Friday, May 24, 2002
Page 3
Davis Appoints Judge-Elect Libutti to San Bernardino Superior Court
By KIMBERLY EDDS, Staff Writer
Gov. Gray Davis yesterday appointed San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Michael R. Libutti to the San Bernardino Superior Court, allowing the judge-elect to take his seat on the bench seven months early.
Libbutti, 40, was elected to the San Bernardino Superior Court in the March primary with 62 percent of the vote and was scheduled to take the bench in January.
Libutti, also an Upland City Councilman, said he expects to resign from both the District Attorney’s Office and his seat on the council on Wednesday and be sworn in on Thursday. He was elected to the City Council in 1998. “It’s another exciting chapter of public service in the criminal justice system,” Libutti said of his appointment.
Libutti said he has already been given a criminal assignment in Fontana, a convenient commute for the father of five who coaches his 10-year-old son’s Little League team, given the array of possible assignments he could have been given in the vast county.
A 13-year veteran of the District Attorney’s Office, Libutti currently heads the Chino office. Since joining the office in 1989, he has prosecuted a variety of criminal cases, including attempted murder and murder, robbery, rape and narcotics.
Before becoming a prosecutor, Libutti handled personal injury and civil litigation as an associate at the law firm of Chase, Rotchford, Drukker & Bogust for two years.
In addition to spending time in the courtroom and at Upland city events, Libutti has also served on the boards of the YMCA, Upland Police Foundation, St. Marks Church, and Upland-Foothill Little League.
And as for the rest of his time, Libutti said he spends it with his wife, a grade school principal, and his five children, ranging in age from 15 years down to eight months.
“I’m not on the golf course,” he said. “There’s a lot of places I’m not.”
Libutti has also been a member of the California District Attorney’s Association, San Bernardino County Bar Association, West End County Bar Association, American Bar Association and Italian-American Lawyers Association.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Cal State University Fullerton, and his law degree from Western State University College of Law at Fullerton.
Libutti will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Lou Glazier.
Davis yesterday also appointed Sacramento lawyer Russell L. Hom to the Sacramento Superior Court.
Hom, a sole practitioner, concentrates his work on criminal defense and representing plaintiffs in personal injury cases.
After graduating from Hastings College of the Law, Hom joined the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office in 1981, and prosecuted misdemeanor and felony offenses for three years.
Hom then entered into private practice in 1984 as a partner in the Sacramento law firm of Cohen & Hom, and later joined the firm of Edson & Hom.
In 1996 he opened his own practice.
Hom was appointed to the Human Rights/Fair Housing Commission of the City and County of Sacramento in 1998, and was elected chair of the panel last July.
He is a past president of the Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento, and has been a member of the Sacramento Bar Association, National Asian Pacific Bar Association, National Asian Pacific Bar Association, California District Attorneys Association and Criminal Defense Attorneys of Sacramento.
Hom has also served on the boards of the Asian/Pacific Bar Association Law Foundation and the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce.
He completed his undergraduate work at UC Berkeley..
Hom will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Randolph Loncke.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company