End of the Month

Judge Carlos Uranga, Whose Seat Will Be Filled by Election, Retiring Today...Wesley to Seek Seven New Judgeships Through Filling of Commissioner Positions, as Number of Vacancies Reaches 26...Ninth Circuit to Have 29 Judges for First Time Ever as Owens, Friedland Confirmed

Judicial Elections

The following candidates will appear on the ballot in the June 3 primary:

•Office No. 22, Amy Carter (Sex Crimes Prosecutor) and Pamala F. Matsumoto (Litigation Attorney) for the seat last held by Judge Michael Solner, who retired in February.

•Office No. 48, Charles M. Calderon (Retired Lawmaker Assemblymember), and Carol Rose (Child Molestation Prosecutor) for the seat last held by Judge Ronald Sohigian, who retired this month.

•Office No. 54, Shannon L. Knight (Gang Homicide Prosecutor) and Debra L. Losnick (Superior Court Commissioner), for the seat now held by Judge Lance Ito.

•Office No. 61, B. Otis Felder (Los Angeles Prosecutor), Jacqueline H. Lewis (Superior Court Commissioner), and Dayan Mathai (Gang Homicide Prosecutor), for the seat now held by Judge Michael Nash.

•Office No. 72, Chris J. Frisco (Criminal Gang Prosecutor), running unopposed for the seat now held by Judge Joseph DiLoreto.

•Office No. 76, Alison Matsumoto Estrada (Government Corruption Prosecutor) and Helen Kim (Criminal Prosecutor), for the seat now held by Judge Harvey Giss.

•Office No. 82, Ann H. Park (Criminal Prosecutor) is running unopposed for the seat now held by Judge Arthur M. Lew.

•Office No. 87, Tom Griego (Criminal Gang Prosecutor), Steven P. Schreiner, (Gang Homicide Prosecutor) and Andrew M. Stein (Gang Homicide Attorney), for the seat now held by Judge Rex Heeseman.

•Office No. 90, Serena R. Murillo (Sexual Predator Prosecutor), running unopposed for the seat now held by Judge Daniel Lopez.

•Office No. 97, Teresa Pineda Magno (Gang Murder Prosecutor), and Songhai “Sunny” Armsted (Supervising Criminal Prosecutor), for the seat formerly held by Judge David Milton, who retired in February.

•Office No. 107, Emma Castro (Superior Court Commissioner) and Joan M. Chrostek (Major Narcotics Prosecutor), for the seat now held by Judge Bob S. Bowers Jr.

•Office No. 113, Steven Klaif (Superior Court Referee) and Stacy Wiese (Criminal Homicide Prosecutor), for the seat last held by Judge R. Bruce Minto, who retired in March.

•Office No. 117, Carol Najera (Violent Crimes Prosecutor) and James B. Pierce (Judge of the Superior Court).

•Office No. 138, Marc A. Gibbons (Trial Attorney) and Donna Hollingsworth Armstrong (Gang Homicide Prosecutor), for the seat held by Judge Carlos Uranga, who is retiring today.

•Office No. 157, Andrew Cooper (Gang Homicide Prosecutor) and Arnold William Mednick (Retired Court Referee), for the seat formerly held by Judge Jessica Perrin Silvers, who retired in February.

Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

Michelle T. Friedland was confirmed Monday by the U.S. Senate to be a judge of the court, bringing it to its authorized strength of 29 judges following the April 1 confirmation of John Owens. President Obama nominated Friedland and Owens to the court on Aug. 1 of last year.

U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. was nominated April 3 to succeed Judge Gary Feess, who took senior status March 13.

Justice Joyce L. Kennard retired April 5.

First District

Presiding Justice James Marchiano retired from Div. One March 15 of last year. Justice James Lambden retired from Div. Two July 31 of last year. Justice Paul Haerle said he expects to retire from Div. Two in mid-June.

Second District

Presiding Justice Robert Mallano retired from Div. One and Justice Steven Suzukawa from Div. Four Feb. 28.

Justice Frank Jackson retired from Div. Seven June 30 of last year. Justice Orville Armstrong retired from Div. Five July 31 of last year.

