08/11/2023
Retirement Announcement
Sutter County Superior Court Judge Sarah H. Heckman announced that she will retire effective September 30, 2023.
Judge Heckman has served 10 years on the Sutter Court bench having been elected in November 2012. She replaced H. Ted Hansen following his retirement.
After graduating from University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Judge Heckman worked with the Fremont and Rideout Medical Group as the Community Relations Director and Director of Development. A change in her career path began with obtaining a Juris Doctorate from McGeorge School of Law in 1999.
As a new attorney, Judge Heckman first worked in a private civil practice before serving as a child support attorney for both the Sutter County District Attorney’s office and the Department of Child Support Services. Prior to her election, she worked as Sutter Court’s family law facilitator and supervising attorney between 2002 and 2012.
In the past decade, she has presided primarily over family law, juvenile, and other civil matters. She was the judge liaison for the Sutter Superior Court Grand Jury from 2016-2022, she has served as a member of the California Judicial Council (CJER) steering committee for education of bench officers in small counties since 2018, and she is a Trustee for the Sutter Law Library. Judge Heckman remarked, “Serving the people of Sutter County for the past 20 years has been a great honor and it has been my distinct privilege to promote access to justice, help keep children safe and to strengthen families.”
Judge Heckman extends her sincere gratitude to all the judges and court staff who worked so hard to provide fair and impartial justice, particularly during the unprecedented pandemic of the past three and half years.
