August 18, 2024 • 28 mins
In this week's program, host Phil Tower welcomes the honorable Judge Sara Smolenski, who recently retired after 34 years as 63rd District Court Judge. Judge Smolenski retired on July 15th after 34 years on the bench. Judge Sara joined us to talk about her long career as an attorney and later judge, following in the footsteps of her father and brother, Michael. There's been a Smolenski on the bench in West Michigan for 55 years—a true family legacy. Judge Sara Smolenski grew up as one of 10 siblings. She told us she had wanted to be a lawyer since the fourth grade. You'll hear about that story in this episode. Judge Smolenski has spent decades in West Michigan supporting numerous nonprofits…..Catholic Charities West Michigan, CASA of Kent County, Cherry Health and Mercy Central School of Nursing, the Grand Rapids Bar Association, the Dominican Sisters, and others. We also learn in this conversation why she referred to the district court as “the people's court." Judge Sara also talked about retirement and term limits for judges, especially at the Supreme Court, and the importance of adhering to a code of ethics.
Online: 63rd District Court
Online: 63rd District Court
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly program designed to inform and enlighten on a
wide range of public policy issues, as well as news
and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
This is West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio and I'm your host,
Phil Tower. Thank you so much for tuning in, Thank
you for being with us on this Sunday, and we
want to remind you after you hear this conversation on
the radio. This program is available as a podcast. You
can check Woodradio dot Com on the left hand side
of the page. We're closing in a five hundred episodes
(00:38):
of the West Michigan Weekend program.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I am really excited.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We have a full program dedicated to you know, it's
a lot of work to land guests for this program,
especially when you want to get the really big guests,
especially the local ones, and you've got a good multiple
layers of security and background checks. But we've landed a
big one, recently retired sixty third District Court. It's the
honorable Sarah Smolensky. Boy, if I mess up her name
(01:04):
more than one time on the radio, I'm in trouble.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
The Honorable Siri Simolensky is with us.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Judge Simolenski retired just days ago, just a few weeks ago,
July fifteenth, after only thirty four years.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
On the bench.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
She was quoted by Wood TV as saying, I believe
the time is right to retire. Judge Jeffrey O'Hara and
the staff at the sixty third District Court are exceptional people.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I will miss them. In fact.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Judge Sarah, welcome to the program. I'm so glad you're
in studio with you.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Oh Phil, thanks so much for having me. This is fun.
I love being up here with you.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
And I appreciate all the work you do for iHeartRadio
and all the stations would Radio.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
We go back a long way, man, and I.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Just appreciate being here versus the media softball at the
Catholic Charities of West Michigan. We'll talk about your work
with charities, because I know you're gonna your phone is
gonna be ringing like crazy now that all this media attention. Hey,
she's retired, right, it's already available. That means we can
put her on the board. We can make her super busy.
(02:10):
We'll talk about that. So I was joking with you.
I did a lot of Smolensky one on one prep. Right,
I read this wonderful story that you knew since the
fourth grade you wanted to be a lawyer. And what
this has got to be just myth, This can't be true.
But there's actually a cool story with that, yeah, in
(02:31):
grade school. Can you share it with our listeners.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
It's funny, Phil, because kids nowadays they have all kinds
of ideas of what they want to do, and I
tell them they can go for the very top, do
whatever they want. But I did get an idea when
I was in fourth grade that I wanted to be
a lawyer. Now, I am sure that it helped that
my dad was a lawyer, yes, and soon to be
(02:54):
a judge. Yes, But I I do distinctly remember our
teacher had us reading out loud and we all had
to read a paragraph or two. And this one kid
in my class, who was very bright, way brighter than
I ever was, he was shy. And I've never been shy.
I've always been an extrovert. And I could see when
(03:16):
the teacher called on him to read that he really
was hesitant about reading out loud. I asked the teacher
if I could read for him, and she said no.
And I get it later why she said that, but
it did dawn on me. There are people that don't
feel comfortable speaking for themselves. Sure, and that's what it
made me think about being a lawyer. I could speak
(03:37):
for others. I could speak when they might not be
able to speak up for themselves. And it was I'm
sure a lot to do with both. My mom and
dad always encouraged all us kids to do whatever we
wanted to do and go for it. Always was encouraging,
regardless of you know, I had eight sisters, so there
were nine girls in our family.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
We had our own team.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Really yeah, you know, but I just always thought of
going to law school, like going from seventh grade to
eighth grade.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
It was just going to happen. It was all part
of the plan.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I love this story.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
You know, you said something that I think we overlook
And you've got a bunch of siblings who are now grandparents.
I can imagine, right, proud parents. The fact that your
mom and dad were encouragers, especially in a big family,
a family of ten. Not so many people are raised
Judge Sarah without any kind of encouragement and that's huge
(04:34):
and it was for you too.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Yeah, that's very true, and you do see it and
it obviously affects.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
People their whole life through.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
We were very fortunate to be in the family that
we were in and my sisters, all of whom are mothers,
all of whom with the exception of one as a grandmother.
I mean, they just keep on keeping on and they
make those memories and support those kids and grand kids
that they have and do such a beautiful job that
(05:04):
It's something that I've often said, being a parent is
the biggest job you'll ever have. Now, there's a joke
I could say, because I'm not a parent, I'm not
sure I can use it on the radio, but I
often would joke about I'm not a mother. I've been
called the mother he got thirty days. Of course that's
not true.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
But I will be honest.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
Being a parent is a huge job and being encouraging
to your kids. That's why I say being a teacher
is such a big job. These teachers are the role
models for these kids. They always are giving them, you know, encouragement,
telling them they can do anything they want to do.
