’s being cut off or someone’s being disrespectful, I kind of just step in. That comes naturally for me based on all the experience I have.

For me, it really isn’t acting, even though, on paper, it’s an acting role. It’s just like second nature for me.”

Young’s security resume includes private, corporate and residential protection. He has also worked in emergency response as a public safety dispatcher for the Greenwich Police Department in Connecticut, where he took emergency calls and coordinated police, fire and EMS.

He lives in Stratford, Connecticut, and the show is taped in Stamford, about 30 minutes away.

When the Bailiff Had to Step In

“We’ve already taped season one, which was like 175 episodes. We’re on a break until we find out if and when season two starts,” Young explained. “It’s exciting to be on the show with Judge Adam. I’m a huge Judge Judy fan, so the connection between mother and son is great for the show. Everything’s been great.”

Almost everything. Young said there were a couple of heated moments among show participants, including a man he said went from zero to 60 in the courtroom.

“It was a gentleman whose wife was suing him because they were separating, and she sued him over the purchase of his father-in-law’s motorcycle. He didn’t have any money to put down, so she put down $2,000 for him, and he was supposed to pay the rest to the father, which he never did, so it ended up in court,” Young recalled.

“Well, Judge Adams said ‘I’m going to order you to turn the motorcycle over to your wife, so that she can sell it, and recoup some of the money that you never paid, and he totally just lost it. He was cursing and ripping the mic off. So yeah, I had to step in and escort him out of the courtroom.”

Young said it was proof that the cases on the show are real, and so are the people involved.

“The man’s pride and joy was that motorcycle, more than his wife or his kids. It was just crazy,” Young said. “But they’re real people. We get them from different states. They write into the show, they waive their right to have their case tried in their jurisdiction, and they have it adjudicated on Adams Law. These really are actual cases, actual people, not actors. Nothing is scripted.”