Today marks the end of an era in the Outagamie County Branch Six Judicial Chambers.
Since its inception in 1988, Branch Six has seen thousands of hearings, hundreds of trials, two judges, several clerks, a variety of court reporters and just one judicial assistant.
After more than 36 years as the Branch Six judicial assistant (and five prior years as a deputy court clerk), Virginia Johnson is retiring.
“I just really enjoyed the job,” she said. “Every day is different depending on the calls you get and what’s on the calendar.”
Efficient and unflappable, Virginia has navigated dramatic changes in technology and demographics. She helped guide courthouse personnel and defendants through a global pandemic, secured translators for an increasing variety of languages, worked her way through various means of communications from typing to Skyping, and helped ensure a smooth disposition of justice through some incredibly emotional trials.
She clerked for Judge Nick Schaeffer throughout the Kimbro trial, at which two young brothers were charged with torturing and murdering a baby boy and she said that was one of the hardest.
“That sticks out because it was so unusual,” she said.
Though she and her husband Jeff are now the very proud parents of their daughter Dani, they did struggle through a period of infertility years ago, which made it difficult for Virginia to sit through some cases.
“I did have some times where I wasn’t doing well back when we had CHIPS (Child in need of protection) cases with Judge Dyer and I was trying to get pregnant and you see these kids get taken away from their parents and then you’re not getting pregnant. So, that was very depressing. It was hard to see all that.”
She noted that those types of cases have increased over the years, as have felonies in general.
She also noted that the courts are busier now than they used to be.
“What has increased is crime – just more pending felonies,” she said. “There are a lot of drug possession, possession with intent to deliver, and selling. And then that feeds into theft – retail theft and all of that so they can re-sell stuff and get money for drugs. So, there’s a lot of that. A lot of the reason kids get taken away from their parents is that there’s drugs laying around the house. It used to be that parents were neglectful. Now it’s a lot of drug addicts.”
In many ways, you can trace Outagamie County’s history, its growth and its challenges through its courtrooms.
“We used to have to get Hmong interpreters constantly,” Virginia said. “Now it’s rare. Spanish, for sure, but now different languages like Swahili and Kinyarwandan. And, if something is actually going to go to trial then you need two interpreters so they can tag-team that’s really hard sometimes to find.”
In addition to finding and scheduling interpreters, judicial assistants manage the court calendar, track decisions, print minutes for the clerks, type and proofread legal decisions, take calls and make sure the courtroom runs smoothly.
Among her many skills, and the one she advises her successor to develop, is the ability to multi-task.
“It can get very busy,” she said. “If you’ve got a full court calendar out there and they need something, like something is not working, or somebody dropped off the Pexip or somebody is going to be calling you back or this or that and the court commissioner is calling for a date, another court is calling for an arraignment date, somebody is Skyping you, somebody is emailing you. Some days are like that. But it’s not every single day so you can breathe here and there.”
Congratulations to Virginia on her retirement and thank you for more than 41 years of excellent service to our community.
