Many a wrongdoer has stood before a Ramsey County district judge and resolved not to have to stand there again. Some, no doubt, have done a better job keeping those resolutions than others. But when judges make resolutions -- and this is, after all, the season of resolutions -- just what do they resolve to do? We asked some judges how they plan to change come Jan. 1. Their responses have been edited for, ahem, brevity. • "I want to work on my poker face," said Judge John Van De North. "It will help me if I ever start playing poker but it'll also help me when I'm on the bench and people come up with these amazing excuses. (One I always liked was, 'I stole the money to pay my court fines.')
"Another thing I want to remind myself to do next year is to always ask the bride before the wedding ceremony begins whether I have sentenced her to prison in the past. I have been surprised to find out at the end of the ceremony that I should have recognized the woman when she said, 'The last time you saw me I was all dressed in orange [jail uniform].' "
• "I am going to make some," Judge Kathleen Gearin said when asked about resolutions. "One is to try to get into better physical shape. I do play tennis pretty regularly and I do a few exercises every day but I need to do more. I need to do more brisk walking to build up my endurance."
And what else? "To use more vacation time. The lawyers would probably love that, too."
• Judge William Leary III, who said he's often accused of being too serious, resolves to "avoid coverage of bad judges presiding over celebrity cases."
• "My New Year's resolution is to exercise 30 minutes a day, five days a week," said Judge Elena Ostby (who didn't know Gearin had the same idea). "It's a big one, but given the type of job I have -- it's a sedentary job and tends to be fairly stressed at times -- I need to do it."
• "I have the job of my dreams," said Judge Rosanne Nathanson. "My real resolution is to get up every day and remember how lucky I am in every way ... being appreciative in every way."
• Judge Joanne Smith vows "to find a way to have more fun in my life ... to seek a better balance between work and play and ... to seek more peace and harmony with the people who come in front of me and my colleagues."