U.S. Public Defender Named to L.A. Bench

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday appointed Maria E. Stratton, the first woman to serve as the chief federal public defender in Los Angeles, to the Los Angeles County Superior Court bench.

Stratton, 52, ran the nation's largest federal public defenders office, with 183 employees — including 65 lawyers — handling 3,500 new cases annually in its criminal, appellate and capital habeas divisions.

Before taking that job in 1993, Stratton was a deputy federal public defender and was in private practice, where she specialized in criminal defense work as well as wrongful discharge and civil rights cases.

"I'm really going to miss the office, and it's hard to think of leaving such a group of talented and dedicated lawyers," the Los Angeles Democrat said Friday. "But it's very exciting to learn by delving into new areas of the law and learning how to be a judge."

Also named to the bench were Christina L. Hill, who served as a Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner since 1998, and Craig Richman, a deputy district attorney since 1986.

Hill, a 54-year-old Democrat from Los Angeles, served as a court referee and was a senior litigator for the state Office of Trial Counsel. She also worked as a sole practitioner, specializing in criminal law and juvenile delinquency cases.

Richman, 47, a Republican from Chatsworth, worked most recently as a calendar trial deputy at the downtown criminal courthouse. He also served as an assistant head deputy and a supervisor of the Target Crimes Division under Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley. Richman prosecuted crimes against police officers and hundreds of felony trials.

And more dems...

Governor Names Three to Superior Court Judgeships
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
December 2, 2005
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday named a prosecutor, a deputy county counsel, and a court commissioner to fill judicial vacancies in three counties.
Named to the Superior Court in Nevada County was Deputy County Counsel Julie A. McManus. McManus joined the county in 2001 after 15 years as a deputy district attorney in Amador, Calaveras and Nevada counties.
She is a graduate of California State University, Sacramento and McGeorge School of Law, and also earned a master of laws in international tax and business at McGeorge and Salzburg University in Austria.
She fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge John Darlington.
Named to the Alameda Superior Court was Deputy District Attorney Morris D. Jacobson. He joined the District Attorney’s Office in 1989, a year after beginning his career as a deputy attorney general in San Francisco.
He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and Hastings College of the Law, and succeeds Judge Horace Wheatley, who retired.
The governor also appointed San Luis Obispo Superior Court Commissioner Ginger E. Garrett to a judgeship on that court. She has been a commissioner, hearing family law cases, since 2002 and specialized in family and juvenile law while operating a solo practice in San Luis Obispo from 1993 to 2002.
Garrett holds undergraduate, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Alabama. She practiced in Alabama from 1978 to 1993, during which time she was at various times staff attorney for Alabama Legal Aid, managing attorney for the Legal Services Corporation of Tuscaloosa, director of the Tuscaloosa Legal Aid Society, and staff attorney for the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, in addition to maintaining a private practice.
She fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Christopher G. Money.
McManus is a Republican, Jacobson and Garrett are Democrats.

Governor’s judicial appointments drawing controversy from fellow Republicans
August 12, 2005, Vol. 21, No. 12

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s penchant for appointing Democratic judges is angering the governor’s fellow Republicans, who say GOP jurists should get a bigger share of the prized judgeships. The majority of the governor’s appointments go to either Democrats or those who decline to state a preference.

The flames of the Republicans’ displeasure — usually expressed privately out of fear of angering Schwarzenegger or his staff — were fanned anew two weeks ago after Schwarzenegger announced the appointment of four more Democrats to the superior court in Los Angeles. Thus far this year, Schwarzenegger has given 10 of 13 Los Angeles judgeships to Democrats. In February, Schwarzenegger named four Democrats to the Los Angeles bench in one day. "Yeah, we all heard about those judges in L.A. But those aren’t the only ones. Everybody wants to know what’s going on here," said one Assembly GOP aide.

(snip)

Since taking office in November 2003, Schwarzenegger has appointed 85 judges, 41 of them Republicans. Of the 44 others, 33 are Democrats and 11 people are decline-to-state. Democrats — who acknowledge that they have been pleasantly surprised — say Schwarzenegger is making quality appointments and minimizing partisanship. Politically, there is a contrast to the earlier Republican administrations of Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian, which both had a higher proportion of partisan appointments.

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