Justice Kathryn Doi Todd retired from Div. Two Jan. 22 of last year. Justice Paul Coffee retired from Div. Six Jan. 31, 2012.

Among those who names have been sent to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible appointees to the court are Ventura Superior Court Judge Tari Cody; Los Angeles Superior Court Judges John Segal, Luis Lavin, Helen Bendix, Brian Hoffstadt, Lee Edmon, and Sanjay Kumar; U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins; and Southwestern Law School professor Christopher Cameron.

Third District

There has been a vacancy since Tani Cantil-Sakauye became chief justice in January 2011. Those whose names have been sent to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation reportedly include San Joaquin Superior Court Judge George Abdallah and Sacramento Superior Court Judges Thadd Blizzard, Helena Gweon, David Abbott, David DeAlba and Kevin Culhane.

Fifith District

Justice Rebecca Wiseman retired Oct. 31 of last year.

Seats in other districts are filled.

Los Angeles Superior Court

Judge Janice Croft retired Feb. 18, Judges David Milton and Michael Solner Feb. 19, Judge Jessica Silvers Feb. 20, Judge John Meigs March 7, Judge R. Bruce Minto March 31, Judge Candace Beason April 15 and Judge Ronald Sohigian April 16.

Judge Carlos Uranaga is retiring today.

Eight vacancies created last year have not been filled. Judge Diane Wheatley retired April 16, Judge John Reid retired June 2; Judge Lawrence Mira stepped down July 24; Judge Shari K. Silver retired Aug. 1; Judge Charles W. McCoy retired Sept. 1; Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell joined the federal bench April 30; Judge Cynthia Rayvis took disability retirement Aug. 22 and died Dec. 28, and Judge Dewey L. Falcone retired May 8 and died Aug. 15.

There is a vacancy in a position that the Legislature authorized but has never funded, and seven commissioner positions have been converted to judgeships that have not yet been filled.

Presiding Judge David Wesley said he will ask the Legislature to convert seven more commissioner vacancies—resulting from the retirements of Commissioners James Endman, Anthony Jones, John Green, and James Copeland, as well as the appointments of Joel Wallenstein and Lloyd Loomis to judgeships and the impending retirement of Commissioner Carol Halowitz, scheduled for May 8—to judgeships.

Among those whose names have been sent to the JNE Commission as possible judicial appointees to the court are Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Janis Barquist, Court of Appeal staff attorneys Frank J. Menetrez, Kenneth E. Roberson and Kim Nguyen; Century City attorney Christopher Lui, Superior Court Commissioners Marilyn Kading Martinez, Robert Kawahara, Alan Rubin, Emma Castro, Jane Godfrey, Sharon Lewis Miller, Mark Zuckman, David Cowan, Dennis Mulcahy and Kenneth Taylor; Deputy District Attorneys Candace Foy Smith, Leonard Torrealba, Kathleen Tuttle and Brentford Ferreira; State Bar Court Judge Richard Honn; Deputy County Counsels Terry Truong and Julie Ann Silva; Deputy Public Defenders Enrique Monguia and Johan ElFarrah; Glendale attorney Kenneth Wright; Los Angeles attorneys Timothy Martella and Angel Navarro; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Wesley Hsu.

The name of Ed Chau was sent to the commission prior to his election to the state Assembly.

Legislation of Interest to the Legal Community

The Legislature took the following action on bills of interest to the legal community in April.

•AB 2098 by Assemblymember Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, which would provide that a military veteran’s service-connected mental illness be treated as a mitigating factor in whether to impose the low, middle, or high base prison term under the Determinate Sentencing Law. A provision of the original bill that would have made such illness a mitigating factor in death penalty cases was eliminated last month by amendment. As amended, the bill passed the Assembly 73-0 April 7 and was referred to the Senate Public Safety Committee April 22.

•AB 2745 by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which would authorize the conversion of 10 subordinate judicial officer positions to judgeships next year in order to address the shortage of judges in the areas of family and juvenile law. These positions would be in addition to the 16 conversions authorized each year under 2007’s AB 159. The bill passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee April 8 by a vote of 10-0 and was re-referred to the Appropriations Committee.