And my gosh, those kids are the leaders of tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Do we want to talk with your siblings. I know
your brother he has passed. Michael Smolensky passed several years ago.
I had the real true honor of being in a
studio with him on the Lawyer's Program that we used
to produce here with Kurt Benson, now Judge Benson and done.
If you talk though, with your eight sisters, do you
(06:07):
reminiscent how fortunate you were, even with a family that big,
that you had parents like that. It was a different time, obviously,
but I mean, you know, it's tough, as you just said,
to raise two kids, let alone right ten.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Do you talk about that with your.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
You know, it's funny because we just recently had my
mother's she's been gone sixteen years, but we just recently
had her one hundred and sixth what we call heavenly birthday.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I love it.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
So she would have turned one hundred and six on
the fourth of August, and my sisters and I all
text each other when it's a birthday, whether the person's
living or deceased, of course you always remember them. And
it was so great to have my sisters talk about
and myself what a great mother. We had, what a
great role model? And how did she do it? How
(06:55):
did she do it? My one sister actually identified how
many meals she would prepare in a week's time, in
a month's time, in a year's time with all those
kids at home, because there was a period of time
that we were all there at seventeen year difference between
my oldest Mike and the youngest Martha.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
But I'm telling you.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
My sister said, how did she do it? And I said,
I know how she did it. She was a wonderful,
great superpower of a woman, much like my sisters who
are great mothers and great grandmothers to their grandkids, and
they set the same role model standards of being a
good person, teaching those kids and grandkids and being there
(07:38):
for them and making memories that those kids are going
to talk about years later, just like we're talking about
about my mom.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, I love that. What was your dad like?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Obviously well respected in the community for years as Judge Smolensky,
What was he like as one son?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Nine right? Nine daughters?
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Right?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
What was he like as a father?
Speaker 5 (07:59):
As my dad was a good mentor to me, he
was a good role model. He was a great person,
dedicated and committed to being a public servant as a judge.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
He set the legacy.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
For our family, no doubt as far as being in
the legal field. I joke a lot because I'm a
joke stir, but we joke. You know, we grew up Catholic.
We were a Catholic family. I often say we didn't
have one nun, we didn't have one priest. My dad
thought he was the pope, but my mother really was
the saint. And the truth is my dad was a
(08:38):
wonderful person and he he was there to support all
of us and love us all. My mom, you know,
worked as hard, if not harder, by being the stay
at home mom. You talk about not having a job,
but my dad was there to be supportive.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I also joked.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
At my mother's eulogy because, you know, we talked about
finally getting my folks into a senior living place where
they could have assisted living. And I was trying to
gently tell my dad, Dad, you've had assisted living since
you married mother at nineteen forty three. You've had assisted
living your whole life, so it's time now that mom
(09:16):
can get that assisted living. So in things like that,
my sisters all joke about because my mom was there
to help every step of the way.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
But my dad was a wonderful person.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Do you remember the Honorable Judge Sarah Smolensky with us
just recently retired Judge Smolensky from the sixty third District Court.
Do you remember graduating from law school? You would have
been what twenty.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Yeah, I would have been I think around twenty four
years old.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Twenty four years old, And you look back then and
it doesn't seem like that long ago, and you and
I are not too far apart in age. But he
looked back then and it was still a male dominated
professionist es actually for judges. Do you think back at
that time and think how fortunate you were, first of
all to have your dad and mom encouraging you. But
(10:08):
I was curious if you had any special mentors, other
people that really kind of helped you feel like you
could ascend to the level of becoming a judge.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Well, you know, I had made the decision to want
to be a judge way early on, even before law school,
but the mentors that I've had many over the years,
and when I finished law school, my very first job
was with my brother's law firm in Elger Heights, and
he worked with a great attorney by the name of
(10:38):
Mike Quinn who's still around and was a mentor to
me as well. But those guys gave me a job
when they really didn't have the time or the money
to give a kid a job. I stayed for maybe
a year, and then I went to the City Attorney's
office and was a prosecutor at the City Attorney. So
I've had great mentors over the years. And in fact,
(11:01):
Carol Irons, you know, the former sixty first District Court judge,
was a mentor to me. And I knew that someday
I'd want to be a judge. I just wasn't sure
when I could do it, and I knew it had
to be a campaign because I didn't have any political
clout to get an appointment. Even with your dad's Yeah,
(11:22):
I felt like even then, I mean my dad was
a Republican. When he retired, my brother was appointed to
his spot by a Democrat Governor Blanchard. I think that's
how my brother got in to do that. He was
more active, and I always felt like having those mentors,
having so many people out there, and a number of
(11:44):
women because the women mentors meant so much that they'd
been there, they'd done that, and they would give you
help and assistance as you'd progress in your career. And
I've always appreciated that. And you ever forget, you know,
where you came from. But being a Smolensky, there is
(12:04):
no question helped me get elected in nineteen ninety to
start my career as a judge. I don't and being
a woman was a big part of it because I
was only one of five.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
You know, there was five candidates for that position.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
And four were you know, Caucasian males that were far
more qualified than I were all older than I was.
And for the record, I'm older than you Phil Tower
by a few days in near decade. But I just
you just appreciate that as you go back and think
about it.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, Carol Irons, I had the great honor. She was
a popular judge. Yes, she was back in the day.
