Friday. March 22, 2002
Page 3
Commission on Judicial Performance Elects Pichon, Raye as Chair, Vice Chair
By KIMBERLY EDDS, Staff Writer
Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Rise Jones Pichon has been elected chairperson of the Commission on Judicial Performance and Court of Appeal Justice Vance W. Raye, of the Third Appellate District, has been selected the commission’s vice-chairperson, it was announced yesterday.
The election took place at the commission’s March 13 meeting.
The 11-member commission is responsible for investigating complaints of judicial misconduct and for disciplining judges.
All active California state court judges are subject to discipline by the commission and the panel has authority to impose certain discipline on former judges. The commission has shared authority with local courts over court commissioners and referees.
Pichon has been a member of the commission for the past three years, and was elected the vice-chairperson of the panel last year. She replaces attorney Michael A. Kahn, a senior partner in the San Francisco law firm of Folger Levin & Kahn, where he heads the litigation practice.
Pichon was appointed to the Santa Clara Municipal Court in 1984 and became a Superior Court judge in 1998 with court unification. Prior to her appointment, Pichon served as a commissioner on the Santa Clara Municipal Court, where she was that court’s first black woman commissioner.
Pichon has served as a member of the California Judicial Council, the body which is responsible for improving the administration of justice around the state, and as a member of numerous Judicial Council advisory committees, including the Trial Court Budget Commission, the Subordinate Judicial Officers Working Group, the Center for Judicial Education and Research Governing Committee, and the Continuing Judicial Studies Program Planning Committee.
She has taught at both the California Judicial College and the National Judicial College and is a frequent speaker.
Prior to being appointed to the bench, Pichon was a Santa Clara County deputy public defender for three years and she served as deputy county counsel in San Jose from 1979 to 1983.
Raye, a member of the commission since last January, was appointed to the Court of Appeal by Deukmejian in 1991, after having served on the Sacramento Superior Court for three years.
Raye is a former judge advocate for the Air Force, where he reached the rank of captain. He served as chief prosecutor at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California during the Vietnam War, where he prosecuted and defended cases of desertion, absence without leave, and drug possession.
He was appointed a California deputy attorney general in 1974 and was later elevated to senior assistant attorney general in 1980.
Deukmejian selected Raye as legal affairs secretary in 1983, a post he would hold for the next seven years.
Raye is a member of the California Judges Association the Judicial Council Committee on the Future of the Courts and the Appellate Courts Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Standards Committee and the Schwartz Inn of Court, UC Davis Law School.
He is the co-author of a three-volume set Family Litigation Practice (1994) and California Public Contract Law (1978).
The Commission on Judicial Performance consists of one justice of a court of appeal and two trial court judges, two attorneys, and six members of the public.
Pichon and Raye will hold their offices for a year.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company