Deukmejian Names Four to Superior Court Bench in San Diego

Four men--two Municipal Court judges, a federal prosecutor and a divorce attorney--were named Tuesday to the San Diego County Superior Court by Gov. George Deukmejian.

The appointments fill a new judgeship and vacancies created by retirements and a judge’s ascension to the state Court of Appeal.

The new Superior Court judges are Federico Castro, a lawyer specializing in family and juvenile law; Herbert Exarhos, a San Diego Municipal Court judge; William Howatt, an El Cajon Municipal Court judge; and Bernard Revak, an assistant U.S. attorney.

Castro, 58, is a native of Tehachapi and a graduate of the University of San Diego School of Law. Since 1973, he has been in private practice in San Diego, specializing in family and juvenile law. He will fill a newly created position on the Superior Court bench.

Exarhos, 44, succeeds Patricia Benke, whom Deukmejian appointed to the 4th District Court of Appeal earlier this year after considering her for a vacancy on the state Supreme Court.

An El Cajon resident, Exarhos has served on the San Diego Municipal Court since 1983. He attracted considerable publicity--and a number of challenges from defense attorneys--when he imposed a one-year jail sentence in 1984 on an 18-year-old first offender caught selling marijuana in an undercover drug sting at Hoover High School.

Howatt, 44, headed El Cajon operations for the San Diego County district attorney’s office prior to his appointment to the El Cajon Municipal Court in 1979. He replaces Superior Court Judge Kenneth Johns, who retired following an illness.

Revak, a former San Diego State University basketball star, was a deputy district attorney for 20 years before joining the U.S. attorney’s office in 1985. Revak, 52, was named prosecutor of the year by the California District Attorney’s Assn. in 1983 for winning the first-degree murder conviction of a former San Diego police reservist though the victim’s body was never found.

He replaces Superior Court Judge F.V. Lopardo, who retired.