She was a popular judge. I had a great honor
of being on a jury in her courtroom.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
She just really grew to appreciate her as a judge,
and that was my first or a duty.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
So it was positive one. I didn't have terrible feeling
about it.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Like a lot of people did, and every other time
since it has been very positive. But she was a
special person, obviously, very talented, very respected, met a very
tragic ending.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
What was she like a as a mentor to you?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
She was a dynamite person.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
And she was a woman judge at a time that
you know, there weren't many of them, So she was
a great role model for me.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
She had come from the prosecutor's office.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
I worked at the City Attorney's Office and tried many
cases in front of her, as well as the other
judges at the sixty first District Court. My brother was
on the bench when she was there, and she was encouraging.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
She was helpful.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
I actually had dinner with her the night before she
was murdered. I say murdered because he was convicted of
manslaughter for her death and got fifteen years in prison.
He was convicted of assault with intent to commit murder
by missing at some of the other officers that came
(14:08):
to her aid in the hallway. No one else was shot,
only her. But I actually had dinner with her the
night before that horrific incident at the Hall of Justice
in grend Rapids. We both had October birthdays and we
would celebrate them. And I spoke with her at length
at that dinner about when the judge that I succeeded
(14:32):
would ever be leaving his post, because he was there
thirty five plus years, and you think, is he ever
going to go? Because I needed to run for office.
I knew it had to be sixty third District Court
because my house was in East Green Rapids, the first
house I ever bought. And she was telling me, I've
got a book in my office. I can tell you
exactly his date when his term ends, you know. And yeah,
(14:55):
she was always encouraging her mother and dad. I spoke
at her funeral at the request.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Of her mom and dad.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
What an honor.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
It was an honor at Trinity United Methodist Church and
it was packed, and her mom and dad gave me
her gavel and I kept her gavel Carol Irons in
my court my entire thirty four years I was at
the court.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
She was relatively young when she was killed, thirties or forties,
as I regret.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
It would have been late thirties.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
I believed thirties.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, And just a lot of judges aspire to higher positions.
You stayed with the sixty third District Court, and I
want to talk about that judge Sarah Splensky with us
on West Michigan Weekend here on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
A lot to talk about, but she was a.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Special person and I'm grateful for that limited amount of
time i had in her courtroom. I want to talk
about you in the courtroom thirty years tenures a district
court judge. You called it in a recent an article
where you've been getting a lot of well deserved media attention.
You called it the people's court. Yeah, and I love
that phrase. What what made you describe it as the
(16:10):
people's court?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
Well, to me, the district Court is the entry level court,
and people of all ages, of all formats come forward
through the district Court, whether they're there for business or
whether they're for jury duty.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
It is literally the people's court.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
I sometimes think of it as busy as Grand Central Station,
being in the lobby of Grand Central Station. It's just
NonStop activity. And that's the people's court. You get, like
my brother went on to circuit and then to the
Court of Appeals, and I joke about the Court of Appeals.
I joke about it being a little bit more like
(16:49):
the lobby of the nursing home. It's a little bit
slower pace. People are sitting in chairs waiting. The district court,
there's a lot of activity. And I say the people's
court because you're dealing with people for the very get
go and you make an impression with them from the
very beginning of how they feel about the whole judicial system.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
That's a great point.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Yeah, and you I never I had lots of opportunities
to move on to other courts, higher courts, but I
loved being what I call the people's court because I'm
a people person.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
I mean my friends, my colleagues, they'd say, wow, she's
a talker. She's a talker. But you feel like you
can make an impact with people because people that coming
through court, as say defendants, it doesn't mean everybody's a
bad person. They're going through a difficult time, they're going
through a difficult scenario in their life. If they have
(17:41):
somebody that stops, listens and talks to them about getting
back on the right track. You can have people and
I have over the course of the thirty four years,
that say to me, I was in front of you.
You even gave me jail, but it changed my life
and then I'll say, well, you changed your life, but
the experience of talking to them, going through it with them,
(18:03):
explaining it to them so they don't feel like they
got caught in a revolving door and spin out of control. No,
the whole idea is to help people in the community
get back on track so they can be the best
that they can be.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well, it sounds like you took what you learned from
your mom and dad and utilize that deployed that in
the courtroom. Although I almost laugh when you said you're
describing yourself as judge Sarah the talker. Was it ever
hard for you to throttle yourself in the middle of
a court case or you hear something funny and you
(18:41):
knew it was inappropriate to laugh.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Was that ever a challenge? Maybe at the beginning.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Well, much like your role Phil, you've had many occasions
where you've been in thousands and thousands of interviews where
something will happen or somebody says something, and it's like
taking every ounce of your energy not to crack up
or lose it or say are you kidding? In fact,
COVID kind of helped because I could hold up signs
(19:07):
and I could hold up signs like you are muted.
You are muted. They can't hear you, you know, but
they see the sign. Now, I've in some of my
comedy things held up a sign that says, are you
kidding me? Because you bout want to say you can't
believe it?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Did I see and I'm sorry to interrupt, Did I
see a comment that you said? One guy during COVID
on a zoom showed up without a shirt.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Yes, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
If I ever have time to sit on and write
a book, you could write a book just about the
stories of COVID. But he's sitting at what looks like
a kitchen table. I described COVID in the courtroom similar
to the game Hollywood Squares, because you had a number
of people on zoom, but you were only usually talking
(19:55):
to one person at a time. You weren't always sure
which person you were talking to, and it was sometime
hard to keep it straight. But as I was staring
at this guy who appeared to be at a kitchen table,
and maybe he was thirty years old, it looked like.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
He didn't have a shirt on.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
Well, you know, looks can be deceiving, and you don't
want to be problematic.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
But as I stared further and further.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
Into the zoom camera, I said to him, sir, it
looks like you don't have a shirt on.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
He said, I don't.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
I said, well, you're in a courtroom and you have
to be dressed now, I will be honest. I heard
his mom, or who I thought might be his mom
say in the background, John, I told you to put
a shirt on.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
You know.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
And then he starts to get up, and I was
worried about keep watching him because I thought if he
gets up from the table and he's stark naked, it's
going to be a problem. Yeah, but I said, you
got to go put a shirt on and come back.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Those are unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Well, and there was the story. This was earlier this year.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I think about the guy who was being sentenced again
for a duy and was doing the hearing on his
cell phone right the carving only and you're like, really
only in the got.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Charge of driving on a suspended license in Dui and
he's driving only. Many people on zoom were on the
in the car, and you'd see the trees flying by
and the car's flying by, and I'd say hold it,
hold it you are in a car, you're driving, you
got to stop. Whether they had the permission to drive
or not, you had to get them to stop. It
(21:26):
just wasn't safe.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Judge Sarah Smolensky recently retired sixty third District Court Judge,
you were saying to me before we turn on the
microphones this morning for this great conversation which I'm truly enjoying,
that so far you've been retired for a number of weeks.
