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Freeborn County District Court Judge Steve Schwab retired from his position Thursday after 13 years as a district court judge.

Before being sworn-in as a judge on Sept. 1, 2008, Schwab had served as Albert Lea city attorney since 1989. 

Though judges can serve in their roles until they are 70, he said he turned 65 in March and thought after 33 years combined in both of his positions, that it was time to retire. 

Though he will not be working cases full-time anymore, he said he plans to sign up for senior judge work, and will be back in court potentially this fall to help as needed throughout the district. 

Senior judges typically are called on to help when sitting judges are on vacation and more recently have been called to help with the backlog of cases in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. He anticipated helping more with family law cases, orders for protection, harassment restraining orders and Child in Need of Protection or Services cases, and not as many criminal cases. 

Over his 13 years as a judge, Schwab said he enjoyed the variety and type of work he saw on a daily basis, estimating he oversaw about 70 cases a week. 

“The variety of work is just amazing,” he said. “When you deal with that many cases a week, you see a lot of different things.” 

Schwab, of Albert Lea, said leaving the position, he will remember some of the challenging and emotional criminal trials he has been a part of, where even jurors were crying.

“It’s tough to go home and just walk away from it,” he said. “It’s life-changing decisions for a lot of different people — both the people being prosecuted and the victims and the victims’ families.” 

He said judges are taught early on how to deal with stress, how to set aside their jobs at the end of the workday instead of bringing them home with them, and the importance of having other outside interests.  

Though he said he hates to leave work at the Freeborn County courthouse, he thinks his successor, Christy Hormann, is going to do a great job.

“I think the Freeborn County people will be glad she’s here. It will be almost seamless.” 

Hormann, who will be the first-ever female judge in the county, is slated to be sworn-in on April 8 and then will serve her first day on the bench May 2.

Schwab said he also looked forward to traveling with his significant other, Kristen, and seeing the country.