 As a county court judge starting in 1964, and later as a district court judge, Trautwein issued rulings that supported creation of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission to provide state oversight of development in the New Jersey Meadowlands and of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which brought horse racing and professional sports to the Meadowlands.He was named as a New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division judge in 1981.In 1978, the "Dr. X" murder trial of Mario Jascalevich, a physician who had been charged with murdering three of his patients at an Oradell, New Jersey hospital with curare was brought to trial.