You missed the people. Don't miss the job too much.
(21:51):
You told me something too, And I want to talk
just briefly before we run out of time about term
limits for judges, because President Biden at the end of
your I talked about term limits for the Supreme Court,
some proposals that were not met with a lot of praise,
as you can imagine from the nation size court. But
your court, Michigan, has a law where judges have to
(22:12):
retire at seventy.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
You know?
Speaker 5 (22:15):
The rule is that once you've reached the age of seventy,
you're not allowed to reapply for.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
A new term. You can't run again.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
In other words, so it's possible that you could turn
seventy and have a six year term ahead of you
and go till you're seventy six, assuming.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Your age is you know at that time.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
But if I was already out, I mean, I'm, you know,
sixty six, I'll be sixty seven in October. I could
not run for another term because I was going to
hit my seventieth birthday before my term ended. So then
you can't run again. And that's the rule. I mean,
I'm all for you know, seventy is the new what forty? Yeah,
(22:59):
I don't know what it said, so, but I mean,
you you gotta. I've looked at retirement as a way
to get more physically in shape because I have time
to do things that I want to do and not
have to be exhausted because of a day of work.
But I think there are a lot of people that
keep on working because they love it and they do
well at it.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
I didn't want to number one keep working and being
on the bench when people said she should get off,
And I didn't want to die at work.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah, you know, got on top on top.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Yeah, you want to.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
Go out when you can call call it like you
want it. You can travel. My spouse, Linda and I
are going to travel We're gonna have fun.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
We already are.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
I mean, we've been busy with great nieces and nephews
and nephews and nieces coming and you know, visiting, and
it's just you wanna take advantage of every day and
have every day.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Be a good day.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I saw something and I salute you on your decision.
It sounds like you did absolutely the right thing, regardless
of the age limit with the State of Michigan. But
I read something about retiring and said, you can if
you retire too soon, you can always un retire and
maybe yea, do part time work or do this or that,
But if you retire too late, there's no going back.
So I liked that statement and I've shared that with
(24:17):
a lot of people. The Honored Bull Judge Sarah Smolenski
with US on West Michigan Weekend here at iHeartRadio. There
are a lot of trust concerns, especially about the Supreme
Court here in the country with some recent rulings, Concerns
about impropriety with ethics with Justice Clarence Thomas taking some
(24:38):
expensive trips, and just questions about this through the years,
Questions with Judgice Alito and the Flags upside down in
his yard and partisanship. Do you worry about trust in
the justice system eroding?
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Judge Sarah, You know, I am not a highly political person,
but I want good people to do the work that they're.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Supposed to do.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
In West Michigan, we are blessed by having, in my opinion,
a really good and decent judiciary from the top to
the bottom. I think my colleagues over the years have
been outstanding. And when we see this stuff in the
news and hear what's going on at the Supreme Court,
it does more than break your heart, it in a
(25:23):
way breaks your spirit.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
But I have.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Always maintained my position that there are so many more
good people in the world than bad.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
That the good will overcome.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
And I don't say that sarcastically because we're in a
political year now, but we we would never have been
talking about somebody that has thirty four felonies running for president.
I mean, when I see the people in front of
me that are struggling to have a felony expunged because
they made an error years ago and they're truly truly
(25:57):
repentant and want to get back on track, I just worry.
But I always try to keep the balance that there
are more good people in the world than bad. From
every job there ever was in the world, there are
more good people than bad. But we have to speak up.
(26:17):
The good people have to speak up and make sure
that people do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Well, said the Honorable Judge Sarah Spolensky, just recently retired
from the sixty third District Court here in Grand Rapids.
For just about out of time, By the way, I
want to thank you on the radio for thirty years
of service to West Michigan. I've got about a minute
or so left. Is there anything I didn't ask you
(26:45):
real quickly you want to share with our listeners.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Well, Phil, I just want to say to everybody at
iHeartRadio and all the media stations, you guys cover Wood Radio,
we go back so many years. It's been thirty four years.
There's been a small Lensky on the bench for fifty
six years, between my dad, my brother Mike, and myself,
and it has been a legacy that we're all proud
(27:09):
of and I still feel them shining down. But this
new judge that's taking over my place, Kirsten Hole, is
going to do a great job and she's going to
have the energy that I once had thirty four years ago.
