Thursday, April 8, 2010
Page 1
Schwarzenegger Appoints Anthony Capozzi to CJP
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has named former State Bar President Anthony Capozzi of Fresno to the Commission on Judicial Performance.
The governor on Tuesday appointed Capozzi, 64, to replace Santa Monica attorney Marshall B. Grossman, who had continued to serve on the commission pending appointment of a successor after his term ended Feb. 28, 2009.
Capozzi has owned and operated the Law Offices of Anthony P. Capozzi since 1979. He has also been a member of the Judicial Council of California since 2005 and served as the State Bar of California’s 79th president from 2003 to 2004.
His term is scheduled to end Feb. 28, 2013. The position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no salary.
The commission is the independent state agency responsible for investigating complaints of judicial misconduct and judicial incapacity, and for disciplining judges.
Capozzi graduated from State University of New York, Buffalo and the University of Toledo College of Law. He was a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois from 1970 to 1973, and served the U.S. Department of Justice as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1973 to 1979.
His current practice focuses mainly on criminal law, with some civil work, and he is a fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers.
Capozzi joined the State Bar in 1976, and is also admitted to practice in Illinois and Ohio, but he told the MetNews he is currently only active in California.
He said he sought the governor’s appointment to the position because “it’s a very important commission, and I felt I could lend some experience having been in practice many years, having been State Bar president and having served five years on the Judicial Council.”
A Democrat, Capozzi added that he has no agenda and is “going in with a clean slate.”
The CJP is composed of one Court of Appeal justice, two superior court judges, two attorneys and six lay citizens—two each appointed by the governor, the Senate Rules Committee, and the speaker of the Assembly. The attorney members are appointed by the governor and the judicial members by the state Supreme Court.
The commission is currently chaired by Fourth District Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Judith D. McConnell.
Members are appointed to four-year terms and a member whose term has expired may continue to serve until the vacancy has been filled, but no member may serve for more than 10 years total.
Like Grossman, current public member Barbara Schraeger’s term expired Feb. 28, 2009, and she has continued to serve on the commission pending appointment of a successor by the Rules Committee. Schraeger was originally appointed to the commission Sept. 14, 2001.
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