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Nov.
28,
2008

A report on where
things
stand


Fifth District Court of Appeal Justice Thomas Harris Dies...Prosecutors Sweep Local Judicial Races...Pretrial Hearing for Former Superior Court Judge Roosevelt Dorn on Conflict of Interest Charges Set for January


Judicial Elections

Results of the Nov. 4 general election, with ballot designations in parentheses, were as follows:

� Office No. 72-Hilleri Grossman Merritt (Criminal Trial Prosecutor) defeated Steven A. Simons (Consumer Rights Attorney) for the seat from which Judge Francis A. Gately Jr. is retiring Sunday.

� Office No. 82- Thomas Rubinson (Criminal Prosecutor) defeated Cynthia Loo (Superior Court Referee) for the seat from which Judge Wendell Mortimer Jr. retired April 30.

� Office No. 84-Pat Connolly (Criminal Gang Prosecutor) defeated Lori-Ann C. Jones (Superior Court Commissioner) for the seat now held by Judge Gibson W. Lee.

� Office No. 94-Michael J. O'Gara (Criminal Prosecutor) defeated C. Edward Mack (Criminal Trial Attorney) for the seat from which Judge Michael Duggan retired July 22.

� Office No. 154- Michael V. Jesic (Criminal Gang Prosecutor) outpolled Rocky L. Crabb (Superior Court Commissioner) for the seat from which Judge Jack P. Hunt retired July 31.


Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

Mervyn H. Wolf
Encino Attorney

Wolf, a lawyer for 40 years, faces a Dec. 15 pretrial conference on five felony embezzlement counts. Proceedings were continued from this month.

Wolf is accused of having taken settlement funds from his clients in multiple personal injury, workers' compensation, and wrongful termination cases between June 2003 and June 2004. He allegedly deposited settlement checks into his clients' trust accounts, and then embezzled the funds.

Wolf was placed on involuntary inactive status by the State Bar Court July 10 of last year and faces discipline in connection with several matters. He has had extensive contacts with the disciplinary system, having been placed on three years' probation in 1995 for misconduct in three matters, suspended 45 days in 1998 for failing to comply with a condition of the earlier probation, placed on inactive status for a month in 2002 for failure to comply with MCLE requirements, and served a month on suspension in 2004 for nonpayment of bar dues.

Richard I. Fine
Attorney

Fine, an attorney since 1973, is facing possible disbarment based on State Bar Court Hearing Judge Richard Honn's finding of last November that the lawyer engaged in a concerted campaign of litigation designed to harass judicial officers who had ruled against him, in particular Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Bruce Mitchell.

He is also suing State Bar officials in federal court, challenging the constitutionality of the portion of the State Bar Act that permits disbarment for acts of "moral turpitude" that are not criminal offenses.

On Sept. 17, the State Bar Court denied, without comment, Fine's motion to dismiss the proceedings on First Amendment grounds. Fine contends the State Bar is retaliating against him for engaging in protected speech, which bar counsel disputes, saying Fine engaged in moral turpitude by continuously relitigating issues on which he had been ruled against.

Fine has since moved to reconsider that ruling, citing, among other things, the Court of Appeal's recent ruling that payment of local judicial benefits to Los Angeles Superior Court judges is unconstitutional. He contends that since the disbarment action is based, in part, on litigation of suits in which he made the same argument, his actions in those cases cannot be considered frivolous or to constitute harassment of judicial officers whom he claimed had a conflict of interest in hearing cases in which Los Angeles County was a party, while the county was paying them benefits.

Roosevelt Dorn
Former Los Angeles Superior Court Judge

Dorn, who served on the Inglewood Municipal Court and the Los Angeles Superior Court from 1979 until his election as mayor of Inglewood in 1997, pled not guilty July 24 to charges of conflict of interest and misappropriation of public funds. He is alleged to have personally benefited from a loan program designed to assist city employees in purchasing and improving housing within the city.

A pretrial conference is scheduled for Jan. 15 at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. It was continued from Nov. 20.

Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments



Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

There has been a vacancy on the court since Judge Stephen Trott took senior status Dec. 31, 2004. Another vacancy, in a newly created position, will be created on Jan. 21 of next year.

�

Judge George Schiavelli resigned effective Oct. 5, creating a second vacancy.

Orange Superior Court Judge James E. Rogan, a former congressman and Commerce Department official, was nominated Nov. 15, 2006, and renominated in January of last year, to succeed Judge Nora Manella, who resigned to become a justice of this district's Court of Appeal.

Rogan was unable to secure a confirmation hearing because Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has a "blue slip" policy under which a hearing will be held only if both of the nominee's home state senators approve. Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has previously supported all candidates recommended by a bipartisan advisory committee, opposes Rogan's nomination, in part because of his role as one of the prosecutors at the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

Boxer wrote earlier this year to retired San Mateo Superior Court Judge Quentin L. Kopp, a supporter of Rogan's who made the senator's letter public, that "Judge Rogan's views are not consistent with the values of Californians." Rogan's supporters have pointed out that all other candidates recommended by the bipartisan committee that advises the White House and senators on California district court nominees have been confirmed, and that Rogan has drawn bipartisan praise for his judicial service, both on the Orange court and on the old Glendale Municipal Court, where he served before entering partisan politics.