And we're going to get a new judge coming up
with the November race, and I want everyone to get
out there.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
And do the right thing. People.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Thank you to Phil Tower and vote and vote.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Oh definitely.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
And I want to real quickly correct the last time
I said, I said thirty years tenire.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Thirty, that's thirty four.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
But that's all right.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I'm going to give you those four years.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Thank you, brother Judge.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Sarah Splinsky, our guest on this full program of West
Michigan Weekend, thanks so much for being here.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Thank you Phil.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
It was a lot of fun and I didn't even
get to the last thirty questions.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Thank you iHeartMedia. He's out.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
She has been our guest on this program. Thank you
so much for tuning in. Don't forget. We'll have this
as a podcast available after you hear on the radio.
Woodradio dot Com. That's a program for this week. Thank
you for tuning in. We'll catch you next week right
here on this iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly program designed to inform and enlighten on a
wide range of public policy issues, as well as news
and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
This is West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio and I'm your host,
Phil Tower. Thank you so much for tuning in, Thank
you for being with us on this Sunday, and we
want to remind you after you hear this conversation on
the radio. This program is available as a podcast. You
can check Woodradio dot Com on the left hand side
of the page. We're closing in a five hundred episodes
(00:38):
of the West Michigan Weekend program.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I am really excited.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We have a full program dedicated to you know, it's
a lot of work to land guests for this program,
especially when you want to get the really big guests,
especially the local ones, and you've got a good multiple
layers of security and background checks. But we've landed a
big one, recently retired sixty third District Court. It's the
honorable Sarah Smolensky. Boy, if I mess up her name
(01:04):
more than one time on the radio, I'm in trouble.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
The Honorable Siri Simolensky is with us.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Judge Simolenski retired just days ago, just a few weeks ago,
July fifteenth, after only thirty four years.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
On the bench.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
She was quoted by Wood TV as saying, I believe
the time is right to retire. Judge Jeffrey O'Hara and
the staff at the sixty third District Court are exceptional people.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I will miss them. In fact.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Judge Sarah, welcome to the program. I'm so glad you're
in studio with you.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Oh Phil, thanks so much for having me. This is fun.
I love being up here with you.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
And I appreciate all the work you do for iHeartRadio
and all the stations would Radio.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
We go back a long way, man, and I.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Just appreciate being here versus the media softball at the
Catholic Charities of West Michigan. We'll talk about your work
with charities, because I know you're gonna your phone is
gonna be ringing like crazy now that all this media attention. Hey,
she's retired, right, it's already available. That means we can
put her on the board. We can make her super busy.
(02:10):
We'll talk about that. So I was joking with you.
I did a lot of Smolensky one on one prep. Right,
I read this wonderful story that you knew since the
fourth grade you wanted to be a lawyer. And what
this has got to be just myth, This can't be true.
But there's actually a cool story with that, yeah, in
(02:31):
grade school. Can you share it with our listeners.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
It's funny, Phil, because kids nowadays they have all kinds
of ideas of what they want to do, and I
tell them they can go for the very top, do
whatever they want. But I did get an idea when
I was in fourth grade that I wanted to be
a lawyer. Now, I am sure that it helped that
my dad was a lawyer, yes, and soon to be
(02:54):
a judge. Yes, But I I do distinctly remember our
teacher had us reading out loud and we all had
to read a paragraph or two. And this one kid
in my class, who was very bright, way brighter than
I ever was, he was shy. And I've never been shy.
I've always been an extrovert. And I could see when
(03:16):
the teacher called on him to read that he really
was hesitant about reading out loud. I asked the teacher
if I could read for him, and she said no.
And I get it later why she said that, but
it did dawn on me. There are people that don't
feel comfortable speaking for themselves. Sure, and that's what it
made me think about being a lawyer. I could speak
(03:37):
for others. I could speak when they might not be
able to speak up for themselves. And it was I'm
sure a lot to do with both. My mom and
dad always encouraged all us kids to do whatever we
wanted to do and go for it. Always was encouraging,
regardless of you know, I had eight sisters, so there
were nine girls in our family.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
We had our own team.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Really yeah, you know, but I just always thought of
going to law school, like going from seventh grade to
eighth grade.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
It was just going to happen. It was all part
of the plan.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I love this story.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
You know, you said something that I think we overlook
And you've got a bunch of siblings who are now grandparents.
I can imagine, right, proud parents. The fact that your
mom and dad were encouragers, especially in a big family,
a family of ten. Not so many people are raised
Judge Sarah without any kind of encouragement and that's huge
(04:34):
and it was for you too.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Yeah, that's very true, and you do see it and
it obviously affects.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
People their whole life through.
Speaker 5 (04:41):
We were very fortunate to be in the family that
we were in and my sisters, all of whom are mothers,
all of whom with the exception of one as a grandmother.
I mean, they just keep on keeping on and they
make those memories and support those kids and grand kids
that they have and do such a beautiful job that
(05:04):
It's something that I've often said, being a parent is
the biggest job you'll ever have. Now, there's a joke
I could say, because I'm not a parent, I'm not
sure I can use it on the radio, but I
often would joke about I'm not a mother. I've been
called the mother he got thirty days. Of course that's
not true.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
But I will be honest.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
Being a parent is a huge job and being encouraging
to your kids. That's why I say being a teacher
is such a big job. These teachers are the role
models for these kids. They always are giving them, you know, encouragement,
telling them they can do anything they want to do.
And my gosh, those kids are the leaders of tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Do we want to talk with your siblings. I know
your brother he has passed. Michael Smolensky passed several years ago.
I had the real true honor of being in a
studio with him on the Lawyer's Program that we used
to produce here with Kurt Benson, now Judge Benson and done.
