Oct.
31, 2002 |
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A report on where |
Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Mildred Lillie, State's Senior Jurist,
Dies at 87...Earl Johnson Jr. Serving as Acting Presiding Justice in Div.
Seven...Five Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Appointed, Four to Be Elected
Next Week
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Judges, Lawyers Under Scrutiny
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Judicial Elections
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Four Los Angeles Superior Court judges will be elected Nov. 5 in runoff elections. • Office No. 2 - Deputy District Attorney Hank Goldberg faces Santa Monica lawyer Joseph Deering, running as an "Eldercare Attorney." Deering is using the services of Crotty Consulting of San Diego. The winner will succeed retired Judge Michael Pirosh.
• Office No. 39 - Deputy District Attorneys Richard Naranjo and Craig Renetzky face a runoff for the seat of Judge Richard Spann, who did not run for reelection. Naranjo will be listed on the November ballot as "Criminal Prosecutor," Renetzky-who recently began teaching law-related courses at Valley College, part of the Los Angeles Community College District-will be designated as "Prosecutor/Law Professor." Fred Huebscher is his consultant.
• Office No. 67 - State Bar Court Judge Paul Bacigalupo faces Deputy District Attorney David Gelfound in the runoff. A ruling by the Court of Appeal allowed Bacigalupo to keep the designation "Judge, State Bar," which a supporter of Gelfound's challenged as likely to mislead voters into thinking the candidate was an incumbent judge. Consultants working on the campaigns are Huebscher for Gelfound and Garcia-McCoy-Lee for Bacigalupo. The winner will succeed retired Judge David Finkel.
• Office No. 100 - Deputy District Attorney Richard Walmark and Workers' Compensation Judge John C. Gutierrez will be the runoff candidates. Walmark will be listed on the ballot as "Criminal Trial Prosecutor" and Gutierrez as "Administrative Law Judge," as he was in the primary. Gutierrez tried to change his designation to "Judge, Administrative Law" but was turned down by the registrar. Huebscher is Walmark's consultant, while Mark Siegel is doing Gutierrez's campaign. The winner will succeed Judge Reginald Dunn, who is retiring Dec. 17 to become a private judge.
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Judiciary: Vacancies, Appointments
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There
are four vacancies on the court, the most recent being a result of
Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez taking senior status June 1. Judge James
Browning took senior status Sept. 1 of last year, Judge Procter Hug
Jr. on Jan. 1 of this year, and the late Judge Charles Wiggins on
Dec. 31, 1996. President
Bush on May 23 nominated Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, a former
law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to succeed Hug.
He has not yet had a confirmation hearing. Los
Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl was tapped by Bush last
year to succeed Browning. Kuhl has not received a confirmation hearing,
as Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer will not sign a "blue slip."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has declined
to schedule confirmation hearings for judicial nominees without the
approval of both senators from a nominee's home state. Kuhl,
48, is a six-year veteran of the Superior Court bench. She previously
served in the U.S. Department of Justice as a special assistant to
Attorney General William French Smith, and worked in the office of
the solicitor general during the Reagan administration. She clerked for Anthony J. Kennedy, then a Ninth Circuit judge, after graduation from Duke University School of Law. |
The
Senate Judiciary Committee gave its approval Oct. 8 to Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge R. Gary Klausner, one day after his confirmation
hearing. Klausner was nominated July 18 to succeed Judge William Keller,
who took senior status Oct. 29, 1999. President Bush on July 18 also nominated Los Angeles Superior Court Judge S. James Otero to succeed Judge Richard Paez, elevated to the Ninth Circuit in March 2000. Otero has not yet had a hearing, but received a highly favorable rating from the American Bar Association, as well as the support of Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and is likely to be confirmed. The president nominated Orange Superior Court Judge-and former UCLA football star-Cormac J. Carney on Oct. 10 to fill the vacancy resulting from Carlos Moreno's confirmation as a California Supreme Court justice Oct. 17 of last year. There is one other vacancy, a result of Judge J. Spencer Letts taking senior status Dec. 19, 2000. |
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There are no vacancies. |
![]() This District (Second District) Presiding Justice Mildred Lillie of Div. Seven, California's longest-serving jurist, died Oct. 27 at age 87. Justice Earl Johnson Jr. is the acting presiding justice.
