MATTAPOISETT — Mattapoisett resident Eddie Doherty was brought up with comedy in his life. 

As a child growing up in Attleboro, by the time his mother dropped him off at school “she had me laughing … I guess I was brought up that way,” he said.

That innate funny bone stayed with him through his career as Clerk-Magistrate of the Wrentham District Court where he “started jotting funny stories down years ago.”

Now, he has written the book “Laughs, Lies & American Justice,” a compilation of stories from his time working in the justice system that are brimming with humanity and humor.

According to Doherty, who uses the pen-name “East End Eddie” due to his penchant for fishing in the east end of the Cape Cod Canal, there were three driving factors behind his decision to write this book. 

The first, is the simple desire to “share funny stories with people inside and outside the [justice] system.” According to Doherty, he dug through 50 years of memories and did a lot of research to bring these stories to print.

Second, he wanted to “pay tribute” to his mother and his wife.

“The second chapter in this book is devoted to my mother and my wife … [they] helped me so much throughout my life,” said Doherty. “I went from the loving care of one to the loving care of the other.”

And finally, even though he no longer sits behind the magistrate bench, he still wants to give back to some of society’s most vulnerable.

“Every day [at work] I saw battered women. I saw women with black eyes, bloody lips and broken arms all caused by some coward. I wanted to do my little part to try and help them in some small way,” he said. “Now that I’m retired … I decided that I would donate part of the proceeds of this book to Jane Doe Inc.” 

Jane Doe Inc. is a non-profit organization formed in 1998 that addresses “the root causes” of sexual assault and domestic violence and promotes “justice, safety and healing for survivors,” according to the group’s website.

“If that could help even in some small way, I’d feel good about it,” he said.

But as Doherty wrote in the introduction to his book, “The recognition of humor should not be taken as disrespectful to victims of crime as making victims whole was always my main objective.”

Doherty hopes that readers of his book will change their perception of a courthouse.

“If you don’t work in a courthouse, or if you’ve never been there, [you might] have a vision of a sterile environment … with unhappiness and problems all day long and to some degree that’s true,” he said. “And what people will learn is that we try to see the humor in things.”

But not every story in this book takes place in court. 

“I mention some of my teenage years in Mattapoisett where I worked at Gulf Hill scooping ice cream with great guys like Richard Reilly, my cousin John Cornish and owner Art LeClair, a terrific boss,” said Doherty. “It later became Oxford Creamery, now owned by Liz and Ken Ackerman.”

Doherty, who retired to Mattapoisett, said that the town “was a great place for a young man to mature.”

“My thoughts on [Mattapoisett] now are the same as when I was a kid. I love it, it’s a special place, it's a beautiful place,” he said. “If I was a multi-millionaire, I wouldn’t want anything more.”

“Laughs, Lies & American Justice” can be purchased online at lulu.com.