If you talk though, with your eight sisters, do you
(06:07):
reminiscent how fortunate you were, even with a family that big,
that you had parents like that. It was a different time, obviously,
but I mean, you know, it's tough, as you just said,
to raise two kids, let alone right ten.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Do you talk about that with your.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
You know, it's funny because we just recently had my
mother's she's been gone sixteen years, but we just recently
had her one hundred and sixth what we call heavenly birthday.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I love it.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
So she would have turned one hundred and six on
the fourth of August, and my sisters and I all
text each other when it's a birthday, whether the person's
living or deceased, of course you always remember them. And
it was so great to have my sisters talk about
and myself what a great mother. We had, what a
great role model? And how did she do it? How
(06:55):
did she do it? My one sister actually identified how
many meals she would prepare in a week's time, in
a month's time, in a year's time with all those
kids at home, because there was a period of time
that we were all there at seventeen year difference between
my oldest Mike and the youngest Martha.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
But I'm telling you.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
My sister said, how did she do it? And I said,
I know how she did it. She was a wonderful,
great superpower of a woman, much like my sisters who
are great mothers and great grandmothers to their grandkids, and
they set the same role model standards of being a
good person, teaching those kids and grandkids and being there
(07:38):
for them and making memories that those kids are going
to talk about years later, just like we're talking about
about my mom.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, I love that. What was your dad like?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Obviously well respected in the community for years as Judge Smolensky,
What was he like as one son?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Nine right? Nine daughters?
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Right?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
What was he like as a father?
Speaker 5 (07:59):
As my dad was a good mentor to me, he
was a good role model. He was a great person,
dedicated and committed to being a public servant as a judge.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
He set the legacy.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
For our family, no doubt as far as being in
the legal field. I joke a lot because I'm a
joke stir, but we joke. You know, we grew up Catholic.
We were a Catholic family. I often say we didn't
have one nun, we didn't have one priest. My dad
thought he was the pope, but my mother really was
the saint. And the truth is my dad was a
(08:38):
wonderful person and he he was there to support all
of us and love us all. My mom, you know,
worked as hard, if not harder, by being the stay
at home mom. You talk about not having a job,
but my dad was there to be supportive.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I also joked.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
At my mother's eulogy because, you know, we talked about
finally getting my folks into a senior living place where
they could have assisted living. And I was trying to
gently tell my dad, Dad, you've had assisted living since
you married mother at nineteen forty three. You've had assisted
living your whole life, so it's time now that mom
(09:16):
can get that assisted living. So in things like that,
my sisters all joke about because my mom was there
to help every step of the way.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
But my dad was a wonderful person.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Do you remember the Honorable Judge Sarah Smolensky with us
just recently retired Judge Smolensky from the sixty third District Court.
Do you remember graduating from law school? You would have
been what twenty.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Yeah, I would have been I think around twenty four
years old.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Twenty four years old, And you look back then and
it doesn't seem like that long ago, and you and
I are not too far apart in age. But he
looked back then and it was still a male dominated
professionist es actually for judges. Do you think back at
that time and think how fortunate you were, first of
all to have your dad and mom encouraging you. But
(10:08):
I was curious if you had any special mentors, other
people that really kind of helped you feel like you
could ascend to the level of becoming a judge.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Well, you know, I had made the decision to want
to be a judge way early on, even before law school,
but the mentors that I've had many over the years,
and when I finished law school, my very first job
was with my brother's law firm in Elger Heights, and
he worked with a great attorney by the name of
(10:38):
Mike Quinn who's still around and was a mentor to
me as well. But those guys gave me a job
when they really didn't have the time or the money
to give a kid a job. I stayed for maybe
a year, and then I went to the City Attorney's
office and was a prosecutor at the City Attorney. So
I've had great mentors over the years. And in fact,
(11:01):
Carol Irons, you know, the former sixty first District Court judge,
was a mentor to me. And I knew that someday
I'd want to be a judge. I just wasn't sure
when I could do it, and I knew it had
to be a campaign because I didn't have any political
clout to get an appointment. Even with your dad's Yeah,
(11:22):
I felt like even then, I mean my dad was
a Republican. When he retired, my brother was appointed to
his spot by a Democrat Governor Blanchard. I think that's
how my brother got in to do that. He was
more active, and I always felt like having those mentors,
having so many people out there, and a number of
(11:44):
women because the women mentors meant so much that they'd
been there, they'd done that, and they would give you
help and assistance as you'd progress in your career. And
I've always appreciated that. And you ever forget, you know,
where you came from. But being a Smolensky, there is
(12:04):
no question helped me get elected in nineteen ninety to
start my career as a judge. I don't and being
a woman was a big part of it because I
was only one of five.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
You know, there was five candidates for that position.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
And four were you know, Caucasian males that were far
more qualified than I were all older than I was.
And for the record, I'm older than you Phil Tower
by a few days in near decade. But I just
you just appreciate that as you go back and think
about it.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, Carol Irons, I had the great honor. She was
a popular judge. Yes, she was back in the day.
She was a popular judge. I had a great honor
of being on a jury in her courtroom.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
She just really grew to appreciate her as a judge,
and that was my first or a duty.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
So it was positive one. I didn't have terrible feeling
about it.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Like a lot of people did, and every other time
since it has been very positive. But she was a
special person, obviously, very talented, very respected, met a very
tragic ending.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
What was she like a as a mentor to you?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
She was a dynamite person.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
And she was a woman judge at a time that
you know, there weren't many of them, So she was
a great role model for me.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
She had come from the prosecutor's office.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
I worked at the City Attorney's Office and tried many
cases in front of her, as well as the other
judges at the sixty first District Court. My brother was
on the bench when she was there, and she was encouraging.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
She was helpful.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
I actually had dinner with her the night before she
was murdered. I say murdered because he was convicted of
manslaughter for her death and got fifteen years in prison.
