Wednesday, January 23, 2002
Page 1
Prosecutor Scott Gordon Elected Superior Court Commissioner
By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer
Deputy District Attorney Scott M. Gordon has been elected a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner.
Gordon defeated Los Angeles sole practitioner Robert Kawahara in runoff balloting that ended last week. He is due to be sworn in on Monday and to take over a misdemeanor courtroom at the Airport Courthouse the following week.
Gordon, a former Santa Monica police officer, joined the District Attorney’s Office in 1985. He has had a number of assignments as a prosecutor, including one at The Hague with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 1997.
He is currently assigned to the central trials unit. He also teaches evidence, criminal procedure, and trial advocacy at Southwestern University School of Law.
Gordon said yesterday that he was pleased to have gotten a criminal law assignment and to be going to the Airport Courthouse, where his colleagues will include a number of the judges he has appeared before or worked with. “It’s a great group of people,” he said.
He noted that he joined the District Attorney’s Office the same day as Judge Katherine Mader, whose courtroom is next to the one he will occupy.
Kawahara, despite losing the runoff, could be a commissioner as early as next month. Balloting to fill two vacancies began yesterday and will end Feb. 7, court spokesman Kyle Christopherson said.
Kawahara is listed first on the new ballot, based on the rankings of the court’s examining committee. Those rankings are not binding on the judges, but are usually followed.
The next-highest ranked candidates are Women Lawyers of Los Angeles president and criminal defense lawyer Melissa Widdiefield, Deputy District Attorney Diana Summerhayes, Superior Court research attorney William Dodson, State Bar Court Hearing Judge Stanford Reichert, Superior Court Referee Jane Godfrey, Santa Monica lawyer Michael Levanas, Deputy Federal Public Defender Richard Novak, Sherman Oaks practitioner Michael Convey, and child support enforcement attorney Nicholas Taubert.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company