Monday, July 1, 2002
Page 1
Judge Juelann Cathey Granted Disability Retirement
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Juelann Cathey has been granted disability retirement, ending a 17-year career on the bench, officials said Friday.
Chief Justice Ronald M. George Thursday approved the finding of the Commission on Judicial Performance that Cathey, who has been out since major heart surgery last year, is permanently unable to function as a judge. She will receive a tax-free retirement benefit equal to 65 percent of a Superior Court judge’s salary.
Cathey, 66, was elected to an open seat on the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1988, three years after that court’s judges made her a commissioner. She was handling the misdemeanor master calendar at what was then the Criminal Courts Building at the time of her election as a judge, and later sat in the San Fernando Valley.
She was supervising judge of the San Fernando branch from 1990 to 1994 and became a Superior Court judge through unification two years ago.
At the time of her appointment as commissioner, she was a member of the State Youthful Offender Parole Board, to which then-Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her in 1981. She had previously been general counsel to a real estate developer.
The Minnesota native graduated from what was then the University of San Fernando Valley College of Law, now part of the University of La Verne, in 1969. The mother of six began her law studies, without the benefit of a college degree, after her husband was killed in an industrial accident.
She was a Los Angeles deputy public defender from 1970 to 1974, then moved to Colusa County where she was public defender in 1975 and 1976 and assistant district attorney in 1976 and 1977 before returning to Los Angeles.
Copyright 2002, Metropolitan News Company