He was convicted of assault with intent to commit murder
by missing at some of the other officers that came
(14:08):
to her aid in the hallway. No one else was shot,
only her. But I actually had dinner with her the
night before that horrific incident at the Hall of Justice
in grend Rapids. We both had October birthdays and we
would celebrate them. And I spoke with her at length
at that dinner about when the judge that I succeeded
(14:32):
would ever be leaving his post, because he was there
thirty five plus years, and you think, is he ever
going to go? Because I needed to run for office.
I knew it had to be sixty third District Court
because my house was in East Green Rapids, the first
house I ever bought. And she was telling me, I've
got a book in my office. I can tell you
exactly his date when his term ends, you know. And yeah,
(14:55):
she was always encouraging her mother and dad. I spoke
at her funeral at the request.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Of her mom and dad.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
What an honor.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
It was an honor at Trinity United Methodist Church and
it was packed, and her mom and dad gave me
her gavel and I kept her gavel Carol Irons in
my court my entire thirty four years I was at
the court.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
She was relatively young when she was killed, thirties or forties,
as I regret.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
It would have been late thirties.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
I believed thirties.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, And just a lot of judges aspire to higher positions.
You stayed with the sixty third District Court, and I
want to talk about that judge Sarah Splensky with us
on West Michigan Weekend here on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
A lot to talk about, but she was a.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Special person and I'm grateful for that limited amount of
time i had in her courtroom. I want to talk
about you in the courtroom thirty years tenures a district
court judge. You called it in a recent an article
where you've been getting a lot of well deserved media attention.
You called it the people's court. Yeah, and I love
that phrase. What what made you describe it as the
(16:10):
people's court?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
Well, to me, the district Court is the entry level court,
and people of all ages, of all formats come forward
through the district Court, whether they're there for business or
whether they're for jury duty.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
It is literally the people's court.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
I sometimes think of it as busy as Grand Central Station,
being in the lobby of Grand Central Station. It's just
NonStop activity. And that's the people's court. You get, like
my brother went on to circuit and then to the
Court of Appeals, and I joke about the Court of Appeals.
I joke about it being a little bit more like
(16:49):
the lobby of the nursing home. It's a little bit
slower pace. People are sitting in chairs waiting. The district court,
there's a lot of activity. And I say the people's
court because you're dealing with people for the very get
go and you make an impression with them from the
very beginning of how they feel about the whole judicial system.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
That's a great point.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Yeah, and you I never I had lots of opportunities
to move on to other courts, higher courts, but I
loved being what I call the people's court because I'm
a people person.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
I mean my friends, my colleagues, they'd say, wow, she's
a talker. She's a talker. But you feel like you
can make an impact with people because people that coming
through court, as say defendants, it doesn't mean everybody's a
bad person. They're going through a difficult time, they're going
through a difficult scenario in their life. If they have
(17:41):
somebody that stops, listens and talks to them about getting
back on the right track. You can have people and
I have over the course of the thirty four years,
that say to me, I was in front of you.
You even gave me jail, but it changed my life
and then I'll say, well, you changed your life, but
the experience of talking to them, going through it with them,
(18:03):
explaining it to them so they don't feel like they
got caught in a revolving door and spin out of control. No,
the whole idea is to help people in the community
get back on track so they can be the best
that they can be.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well, it sounds like you took what you learned from
your mom and dad and utilize that deployed that in
the courtroom. Although I almost laugh when you said you're
describing yourself as judge Sarah the talker. Was it ever
hard for you to throttle yourself in the middle of
a court case or you hear something funny and you
(18:41):
knew it was inappropriate to laugh.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Was that ever a challenge? Maybe at the beginning.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Well, much like your role Phil, you've had many occasions
where you've been in thousands and thousands of interviews where
something will happen or somebody says something, and it's like
taking every ounce of your energy not to crack up
or lose it or say are you kidding? In fact,
COVID kind of helped because I could hold up signs
(19:07):
and I could hold up signs like you are muted.
You are muted. They can't hear you, you know, but
they see the sign. Now, I've in some of my
comedy things held up a sign that says, are you
kidding me? Because you bout want to say you can't
believe it?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Did I see and I'm sorry to interrupt, Did I
see a comment that you said? One guy during COVID
on a zoom showed up without a shirt.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Yes, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
If I ever have time to sit on and write
a book, you could write a book just about the
stories of COVID. But he's sitting at what looks like
a kitchen table. I described COVID in the courtroom similar
to the game Hollywood Squares, because you had a number
of people on zoom, but you were only usually talking
(19:55):
to one person at a time. You weren't always sure
which person you were talking to, and it was sometime
hard to keep it straight. But as I was staring
at this guy who appeared to be at a kitchen table,
and maybe he was thirty years old, it looked like.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
He didn't have a shirt on.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
Well, you know, looks can be deceiving, and you don't
want to be problematic.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
But as I stared further and further.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
Into the zoom camera, I said to him, sir, it
looks like you don't have a shirt on.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
He said, I don't.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
I said, well, you're in a courtroom and you have
to be dressed now, I will be honest. I heard
his mom, or who I thought might be his mom
say in the background, John, I told you to put
a shirt on.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
You know.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
And then he starts to get up, and I was
worried about keep watching him because I thought if he
gets up from the table and he's stark naked, it's
going to be a problem. Yeah, but I said, you
got to go put a shirt on and come back.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Those are unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Well, and there was the story. This was earlier this year.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I think about the guy who was being sentenced again
for a duy and was doing the hearing on his
cell phone right the carving only and you're like, really
only in the got.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Charge of driving on a suspended license in Dui and
he's driving only. Many people on zoom were on the
in the car, and you'd see the trees flying by
and the car's flying by, and I'd say hold it,
hold it you are in a car, you're driving, you
got to stop. Whether they had the permission to drive
or not, you had to get them to stop. It
(21:26):
just wasn't safe.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Judge Sarah Smolensky recently retired sixty third District Court Judge,
you were saying to me before we turn on the
microphones this morning for this great conversation which I'm truly enjoying,
that so far you've been retired for a number of weeks.