There are no vacancies.

First District

Justice William Stein retired from Div. One at the end of August. Justice Linda M. Gemello retired from Div. Five Jan. 4. Justice Douglas E. Swager is retiring from Div. One at the end of the year.

Second District

Justice Miriam Vogel retired from Div. One July 3. Presiding Justice Candace Cooper is retiring from Div. Eight at the end of the year.

Fifth District

Justice Thomas Harris died Nov. 12.

Seats in other districts are filled.
Los Angeles Superior Court


Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger filled 17 of the court's judicial vacancies on Nov. 5.

Former Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn was named to succeed Judge S. Patricia Spear, who retired July 15. Administrative Law Judge Michael D. Abzug, Mayer Brown partner Teresa Beaudet, Deputy District Attorney David C. Brougham, and Seaver & Gill partner Carlton Seaver fill vacancies created by the conversion of commissioner positions.

Commissioners Amy M. Pellman, Ronald H. Rose and B. Scott Silverman were named to succeed Judges Tricia Bigelow, Frank Jackson, and Thomas Townsend, respectively. Bigelow and Jackson were elevated to the Court of Appeal June 4 and Townsend retired July 1.

Deputy District Attorneys Debra Cole-Hall, Karla D. Kerlin, Bernie C. LaForteza, Ricardo R. Ocampo and Benny C. Osorio were named to the seats formerly held by Judges Francis Hourigan III, Patricia Collins, David Mintz, Elena Duarte, and Irving Feffer respectively. Hourigan retired May 15, Collins retired May 6, Mintz died May 12, Duarte was appointed to the Sacramento Superior Court May 16, and Feffer retired May 22.

The other appointees were Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark A. Young, Deputy Public Defender Ray A. Santana, Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jon R. Takasugi, and retired O'Melveny & Myers partner Robert C. Vanderet. They succeed Judges Charles Lee, Barry A. Taylor, Michael T. Sauer, and Stanley M. Weisberg, respectively.

Lee retired July 15, Taylor June 2, Sauer July 6, and Weisberg April 11.

Vanderet will take up his first permanent assignment on the court Tuesday in Torrance. Young and Santana start that same day, at the East Los Angeles and Metropolitan courthouses, respectively.
Judge Francis Gately is retiring Sunday, which will bring the number of vacancies to 14. Previous vacancies resulted from the death of Judge Deanne Smith Myers Aug. 20 and the retirements of Kenneth Black Nov. 5, Darlene Schempp Sept. 30; Coleman Swart, Alexander Williams III, and Suzanne Person Sept. 15; Leon Kaplan Aug. 1; Michael R. Hoff and Jack Hunt July 31; Xenophon F. Lang Jr. July 29; Michael Duggan July 22; David M. Horwitz July 18; and Wendell Mortimer Jr. April 30.

Judge Rodney Forneret has been undergoing treatment for cancer.

A newly created position on the court was to have been funded as of June 1, but legislation designed to ease the state budget crisis postponed the effective date to June 1 of next year.

Among those whose names have gone to the State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible appointees to the court former Deputy District Attorney Christopher Darden, now in private practice; former Assistant U.S. Attorney David P. Vaughn, now a managing director of the litigation and consulting firm FTI Consulting, Inc.; criminal defense specialist Steven Cron of Santa Monica; Los Angeles Assistant City Attorneys Gary Geuss and Maureen Siegel, Los Angeles Deputy City Attorneys Richard Kraft and Edward J. Perez; state Deputy Attorneys General Steven D. Matthews, E. Eugene Varanini IV, Victoria Wilson, Paul Roadarmel Jr., Robert S. Henry and Kenneth Byrne; Administrative Law Judge Robert Helfand, Deputy District Attorneys Christian Gullon, Steven I. Katz, Alison S. Matsumoto, Shellie Samuels, Jeffrey Gootman, John D. Harlan II and Laura Laesecke; Commissioners John Slawson, Rocky L. Crabb, Michael Convey, Victor Greenberg, Maren Nelson, Dennis Mulcahy, Marilyn Kading Martinez, Mary Lou Katz Byrne, Steven Berman, and Loren DiFrank; U.S. District Court attorney Amy L. Lew; Irvine attorney Raymond Earl Brown; Deputy Federal Public Defender Angel Navarro; Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jerome J. Haig; Los Angeles attorneys Michael Wilner, Shan K. Thever, John L. Carlton, Adrienne Krikorian, Mark A. Borenstein, Eulanda Matthews and Lawrence P. Brennan Jr.; Century City attorney Howard S. Fredman, Pasadena attorney Warren Gilbert, Glendale attorney Mark J. MacCarley, and Westlake Village attorney Michael Nebenzahl, La Canada attorney Walter Luostari, and Santa Monica attorney Michael D. Schwartz.

Legislation of Interest to the Legal Community

The Legislature did not sit in regular session in November.


 

 

 


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