Judge Robert Ensz may be retired, but that certainly doesn’t mean that he is done in the court room.

 
On Thursday, April 21, a mock trial was held combining two criminal justice classes, and Ensz was the presiding judge.

 
Ensz received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

 
Ensz moved with his family to Wayne in 1977 and started working at the law firm Olds and Swarts, which is now Pieper and Knutson. He moved with his wife Debbie, a Wayne native, who became an instructor at Wayne State College.

 
Ensz also spent some time as an attorney before being appointed to the bench.

 
He was appointed as a district judge in 1991 by Gov. Ben Nelson and served until 2012. After retirement, Ensz was requested to serve an additional six months by the Chief Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court.

 
Overall, Ensz has served almost 22 years as a judge, presiding over many hundreds of cases.

 
“By far the most bizarre was the Wayne County case ‘State of Nebraska v. Roger Van.’ This was sometimes referred to as the ‘flower shop’ case. During the trial, it was the subject of daily reviews on the Todd and Tyler morning Omaha radio program,” Ensz said.

 
Roger Van was a local flower-shop owner and well known around Wayne. Van was found to have tortured a man from Texas in his basement. Van tried to flee but he was caught and put on trial.

 
The court trial lasted about a week, and Van ended up being given sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Ensz was the presiding judge for this case.

 
Since retirement, Ensz has presided as judge for multiple mock trials, including for the one held for the WSC students.

 
“I really enjoyed helping with this project. I have been associated with Wayne State College in different roles during the past 39 years, and I have always been impressed with the quality of the faculty and students,” Ensz said.

 
Ensz enjoyed how the trial proceeded, with an attentive jury (taking an hour to deliberate on a sunny day), responsive witnesses and attorneys as well as having a case that was well prepared.