Hero Entry 4 - Judge Linda Jacke

[Ken Li]

(Slight disclaimer before I start; I tend to side with the prosecutorial side of issues when it comes to the justice system, this entry is just respecting someone I admire and not regarding any type of politics.)

Anyways, as a few of you know, I currently work for the King County District Court system. I have worked with many Judges over the past five years there and I have gotten to know them very well. Out of all the ones that I have worked with, I have the deepest respect and admiration for Judge Linda Jacke. It is my opinion that she is one of the fairest Judges’ that I have worked with. She has shown me, time and time again, to never judge a book by its cover.

She has taught me how to look at the whole picture about something, before making any decisions. Most importantly, she has shown me what empathy really is. Everyone has a story, when they do every little thing, and it is important to understand why that person did what they did; good or bad. I have learned how important it is to understand the underlying causes or reasons in which something happens, and I believe it helped me become a better person, because of it.

At the end of each and every single case, she will tell everyone involved to “have a nice day”, no matter how terrible the charge was or who the person is. I will miss her, since she will be retiring at the end of this year, so I hope she will have many nice days ahead when she is done with her time on the bench.