Southeast Nebraska Judge Curtis Maschman retiring

BEATRICE - A southeast Nebraska County Court Judge is retiring at the end of May.  Judge Curtis Maschman will have served 30 years as a judge in Nebraska.

In his letter to the Governor and the Chief Justice, Maschman recounted said, “I owe a debt of gratitude to many who aided and supported me in my judicial career, in particular the staff of the courts in which I served. I will miss the daily contact with the attorneys who practice in southeast Nebraska. But, probably even more, I will miss the contact with the people of the District who came to Courts to seek justice.”

He said he hopes all left knowing they had been heard and treated fairly.

Maschman leaves the judicial community with a carefully planned County Judge Orientation program.  Shortly after his appointment as judge, Maschman volunteered to chair the New Judges Orientation Committee committing himself to designing and refining curriculum materials and presentations for each new county court judge in the state.

He has served as a mentor judge to numerous judges throughout the state.

In 2007, Judge Maschman was awarded the highest honor given by the Chief Justice, the Distinguished Judge for Improvement of the Judiciary Award, along with Judge Patrick McDermott.  The honor recognized their innovation and assistance in developing several portions of the computer system used in Nebraska’s trial courts.

Maschman currently serves on several Supreme Court Committees.  After taking the bench in 1993, Maschman has been regularly retained by area voters, most recently in 2020.

The first step in replacing Maschman will be for the Judicial Resources Commission to call a meeting to determine whether, based on judicial workload statistics, the retirement creates a judicial vacancy on the County Court for the 1st Judicial District.