End of the Month

Chief Justice Nominee Sweeps to Victory, to Be Sworn in Jan. 3...Ex-Lawmaker Walter Karabian Pleads No Contest to Criminal Charge, Gets Probation...Nominees to Third, Fifth District Appellate Panels Face Hearings Dec. 10

Judicial Elections

Runoff elections were held Nov. 2 for two open seats on the court: (Official ballot designations in parentheses.):

• Office No. 28—Randy Hammock (Superior Court Referee) defeated Mark K. Ameli (Litigator/ Mediator/ Arbitrator) for the seat from which Judge Emily Stevens retired May 11. Campaign consultants working in the race were David Gould for Ameli and Jill Barad for Hammock.

• Office No. 117—Alan Schneider (Gang Homicide Prosecutor) defeated Tom Griego (Criminal Prosecutor) in a runoff for the seat now held by Judge William Pounders, who is due to step down in January. Fred Huebscher was Schneider’s consultant, while Parke Skelton worked for Griego.

Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

Harvey Silberman
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge

Trial is set for Jan. 11 for Silberman, elected to the court in 2008, and two campaign consultants. Orange Superior Court Judge Richard King is scheduled to preside over the trial at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

Silberman, Evelyn Jerome Alexander, and Randy Steinberg are charged with offering financial inducements to Deputy District Attorney Serena Murillo, Silberman’s 2008 opponent, to get out of the race.

On Oct. 22, King, who is hearing the case as an assigned Los Angeles Superior Court judge, denied motions to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to search warrants, to dismiss for prosecutorial misconduct, and to sever the trials of the three defendants. He earlier dismissed charges against the three defendants of soliciting bribes, but denied their motions to throw out the related election-law charges.

Walter Karabian
Attorney and Former Legislator

Karabian, a onetime majority leader of the California Assembly, entered a plea of no contest in East Los Angeles Nov. 2 on a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace. He was placed on three years probation and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service.

Karabian allegedly hit a parking attendant with his car while attending USC football game last year. Prosecutors charged that he tried to drive his car into a parking structure at Exposition Park at around noon on Dec. 5 but was stopped by the attendant, who told him he did not have the proper permit, and that he intentionally struck her with the car.

She was not hurt, prosecutors said.

Ricardo A. Torres II
Attorney

Torres—whose family is well known in legal and political circles, and who abandoned his law practice and left the country earlier this year—was placed on involuntary inactive status by the State Bar Court Oct. 9.

He has been ineligible to practice since July 12, when he tendered his resignation in the face of disciplinary charges filed in April. He was also suspended Sept. 1 for non-payment of dues.

The State Bar has accused him of failing to return an unearned $15,000 fee that he obtained from a client and falsely telling the client that he had obtained a dismissal when in fact the prosecution chose not to file. He was also accused of failure to cooperate with the State Bar investigation.

Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 23 approved, by a party-line vote of 12-7, the resubmitted nomination of UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to fill an open position on the court. The previous nomination was returned by the Senate when it left Washington for the summer congressional recess.

Liu was unanimously rated “exceptionally well qualified” by the American Bar Association’s evaluating committee, but Republicans object that he is too liberal.

U.S. District Judge Mary H. Murguia of the District of Arizona, nominated to succeed Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, who took senior status Feb. 12, was approved by the Judiciary Committee Aug. 5. Her nomination was held over by unanimous consent of the Senate, so it did not have to be resubmitted.

There are two other vacant seats, previously held by Judge Stephen Trott, who took senior status in 2004, and Judge Andrew Kleinfeld, who took senior status June 12.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Kronstadt was nominated by the president Nov. 17 to succeed Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, who died Jan. 15. Another vacancy remains because Judge Stephen G. Larson resigned Nov. 2 of last year to join the law firm of Girardi | Keese.

Judge A. Howard Matz is scheduled to take senior status next year on July 11.

Bankruptcy Judge Geraldine Mund will retire Feb. 9, but will continue to sit as a recalled judge. She will stop accepting new cases once her successor is appointed, but will continue to hear previously assigned cases after that, court officials said.

Voters on Nov. 2 elected Third District Court of Appeal Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to succeed Chief Justice Ronald M. George, who will leave office at the end of his term in January

Third District

The governor last Tuesday nominated Justice Vance Raye to succeed Presiding Justice Arthur G. Scotland, who retired Sept. 30. He also nominated Sacramento Superior Court Judge Elena Duarte to succeed Raye upon his confirmation; his legal affairs secretary, Andrea Hoch, to succeed Justice Rick Sims, and San Joaquin Superior Court Judge William Murray to replace Justice Rodney Davis.

