Brenda Penny Elected Superior Court Commissioner

Monday, July 14, 2014

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Brenda Penny Elected Superior Court Commissioner

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Culver City attorney Brenda Penny has been elected a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner, Presiding Judge David Wesley informed judicial officers Friday.

Penny, a former probate attorney for the court, was elected in balloting by the court’s judges. She was the highest-ranked candidate on the list of those nominated by a panel of judges.

The court has had a commissioner post open since David Cowan was recently appointed a judge. Electing a commissioner to fill the opening means that the post will not be converted to a judgeship.

State law permits a limited number of vacant fulltime subordinate judicial officer positions statewide to be converted to judgeships. Because of that law, and because of budget constraints, the court held no commissioner elections between 2012 and earlier this year.

The current candidate list was announced in May, replacing a list that was formally revoked in December.

Previously elected from the list were Nancy Ramirez, western regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund; William L. Sadler, previously a deputy public defender, and Robert Palazzolo, who had been with the Glendale firm Holmes & Holmes.

Sadler has been sitting in family law Department 2E at Central Civil West since June 30. Palazzolo will sit in family law Department A13 in Lancaster, starting today.

The remaining candidates on the list are Superior Court Managing Research Attorney Nicole Heeseman; Terry Truong, a former court referee now at the County Counsel’s Office; Deputy Public Defender Terrance Lewis; Deputy Alternate Public Defender Barbara McDaniel; Pasadena attorney Valerie Skeba, a former referee; Glendale sole practitioner Scott J. Nord; Los Angeles attorney J. Christopher Smith; Bellflower practitioner Maria Puente-Porras; Deputy District Attorney Latonya Hadnot Prioleau; Woodland Hills sole practitioner Michelle Short-Nagel; and Deputy Public Defender Lisa Strassner.

Also Deputy Federal Public Defender Alicia Blanco; Montebello attorney Armando Duron; Administrative Law Judge Amy C. Yerkey; court staff attorney Nichelle Blackwell; dependency court attorney Timothy Martella; Agoura Hills attorney and former referee Marilyn Mordetzky; Deputy Alternate Public Defender Michael Miller; Orange County Deputy Public Defender Sheryl Beasley; Amparo V. Sauceda; and Irvine attorney Doreen Boxer.

Martella and Truong have also had their names sent to the State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible judicial appointees.