End of the Month

Pretrial Hearing Set on Misdemeanor Charge Against Judge Craig Richman...Judiciary Committee Vote on Two Ninth Circuit Nominees Postponed Due to Lack of a Quorum...Superior Court Judges Miller and Edmon to Sit on Assignment in Court of Appeal

Judicial Elections

Eight deputy district attorneys—Stacey Okun-Weise, Donna Hollingsworth Armstrong, Alison Matsumoto Estrada, Ann H. Park, Teresa Magno, Dylan Mathai, Andrew Cooper, and Christopher Frisco—are seeking open seats in the June 5 primary. In addition, four-time candidate Douglas Weitzman announced on a legal website that he will run again, although he did not say whether he would again target an incumbent—he previously ran against Judge Lynn Olson—or run for an open seat.
Only two open seats for the election have been confirmed. Judge Jessica Silvers is retiring during the nominating period, and Judge Joseph DiLoreto told the MetNews he will not file for reelection and intends to race cars in Europe after his term ends in January 2015.

Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny

Craig Richman
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge

Richman, 55, a judge since 2005, has a pretrial hearing scheduled for Dec. 23 in Department 105 of the Los Angeles Superior Court in Van Nuys. He pled not guilty Nov. 21 after being charged with battery for allegedly pushing and injuring a Chatsworth neighbor who was walking her dogs.
The judge’s attorney, James Blatt, told the Los Angeles Times that the neighbor, Connie Romero, threw a bag of excrement at Richman after the judge asked her to find a trash can for it. Blatt called the battery charge a “total fabrication.”
Richman was a deputy district attorney prior to being appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

David Tamman
Suspended Attorney

A Dec. 5 status conference is set in Tamman’s lawsuit against Nixon Peabody LLP, where he used to be a securities partner.
Tamman was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez of the Central District of California Sept. 23 to seven years in prison for obstructing two Securities and Exchange Commission investigations.
The Santa Monica resident was convicted on Nov. 13 of last year in U.S. District Court of all 10 counts of an indictment charging him with trying to prevent the SEC from discovering that his client was running a Ponzi scheme.
Following a two-week bench trial, Tamman was found guilty of one count of conspiring to obstruct justice, five counts of altering documents, one count of being an accessory after the fact to his client’s mail and securities fraud crimes, and three counts of aiding and abetting the client’s false testimony before the SEC.
The client, former fund manager and radio personality John Farahi, was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this year for running the scheme, which involved false promises that investors’ money—more than $24 million was collected, prosecutors said—would be invested in corporate bonds backed by the Troubled Assets Relief Program.
Tamman, who had left the firm while the SEC was investigating, sued Nixon Peabody in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2011. He contended that he was “thrown under the bus” by the firm, so that his partners could get their hands on his $1.5 million book of business.
The firm explained, in a press release issued at the time the suit was filed, that it fired Tamman “as soon as we learned that he was under SEC investigation and he failed to explain his actions to us,” adding that the firm “has acted completely appropriately in cooperating with the SEC on this issue.” Greenberg Traurig, which Tamman joined after leaving Nixon Peabody, publicly fired him after he was charged civilly by the SEC, saying he had not disclosed the situation to them when he was hired.
Tamman’s interim suspension from the State Bar took effect Feb. 18. An additional suspension for not paying bar dues took effect July 2.

Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments

Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

A meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee was adjourned Nov. 21 for lack of a quorum. Among the business to be considered were the nominations of John B. Owens and Michelle T. Friedland to the Ninth Circuit.
No new date for action by the committee has been set.
Owens was nominated Aug. 1 for the seat vacant since Dec. 31, 2004, when Judge Stephen Trott assumed senior status. The 41-year-old litigator is a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and San Diego, where he headed the Criminal Division before joining Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP last year.
President Obama on Aug. 1 also nominated Friedland to the court. Like Owens, she is a Munger Tolles litigation partner. Friedland is based in San Francisco and Owens in Los Angeles.
If confirmed by the Senate, Friedland will fill a judgeship vacant since April 1, when Judge Raymond C. Fisher assumed senior status. Friedland, 41, is a former lecturer at Stanford Law School, from which she graduated in 2000.

There are no current vacancies, but Judge Gary Feess is taking senior status on March 13 of next year.

There are no vacancies.

First District

Presiding Justice James Marchiano retired from Div. One March 15. Justice James Lambden retired from Div. Two July 31.

Second District

Presiding Justice Robert Mallano is retiring from Div. One and Justice Steven Suzukawa from Div. Four Feb. 28.
Justice Frank Jackson retired from Div. Seven June 30. Justice Orville Armstrong retired from Div. Five July 31.
Justice Kathryn Doi Todd retired from Div. Two on Jan. 22. Justice Paul Coffee retired from Div. Six on Jan. 31 of last year.

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.

Seats in other districts are filled.

Los Angeles Superior Court

Several judges have retired this year—Joseph DeVanon Jr. Jan. 31, Phillip Hickok Feb. 4; Jan Greenberg Levine Feb. 13, Dudley Gray Feb. 19, John S. Fisher Feb. 22, Peter Meeka March 29, Richard Adler April 1, Stephanie Sautner and Linda K. Lefkowitz April 5, Diane Wheatley April 16, John Reid June 2, Lawrence Mira July 24, Shari K. Silver Aug. 1, and Charles W. McCoy Sept. 1.
Also, Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell joined the federal bench April 30, Judge Cynthia Rayvis took disability retirement Aug. 22, and Judge Dewey L. Falcone retired May 8 and died Aug. 15.
Judge Janice Croft will retire Feb. 18, Judge Jessica Silvers Feb. 20, and Judge John Meigs March 7. Meigs’ last day on the bench will be Jan. 17.
There is a vacancy in a position that the Legislature authorized but has never funded, and several commissioner positions have been converted to judgeships that have not yet been filled.
Several judges are sitting on assignment in the Court of Appeal. Judge Rita Miller will sit in Div. One, Judge Edward Ferns in Div. Two and Judge John Segal in Div. Seven through January; Judge Joanne B. O’Donnell in Div. Six through December; Judge Lee Edmon in Div. Four in January and February, and retired Judge Michael Mink in Div. Five from Dec. 9 through the end of January.
Among those whose names have been sent to the JNE Commission as possible judicial appointees to the court are 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, Lee W. Tsao and Johan ElFarrah; Glendale attorney Kenneth Wright; Court of Appeal staff attorneys Kenneth E. Roberson and Kim Nguyen; 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 was in recess during November