Sims is retiring today. Davis retired Feb. 16 of last year.

Confirmation hearings for all of the nominees are set for Dec. 10 in San Francisco.

Fourth District

Justice Barton Gaut retired from Div. Two Feb. 28. Voters will decide in November whether to elect the governor’s nominee, Riverside Superior Court Judge Carol Codrington, to fill the seat for a 12-year term commencing in January.

Codrington is scheduled to sit on the court by assignment beginning Nov. 8.

Fifth District

Voters on Nov. 2 elected Justice Brad Hill to succeed Presiding Justice James Ardaiz, who chose not to seek retention. Ardaiz is retiring Dec. 27, and the governor last Tuesday nominated Hill to fill the seat for the last days of Ardaiz’s term.

Confirmation of Hill to serve that last week would open up Hill’s current post as associate justice, and the governor has nominated Fresno Superior Court Judge Donald R. Franson Jr. to fill the anticipated vacancy. Confirmation hearings for both Hill and Franson will take place Dec. 10 in San Francisco.

Seats in other districts are filled.

Los Angeles Superior Court

There are six vacancies on the court.

Judge Emily Stevens retired May 11. Her successor, Judge-elect Randy Hammock, is due to be sworn in Jan. 3, although he has expressed interest in being appointed before that.

Judge Paul Gutman died June 13, Judge Richard Wolfe died Aug. 29, Judge Gregg Marcus retired Sept. 8, Judge Eudon Ferrell retired Sept. 13, and Judge David Yaffe retired Nov. 1.

Judge Jerry E. Johnson sat for the last time on Nov. 18 and is retiring March 3.

Judge Harvey Silberman is disqualified while under felony indictment.

Among those whose names have gone to the State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as possible appointees to the court are Century City attorney Robert B. Broadbelt III, Los Angeles attorneys David B. Bloom and H. Clay Jacke II; Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla Ford; 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 Attorney Gary Geuss; Los Angeles Deputy City Attorneys Richard Kraft and Edward J. Perez; state Deputy Attorneys General Steven D. Matthews, Emilio E. Varanini IV, Victoria Wilson, Paul Roadarmel Jr., Robert S. Henry and Kenneth Byrne; Administrative Law Judge Robert Helfand; Deputy District Attorneys Andrea Thompson, Teresa Sullivan, Sean Hassett, Frances D. Young, Jennifer Lentz Snyder, Joseph Markus, Steven I. Katz, Alison S. Matsumoto, Jeffrey Gootman and John D. Harlan II; Commissioners Lia Martin, Michele Fleurer, Cynthia Zuzga, John Slawson, Rocky L. Crabb, Joel Wallenstein, Dennis Mulcahy, Marilyn Kading Martinez, Mary Lou Katz Byrne, Steven Berman, Mark Zuckman 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; Deputy Public Defender Lisa Brackelmans; Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer Martin Joseph Murphy; Los Angeles attorneys David Herriford, Philip J. Ganz Jr., Marshall Mintz, Howard Fields, Michael Wilner, Shan K. Thever, John L. Carlton, Adrienne Krikorian, Eulanda Matthews and Lawrence P. Brennan Jr.; Century City attorney Howard S. Fredman; Pasadena attorneys Anthony de los Reyes and Warren Gilbert; Glendale attorney Mark J. MacCarley; Tujunga lawyer John K. Raleigh; Woodland Hills attorney John Cha; Westlake Village attorney Michael Nebenzahl; and Karlene Goller, counsel for the Los Angeles Times.

Because less than 90 days remain in his term, the governor by law may appoint persons whose names have not gone to the JNE Commission.

Commissioner Dennis Shanklin retired on March 15 and Commissioner Murray Gross on March 31.

Commissioner Patrick Larkin is on medical leave.

Commissioners Marc Lauper and Lori Jones retired at the end of April.

Commissioner Ralph Olson retired June 28 and Commissioner Nicholas Taubert June 30. There are also commissioner vacancies as a result of the judicial appointments of Michael Convey on June 30 and Scott M. Gordon April 8. Commissioner Ralph Amado died Oct. 17. As many as seven of the commissioner vacancies could be converted to judgeships.

Legislation of Interest to the Legal Community

The Legislature was in recess during November and reconvenes Monday.