EVERETT, Wash. -- For 38 years his picture has hung in the courthouses of Snohomish County, but now that time is coming to an end.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne is retiring after serving on the bench longer than anyone else in Washington state. It has been a rewarding and unpredictable career.
"As soon as you think you've seen it all, you see something new," he says. "You never know what's going to come in the door."
Wynne has been involved with more than 25 murder trials but says the toughest cases are the ones involving families falling apart due to drugs or neglect.
Then there are those that stand out for their own reasons -- like the man accused of molesting his daughter who wanted to cross-examine her himself.
"He eventually sent us a tape calling me a black-robed priest of Satan, and the court was the synagogue of Satan," says Wynne.
Now, the Everett native and University of Washington graduate plans for the next phase of his life, chiefly that of grandfather to five kids, but his legacy will live on long past his days on the bench.
Wynne was instrumental in getting a new electronic court information system implemented in Snohomish County last May. It's now being employed across the state.
Wynne says he doesn't want to leave the bench, but state law requires superior court judges to retire when they're 75. At 73, Wynne doesn't see the sense in running for a new 4-year term when he would just have to step down half-way through.
The longtime jurist's days in the courtroom aren't completely done, however. Wynne will serve as a temporary judge in Everett Municipal Court until a vacancy there is filled later this year.
Beyond that, Wynne simply hopes he has served as a model of fairness and hard work in a system that can be complicated and draining.
More than anything, he says he is grateful for his opportunity to serve.
"It's a real privilege to work as long as I have in the court system. So, I feel lucky to have been privileged to do that."
Wynne's last day is this Friday, when he will swear in his successor, Cindy Larson, a longtime prosecutor with Snohomish County.
