fresno elections 2008

Experience as a Kings County Superior Court Judicial Officer

I currently serve as a Kings County Superior Court Judge.

As a Judge or Superior Court Commissioner, I have presided over every type of criminal and civil case in Kings County, including 7 murder cases. My experience includes serving as a bench officer in Kings County since 1993, 12 years as the first Kings County Superior Court Commissioner, handling the full range of cases that a Superior Court Judge must adjudicate, and for the past 2 years as a Superior Court Judge. My responsibilities as a judge or commissioner have included presiding over more than 130 jury trials, and multiple 3 strike cases. I have also presided over cases involving life without the possibility of parole.

I have served both on the local as well as the state wide judicial level. I am gratified to currently serve as the Presiding Judge of the Appellate Division, as well, at times, as the Acting Presiding Judge of the Kings County Superior Court. I was appointed by California Supreme Court Chief Justice George to serve on the statewide Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Criminal Jury Instructions. These Jury Instructions are used by judges and juries throughout the State of California. This Committee recently won a national award for innovation in plain speech jury instructions.

Expand Community Access to the Court.

To meet access needs of the public, we will continue to expand Court information and services available on line, by broadening Web page access, including, in the future, allowing traffic schools to be taken on line, and payment of traffic fines. We hope to also provide more information for self represented litigants regarding small claims and family law cases, and information on when to hire an attorney. Future expansions may include on line electronic filing of cases. Expansion of our self help center will also increase public access as will public presentations by our judges on topics of interest.

Ensure Adequate Trial Departments.

Our smaller bench size requires flexibility of all judicial officers to handle any type of case. The current pragmatic vision of cross training all judicial officers and allowing all bench officers to try cases as well as handle pretrial calendars, will be expanded to meet future experience needs caused by increased caseloads.

Expand Contact with the State Judicial Branch

Our local Court cannot be isolated from the State Court Judicial Branch. Because court funding from tax dollars has shifted from the County to the State, all of our judges will need to operate on the statewide level on various State committees, to ensure adequate contact with funding sources and State Court decision makers.

1. Methamphetamine Abuse: The greatest problem facing the courts is the increasing case load caused by the plague of methamphetamine abuse.

The Superior Court of Kings County recently instituted the operation of a Drug Court which hopefully can decrease abuse of methamphetamine by the participants. I served on the judicial subcommittee which set up the guidelines for the Drug Court. The system uses intensified probation and counseling services and can result in immediate consequences or temporary incarceration for participants who violate the Drug Court rules. The expansion of the Drug Court program and the enhancement of Proposition 36 programs and monitoring, can help in some reduction of the County's abuse problems and positively affect Court case loads.

2. Jail overcrowding: Jail overcrowding is a complex problem that involves County government and prosecutors, the Kings County Sheriff, the local State Prisons and the judiciary. The result of jail overcrowding is the early release of persons convicted of misdemeanors and lower grade felonies.

The solutions include the setting up and implementation of a task force comprised of all parts of local government, the State Prisons and the judiciary as recommended by Justice Timothy Buckley in his Order fixing the jail population cap at the physical rated capacity of the new jail. Other solutions involve greater implementation of alternative probation programs including electronic "cuffs" and other intensive probation programs. The jail bed savings could maximize opportunities of jailing scofflaws who violate the intensive probation programs, and increase incarceration days of sentenced defendants without greatly impacting county budgets.

3. Insufficient judicial resources for impacted case loads.

With almost 20,000 State prisoners in Kings County, the judicial caseload is frequently overloaded with inmate related litigation. State inmates file frequent Writs of Habeas Corpus, civil litigation and are involved in many criminal cases arising from within the three County Prisons.

Kings County has been designated by the State of California as workload impacted and the Administrative Office of the Courts has estimated that the King County bench has a judicial need of 11.4 judicial positions. The current bench has 7 judges and 1.5 Commissioners. When the Court adds an 8th judge, now promised after June 2009, the Kings County Courts will reorganize. The reorganization could include expansion of direct calendaring, and civil trial options and ensuring that there are four trial departments open every week. The details of reorganization are discussed in the next question.

As mentioned, we are already efficiently handling the work of 11.4 judicial officers with 7 Superior Court judges and one full time and one part time Commissioner. When the Legislature adds the promised 8th judge after June 2009 we will reorganize. We will continue to expand direct calendaring as well as civil trial options especially for impacted civil jury trials. We will also be able to more quickly process other civil matters such as landlord/ tenant matters to meet the needs of our County residents and statewide timeliness averages. We currently meet state wide timeliness averages for misdemeanor as well as felony cases. I or one of the other trial department judges now ride circuit to the Corcoran and Avenal courts every week. The 8th judge should be also able to assist in covering these courts. That will ensure that the Court will be able to have at least 4 trial departments open every week. We have recently reset calendars to help ease the burden on Corcoran Police Officers in providing officer testimony. We hope to be able to expand that opportunity for other police agencies in the County. Some of the heavy case load arises out of Writs of Habeas Corpus cases from the almost 20,000 inmates in State prisons in Kings County. We routinely are in the top three Courts in the State in the number of Writ cases we handle per judge. We have successfully utilized a staff attorney and a clerk to initially process these cases and hope that as these caseloads expand, that some additional resources will be available from the Administrative Office of the Courts. Cross training of all judicial Officers has allowed us to maximize the judicial resources available. Caseloads now are rapidly shifted between departments daily as the needs arise. Our bench can set the tone for legal competence to reduce litigation delays. Further judicial education and training will enable our bench to meet the needs of our County.

(1) Stopping the spread of gangs in the County. I

will coordinate closely with law enforcement to have a judge available 24/7, and implement proper judicial proceedings to protect the citizens of Kings County.

(2) Preventing the waste of juror time. I will only

call jurors on cases that are going to trial, prevent plea bargaining on the day of jury trial, and limit the impact on jurors by implementing a day of motions the day before the jury is actually called for service.

(3) Stopping the waste of law enforcement's time in

court. I will coordinate closely with law enforcement and the jail to prevent law enforcement officers wasting their time in court, which takes away from their duties on the street.

The County could better handle large case loads by not accepting plea bargains in violent cases and no longer importing out of county or retired judges because it wastes tax payers' money. Violent felons and child molesters' cases need to be handled so as to accommodate the victims in these highly sensitive cases. I would make sure court room procedure created a comfortable atmosphere for victims and witnesses while they testify.