Once a week, Judge Sara Grewing joins two other Ramsey County judges at a voluntary women’s group, currently held at the Wilder Foundation in St. Paul, where they meet with ex-offenders in transition and other women who have had brushes with the justice system.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys come out to share a meal and discuss “how the system could have served them better,” said Grewing, who launched the effort in 2022 at the Ramsey County workhouse. The goal, she said, is to help the women navigate the courts and its appendages, if not life, and avoid making the kinds of mistakes that could land them back behind bars.

Sara Grewing (Courtesy photo)

“I certainly get so much more than I give in going to these discussions,” Grewing said.

The effort at the workhouse proved so popular several inmates asked if the judges could continue their seminars and work sessions on the outside, so the women’s group moved to the Midway YMCA until it ran out of space there.

A few weeks ago, some 36 women showed up at Wilder, many with kids in tow. Some women have brought their mothers or best friends.

“What’s cool is a lot of the women we started with are now facilitating meetings,” said Grewing, who was first appointed to the bench by Gov. Mark Dayton in 2015.

Grewing’s efforts have not gone unnoticed within the Second Judicial District, which spans Ramsey County. On July 1, she was elected by her judicial peers as chief judge, a two-year term overseeing the administration of all 29 judges in the district. She’s assisted by Assistant Chief Judge Kelly L. Olmstead.

Court case backlog ebbs

Some of the toughest challenges facing the court system in recent years have begun to abate. A heavy case backlog compounded by a quick transition to remote hearings in 2020, during the early days of the pandemic, now seems under control, thanks in no small part to efforts by the state court system to set target deadlines and other metrics. Still, the county remains the most diverse in the state, and homicide numbers, requests for interpreters and the fentanyl crisis have all proven time- and labor-intensive.

“We have double the number of interpreter cases in Ramsey County as compared to the statewide average. Over 7% of our cases require an interpreter, and the statewide average is 3%,” Grewing said.

The Second Judicial District has seen its felony cases increase 172% since 2018, quadruple the 44.8% increase statewide. And there’s been a significant turnover in the judicial benches within the district, “so onboarding, training new judges and capturing as much institutional memory as we can is really important,” she said.

The district’s judges are also running younger. The majority of judges in the district have 10 years of experience or less on the bench. Judge John Guthmann, who retires next month, is the last judge in Ramsey County who was appointed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. The remaining judges were either elected or appointed by Gov. Tim Walz or Mark Dayton.

Other changes are apparent since the pandemic. How justice is delivered via Zoom remains a hot topic, said Grewing, who once presided over a complicated three-week bench trial involving the estate of St. Paul resident J.P. Collins — including allegations of possible criminal wrongdoing — entirely through her computer. Ramsey County does not host jury trials online, but other court appearances can still be conducted remotely.

“I don’t love it,” Grewing said. “But I also recognize you can’t park downtown for less than $20. So if I can handle your theft charge on Zoom, and that’s what justice has to look like, I understand it. We hope that we can appreciate everyone’s humanity who comes into court, and I’m just not always confident I’m able to do that on a screen.”

From music to law

Grewing, who grew up in St. Cloud, obtained her undergraduate degree in music and vocal performance from the University of Minnesota, though she acknowledged her singing career was short-lived. “It did not take off,” she quipped, during an interview at a downtown St. Paul coffee shop. She obtained her law degree from the former William Mitchell College of Law (now known as Mitchell Hamline School of Law), where she went on to serve as a trustee for nine years.

Grewing worked as an associate attorney at Flaherty and Hood, served as an assistant Hennepin County Attorney, and served as U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s state director for five years. She was the political director for Klobuchar’s 2006 campaign and served for five years as the St. Paul City Attorney under then-Mayor Chris Coleman. Grewing also has served on the board of directors for the St. Paul Public Schools Foundation and as a member of the president’s leadership circle of Minnesota Women Lawyers.

She previously co-chaired the Second Judicial District’s Equal Justice Committee, which holds community outreach and listening sessions on targeted topics, such as jury participation in the Black community. The Ramsey County courts, she said, have been even more engaged than some nearby jurisdictions in enrolling “high risk, high need” cases in specialty drug and veterans courts, which offer defendants an opportunity to avoid conviction and or have their cases expunged if they undergo intensive probation.

“People who graduate from treatment court do extraordinarily well,” Grewing said. “The recidivism rate is low. But you go to a graduation and they say ‘this person had to provide 150 urine analyses.’ That’s pretty typical. It’s not for everybody. There are people who say, ‘I’d rather (plead guilty) and opt for probation.’ ”

Election season

Two sitting Ramsey County judges who have been heavily involved in the treatment courts and carry the first name of Tim — Judge Timothy Mulrooney and Judge Timothy Carey — face challengers in November with the last name of Yang, as in Winona Yang and Paul Yang, respectively. If that’s not confusing enough for voters, Carey’s challenger has a similar name to sitting Ramsey County Judge P. Paul Yang.

Many states require at least 10 years of courtroom experience before allowing a person to become a judge — and judges surveyed by the National Judicial College say at least six years should be requisite — though Minnesota has no such requirement. Winona Yang, a legislative aide to Ramsey County Commissioner Mai Chong Xiong, graduated from Mitchell Hamline School of Law in 2021 and was accepted to the Minnesota State Bar that December.

Grewing noted that whoever wins in November will hit the ground running, as all the Ramsey County judges are on a rotation overseeing murder trials and temporary restraining orders.

Otherwise, judges are not allowed to make official endorsements in judicial races, and Grewing said she’s even taken care to avoid the appearance of backing her husband, Judge Jon Schmidt, who is on the ballot in a retention election for the Minnesota Court of Appeals, to which he was appointed by Gov. Tim Walz in September 2023.

“I couldn’t even endorse him,” she said with a laugh.

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