Judge Jim Henke stands next to his tractor in Galt on Wednesday. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

Galt's Jim Henke hanging up his hat after 30 years on the bench

Jim Henke has a dual personality, if you will.

He's a farmer from Galt with a thick Oklahoma drawl who revels in his cowboy roots, parties and hunts many a critter dotting the landscape.

But when he put his black robe on, he was a serious judge who determined the fate of people throughout Sacramento County.

Henke, 60, officially retired from his judgeship Friday, after 30 years of hearing cases ranging from parking tickets to double-murders. About 300 people are expected for his retirement dinner tonight. He will continue on the bench until Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fills five vacant judicial seats in Sacramento County. He will be a vacation replacement as well.

"I think he was a law-and-order judge, and he was concerned about everybody," said Herald resident Ben Cox, who was a bailiff in Henke's courtrooms in Galt, Elk Grove, Walnut Grove and Isleton for several years. "He's a good judge, a people's judge."

Henke is an unabashed character who presided in what was then four small towns for 26 years until he was transferred to the courthouse in downtown Sacramento in 2003. He was 29 when he was elected judge for the first time in 1976.

During the days when Henke served locally, he would often see plaintiffs and defendants he knew. But he said that he would always offer to step down from a case if either party wanted another judge.

"Often I would piss off friends because some people expected a favor," Henke said.

One day, about 20 years ago, when the court calendar in Isleton was completed early, Henke set out to see if he could find Humphrey the whale, who was roaming the area at the time.

Henke and Cox drove to Rio Vista to look for Humphrey, and lo and behold, there he was, jumping out of the Sacramento River right in front of Henke.

"Here you have this judge who makes all kinds of big decisions, and he was jumping up and down like a kid," Cox said.

Henke and his friends say he has always been the picture of decorum in the courtroom despite his colorful language and personality. Well, there was one exception.

"The only trouble I ever got in court was saying 'bulls--t' one time," Henke said. "Bulls--t has always been one of my favorite words in chambers, but (almost) never on the record in court."

Judge Jim Henke stands in his home in Galt on Wednesday. (Whitney Ramirez/News-Sentinel)

Today, Henke and his wife, Lynda, live on a 65-acre ranch off Arno Road, northeast of Galt. The house is full of antique farm and cowboy equipment hanging from the ceilings. Some of the decorations include a bridle and collar to harness a horse, two old-fashioned lanterns, his father's old scale to weigh cotton and his grandfather's gas well sign from Oklahoma.

If that isn't enough, his home also includes mounted pheasants, bobcats, coyotes — even a reindeer from Norway — that he and friends hunted (he has a grandson named Hunter and another named Fisher).

Next to his spacious backyard are 65 acres of winegrapes he just planted. There will be no crop this year, but he expects a half-crop in 2008. There is also an old-fashioned wooden structure that looks like a wild-west saloon.

Called the Red Dog Saloon, it has a full bar, pool table and poker table. The bar and eight bar stools came from an old bar in Galt called Paddy's and The Club, which burned down on Fourth Street, just south of C Street.

The fire left one-third of the bar. Henke took a chain saw and chopped off what he could salvage and took it to his ranch.

Henke purchased the rear bar table from an antiques shop in Jamestown. It was originally at the Charlotte Hotel in Groveland, in rural Tuolumne County.

Born in Oklahoma, Henke attended Woodbridge Elementary School for six months in the fifth or sixth grade — he doesn't recall — before moving to Stockton and then to Lodi.

The family moved to Galt when he was in eighth grade at the old Galt Middle School, located where SaveMart is today on C Street. He graduated from Galt High in 1965, where he played basketball and golf for the late Don Nottoli Sr. He also played football and track before "wrasslin', " as he put it, at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton.

Henke became interested in law after looking at law books while milking cows for Tom "T.A." Farrell, whose father was a prominent attorney in Sacramento. Tom Farrell kept the law books from his late father in his office.

After attending McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, Henke was one of four candidates in 1976 for what was then known as the Elk Grove-Galt Justice Court to replace the late Judge Fred "Buster" May, who was retiring from the bench. He won because of endorsements from May and Farrell.

In the past five years, Henke presided over more serious cases, such as murders and child molestations.

His pet peeve — and Sacramento County's biggest mistake — he maintains, is the county's decision to consolidate the courts and no longer hold court in Galt, Elk Grove or the delta. Those cases were transferred to Sacramento, 25 miles from Galt.

Ironically, due to Elk Grove's growth, the county is exploring construction of a courthouse there, Henke said.

Henke has his serious moments, one of which focuses on how he treats people in court. He'll let someone tell their story in court even if it isn't germane to the case.

"If you treat those people with respect, you avoid a lot of problems," he said.

One of society's major problems today, Henke said, is drug abuse. In his experience on the bench, especially during the past five years in Sacramento, a majority of murder cases were over drugs.

Henke has four children from a previous marriage, while Lynda has three. They had no children together.

"We have dogs together," Lynda Henke quipped.

Henke also has two brothers in the Galt area. John Henke owns land in Galt and Oklahoma along with the Estrellita Ballroom in Galt's Oldtown, while Clayton lives on a ranch in Thornton. Clayton Henke has served many years on the Thornton fire board.

In addition to hunting and fishing, Henke enjoys flying his private plane and driving his Rolls Royce. He hopes to be a vacation replacement three or four months a year, preferably in the winter.

Despite his zany nature, people appreciate Henke for his loyalty and fairness in the courtroom.

"As far as I'm concerned, I'd take a bullet in front of him," Cox said. "He walks on water."

Retirement party

Some 300 people will attend a retirement party of Judge Jim Henke at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Littleton Community Center, 410 Civic Drive, Galt.

The party will include dinner and a program combining a roast of Henke plus some serious comments about his career. His wife, Lynda, is keeping the details a surprise.

A few seats are available. Anyone interested in attending may contact Lynda Henke at 745-1213.