You missed the people. Don't miss the job too much.
(21:51):
You told me something too, And I want to talk
just briefly before we run out of time about term
limits for judges, because President Biden at the end of
your I talked about term limits for the Supreme Court,
some proposals that were not met with a lot of praise,
as you can imagine from the nation size court. But
your court, Michigan, has a law where judges have to
(22:12):
retire at seventy.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
You know?
Speaker 5 (22:15):
The rule is that once you've reached the age of seventy,
you're not allowed to reapply for.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
A new term. You can't run again.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
In other words, so it's possible that you could turn
seventy and have a six year term ahead of you
and go till you're seventy six, assuming.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Your age is you know at that time.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
But if I was already out, I mean, I'm, you know,
sixty six, I'll be sixty seven in October. I could
not run for another term because I was going to
hit my seventieth birthday before my term ended. So then
you can't run again. And that's the rule. I mean,
I'm all for you know, seventy is the new what forty? Yeah,
(22:59):
I don't know what it said, so, but I mean,
you you gotta. I've looked at retirement as a way
to get more physically in shape because I have time
to do things that I want to do and not
have to be exhausted because of a day of work.
But I think there are a lot of people that
keep on working because they love it and they do
well at it.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
I didn't want to number one keep working and being
on the bench when people said she should get off,
And I didn't want to die at work.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah, you know, got on top on top.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Yeah, you want to.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
Go out when you can call call it like you
want it. You can travel. My spouse, Linda and I
are going to travel We're gonna have fun.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
We already are.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
I mean, we've been busy with great nieces and nephews
and nephews and nieces coming and you know, visiting, and
it's just you wanna take advantage of every day and
have every day.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Be a good day.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I saw something and I salute you on your decision.
It sounds like you did absolutely the right thing, regardless
of the age limit with the State of Michigan. But
I read something about retiring and said, you can if
you retire too soon, you can always un retire and
maybe yea, do part time work or do this or that,
But if you retire too late, there's no going back.
So I liked that statement and I've shared that with
(24:17):
a lot of people. The Honored Bull Judge Sarah Smolenski
with US on West Michigan Weekend here at iHeartRadio. There
are a lot of trust concerns, especially about the Supreme
Court here in the country with some recent rulings, Concerns
about impropriety with ethics with Justice Clarence Thomas taking some
(24:38):
expensive trips, and just questions about this through the years,
Questions with Judgice Alito and the Flags upside down in
his yard and partisanship. Do you worry about trust in
the justice system eroding?
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Judge Sarah, You know, I am not a highly political person,
but I want good people to do the work that they're.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Supposed to do.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
In West Michigan, we are blessed by having, in my opinion,
a really good and decent judiciary from the top to
the bottom. I think my colleagues over the years have
been outstanding. And when we see this stuff in the
news and hear what's going on at the Supreme Court,
it does more than break your heart, it in a
(25:23):
way breaks your spirit.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
But I have.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Always maintained my position that there are so many more
good people in the world than bad.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
That the good will overcome.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
And I don't say that sarcastically because we're in a
political year now, but we we would never have been
talking about somebody that has thirty four felonies running for president.
I mean, when I see the people in front of
me that are struggling to have a felony expunged because
they made an error years ago and they're truly truly
(25:57):
repentant and want to get back on track, I just worry.
But I always try to keep the balance that there
are more good people in the world than bad. From
every job there ever was in the world, there are
more good people than bad. But we have to speak up.
(26:17):
The good people have to speak up and make sure
that people do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Well, said the Honorable Judge Sarah Spolensky, just recently retired
from the sixty third District Court here in Grand Rapids.
For just about out of time, By the way, I
want to thank you on the radio for thirty years
of service to West Michigan. I've got about a minute
or so left. Is there anything I didn't ask you
(26:45):
real quickly you want to share with our listeners.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Well, Phil, I just want to say to everybody at
iHeartRadio and all the media stations, you guys cover Wood Radio,
we go back so many years. It's been thirty four years.
There's been a small Lensky on the bench for fifty
six years, between my dad, my brother Mike, and myself,
and it has been a legacy that we're all proud
(27:09):
of and I still feel them shining down. But this
new judge that's taking over my place, Kirsten Hole, is
going to do a great job and she's going to
have the energy that I once had thirty four years ago.
And we're going to get a new judge coming up
with the November race, and I want everyone to get
out there.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
And do the right thing. People.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Thank you to Phil Tower and vote and vote.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Oh definitely.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
And I want to real quickly correct the last time
I said, I said thirty years tenire.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Thirty, that's thirty four.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
But that's all right.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
I'm going to give you those four years.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Thank you, brother Judge.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Sarah Splinsky, our guest on this full program of West
Michigan Weekend, thanks so much for being here.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Thank you Phil.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
It was a lot of fun and I didn't even
get to the last thirty questions.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Thank you iHeartMedia. He's out.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
She has been our guest on this program. Thank you
so much for tuning in. Don't forget. We'll have this
as a podcast available after you hear on the radio.
Woodradio dot Com. That's a program for this week. Thank
you for tuning in. We'll catch you next week right
here on this iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio
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