There is one vacancy in newly created Div. Eight. The names of Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Charles Lee, Richard Rico, and Aurelio Munoz have been sent to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as potential appointees to the post. Fourth District
Divs. One and Div. Two each have a vacancy created by SB 1857, which
took effect Jan. 1 of last year. Div. Three has a vacancy created
by the June 1, 2001 retirement of Justice Thomas Crosby. Sixth District Presiding Justice Christopher Cottle retired Aug. 31 of last year. Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian is the acting presiding justice. Seats in other districts are filled. |
Los Angeles Superior Court
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Monica Bachner, Superior Court Commissioner Deborah
L. Christian and Chief Deputy Federal Public Defender Dennis Landin
were named judges of the court Oct. 17. John A. Kronstadt, a partner
in the Century City offices of Arnold & Porter, and Rafael Ongkeko,
a veteran deputy county counsel, were named to the court a day earlier.
Bachner
succeeds her boss, Debra Yang, who resigned from the court May 10
to become U.S. attorney. Christian fills the seat of Judge Leslie
Light, who retired June 1, while Landin replaces Judge Ann Kough,
who retired May 15. Kronstadt
fills the seat of Judge Juleann Cathey, who was granted disability
retirement at the end of June. Ongkeko fills the seat of Judge J.D.
Smith, who retired April 4. Eight vacancies remain. Judge
Alban I. Niles retired Oct. 4, Judge William Garner Sept. 24, Judges
David Horowitz and Robert Letteau Sept. 4, Judge Theodore D. Piatt
July 31, Judge Thomas Simpson July 1, Judge Michael Pirosh in February,
and Judge David Finkel in January. Successors to Pirosh and Finkel
will be elected on Tuesday. Judge
Reginald Dunn is scheduled to retire Dec. 17. His successor is to
be elected Tuesday as well. Judge Michael Kanner's term expires Jan. 6. Kanner, who did not run for reelection, will be succeeded by recently retired Deputy District Attorney Lauren Weis, who won the seat in the March primary. The court is without the services of Judges Pamela Rogers and Reginald Yates, who have applied for disability retirement, and Judge Aurelio Munoz, whose assignment to Div. Seven of this district's Court of Appeal has been extended through the end of next month. Marilyn Mackel, formerly a referee, and Mark Zuckman, who was a deputy public defender, were elected commissioners and sworn in earlier this month. There are two commissioner vacancies, resulting from Christian's appointment as a judge and from Commissioner Eugene Siegel's retirement earlier this month. |
Legislation of Interest to the Legal Community
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The following legislation related to the legal community was acted upon in the closing days of September: •AB 2055, by Assemblyman Robert Pacheco, R-City of Industry, which eliminates the "work product" protection for lawyers "when a lawyer is suspected of crime or fraud in any official investigation or proceeding or action brought by a public prosecutor ... if the services of the lawyer were sought or obtained to enable or aid anyone to commit or plan to commit a crime or fraud." The bill was signed by the governor Sept. 29. •AB 2211, by Assemblyman Jerome Horton, D-Inglewood, which requires the Judicial Council to study the potential effects of a policy requiring courts to consider community impact statements at criminal sentencing hearings. The bill was signed by the governor Sept. 29. •AB 2263, by Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, which would have required the Judicial Council to study the effectiveness of expanding a program which assists children while their parents are in family court obtaining a divorce or legal separation. The study could have used up to $50,000 from the Judicial Council's budget. The governor vetoed the bill Sept. 28, stating: "Under this study, the Judicial Council would be required to assess the results of, among other things, changes in the mental health of children and any change in the attitude of parents. The Judicial Council, however, may not be well suited to conduct this type of study." •SB 1396, by Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove, which enacts the Superior Court Law Enforcement Act of 2002, which among other things requires the presiding judge of any county to develop an annual court security plan. The bill was signed by the governor Sept. 27. •SB 1732, by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Montebello, which transfers the responsibility for trial court facilities funding and operation from the counties to the state. The bill was signed by the governor Sept. 29. |
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