On the day Mower County District Judge Donald E.

Wednesday, April 26, 2000

On the day Mower County District Judge Donald E. Rysavy is interviewed, a visiting judge from Waseca was hearing cases in Mower County Third Judicial District Court.

The judge had to travel more than 150 miles round trip.

Rysavy points to this increasingly common occurrence as one of the pitfalls that lack of funding and lack of judges has created.

"It took the judge away from her need in Waseca County Third Judicial District Court only," according to Rysavy, "because we get even more cases than they do in Waseca."

"What’s happening," he said, "is everybody is feeling the pain and you can reach a point where you keep the machine running, but now it’s starting to affect the services we give the public.

"Cases take longer to go through the system. The judges can’t even get on the schedule because there are only eight court hours in the day," he said.

While judges can say "no" to a request to be temporarily reassigned to another district court, judges in the Third District have been very cooperative with Chief District Judge Gerard Ring’s requests.

There is a personal as well as a public strain on the criminal justice system and Rysavy experiences it as well as other judges and others involved in the system.

On the day he has found time from a cramped schedule of in-court proceedings to grant an interview, the only time he has available is his lunch hour, so he eats while he talks.

"The strain is an obvious one," he said. "There’s a strain on the sitting judge in an area where you have an awful lot of need and you’re basically extending yourself out into 10- or 12-hour days that not only take your court time, but then to try to do the other stuff, such as review cases taken under advisement."

He said another kind of strain comes from the Minnesota Legislature.

"Overall, the state’s population slowly increases and the number of cases has been increasing faster than the number of population," he began by way of explanation. "Part of the reason for that is that every time we have a legislative session, we have new laws passed."

For example, he pointed to the current legislative session.

"The chances are probably pretty good the Legislature will pass a four-times-in-10-years DUI (driving under the influence) felony law," he said. "That’s going to require a lot more prosecutions in a county like Mower County, which has a fairly sizable number of DUI prosecutions."

Rysavy declined to comment on whether or not legislators themselves compound the problem, albeit with good intent, when they respond to the public’s cry to get tougher on crime by passing more criminal laws.

He did say, "I think it’s a recognizable fact that if you make more conduct criminal, you create more criminals. If you create more criminals, you create more cases, which is simply that much more of a burden on the court system."

Rysavy said the judiciary continues to explore alternatives, including a widening use of retired judges to return to the bench to hear cases, when sitting judges aren’t available.

However, that comes with a caveat.

"That, of course, is a money solution," he said. "We have authorization to use retired judges. That’s been a long-term stop-gap. If we have a short-term vacancy, such as the time it takes to select a new judge, when one retires, that gap can’t stay there indefinitely, because it starts creating a bulge in the system. If you’re already behind, that means less service to the public for a long period of time."

The Third Judicial District’s retired judge money has been seriously erased and the state claims more money for retired judges isn’t available.

"Now, we’re having to make do with sitting judges," he said. How much is needed depends, in part, on how many new judgeships could be funded. Rysavy had no figures.

If the strain of too few judges is that great and coming from so many directions, how effectively is the criminal justice system working?

"I think there is always that danger," Rysavy said, "but one of the things I have come to learn in the four years that I have been on the bench is that we have a really professional group. They’re going to bust every possible amount of time, effort, whatever in being able to get their job done right."

"There’s different levels of doing the job right. Most people don’t become judges unless they have a little bit of perfectionist in them. I know I speak for virtually every judge in the district. I can’t devote the time to the cases that I would like to.

"I can devote as much time as I feel is necessary to make a good decision, but that doesn’t mean it is as much time as I would like to and, maybe, even as much time as it truly deserves."