15 Seek to Fill 4 Openings on the Bench

A rare election-time judicial opening at South Orange County Municipal Court has drawn a crowded field of six candidates on the March 26 ballot, the same day voters countywide will choose among nine other candidates competing for three open Superior Court posts.

As in years past, most incumbent judges facing reelection will run unopposed. The field includes 22 Superior Court judges and 13 Municipal Court judges from the county’s north, west, central and harbor branches.

Even as public interest in crime and punishment remains high, and the courts grapple with an unprecedented budget shortfall, candidates in the four contested races say their biggest challenge remains reaching voters who often know little about the candidates for the six-year, nonpartisan posts.

Like other candidates in the race for the South County Municipal Court seat, Thomas Roll, a corporate attorney, said he’s been hearing the same thing over and over again: “ ‘I don’t know anything about the judges that are running. I usually just randomly vote for one because I don’t know where any of them stand on the issues.’ ”

Nevertheless, South County voters will be asked to select a replacement for retiring Municipal Court Judge Arthur G. Koelle, one of four judges in the bustling Laguna Niguel court.

Experience is emerging as the key issue in a low-key campaign, which many predict will result in a November runoff. That competition will be necessary if none of the six candidates receives at least 50% of the vote.

*

Carl Biggs, 45, a senior deputy district attorney who presently supervises the office’s juvenile court division, believes he falls “in the upper end” of the experience scale because he has handled the types of criminal and civil cases that would come before him as a judge. He has been endorsed by the South Court judges.

Biggs’ opponents all cite their experience as well, contending they have the background to be fair but tough in dealing with local crime problems.

The candidates include Max De Liema, 49, a private attorney; Lyle J. Robertson, 48, a commissioner appointed by the judges in 1991, primarily to handle traffic and small claims cases; Paul J. Nestor, a 51-year-old Mission Viejo attorney and former military judge and prosecutor; and Roll, 41, a corporate attorney with Xerox.

A sixth candidate, Steve Corris, a 50-year-old Irvine attorney and former county prosecutor, said he’s running to change what he describes as a “good ol’ boy system,” and to make judges more accountable to the public.

When it comes to other issues, voters will be hard-pressed to choose among the candidates based on their stands. All say they would hand out tough sentences, supporting such punishments as the “three-strikes” law, and would work hard to be efficient in times of shrinking resources.

In the Superior Court contests, three women are hoping to increase their numbers on a bench they say is out of balance, while conservatism is emerging as an issue in at least one race.

In one race, a former judge, a court research attorney and a veteran Municipal Court judge are vying for the post being vacated by the retirement of James J. Alfano.

Dan C. Dutcher, 64, who sat as a judge for 12 years in West Municipal Court before losing the seat in a bitterly contested 1994 race with a prosecutor, said he’d like to get back to work full-time.

“It’s a good job for me, and I miss being on the bench, I really do,” said Dutcher, who served twice as presiding judge in Westminster during his tenure.

So far, Dutcher said, the main issue in his campaign has been correcting members of two conservative groups who believed he was a Democrat, an issue that surprised him in the nonpartisan race.

“I’m as conservative as the next person, but I’m not going around shouting it out,” Dutcher said. “Certainly, the first thing you realize as a judge is you are no longer an advocate. You’re an independent arbitrator.”

William P. McNames, 46, describes himself as “the conservative” in the campaign, earning endorsements from supporters such as Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside).

“I stand to return the fundamental, traditional values, the ones we grew up with, the ones the nation was founded on,” said McNames, whose 20 years of legal experience includes work as a deputy city attorney in Garden Grove and Santa Ana. Since 1992, he has worked as an Orange County Superior Court attorney, researching pending legal motions.

*

The final candidate, Barbara Schumann, became the youngest judge ever appointed when she was named to the Central Municipal Court bench in 1979. Schumann, 45, narrowly lost a previous election for a Superior Court post in 1994, and says it is important for her to try again.

“I think I’ve done everything I can probably do here on Municipal Court and I’d like to go on,” said Schumann, whose experience includes creating two anticrime programs for youth.

Schumann, whose endorsements include those of Sheriff Brad Gates and Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, said she also believes it is important to increase the number of women on the Superior Court bench. Four women presently sit as judges on the 59-seat Superior Court bench.

“You hope you have a bench that reflects the diversity of Orange County,” she said.

Another Central Municipal Court judge, a court commissioner and a private attorney are running for another Superior Court seat being vacated with the retirement of Floyd H. Schenk.

Nancy A. Pollard, 56, a Huntington Beach attorney and longtime trustee of Coast Community College District, said she also believes there should be more women working as judges, bringing their own “intuition, outlook and input” to the bench.

“When people come before the court, they need to be judged by someone who has a varied view,” said Pollard, who gained experience in civil, criminal and immigration law since she changed careers 14 years ago and became an attorney.

Two other candidates in the race say experience is also their key qualification.

Judge James M. Brooks, a former county prosecutor elected to the Central Municipal Court bench in 1986, said he’s looking for new challenges on the Superior Court bench.

“I’m in it because I think I have a little edge on leadership,” said Brooks, 58, whose assignments have included a recent six-month stint trying and settling civil cases in Superior Court.

As presiding judge of the Santa Ana court in 1992 and 1993, Brooks helped oversee plans to save money by better coordinating court functions. But he also saw the court hit by controversy when a fellow jurist, Claude E. Whitney, was accused of denying poor and minority defendants access to basic rights. State judicial authorities have since recommended public censure of Whitney.

Clancy Haynes, a former deputy public defender and Juvenile Court referee, said he believes his five years as a commissioner in West Municipal Court have shown he can handle a variety of cases fairly and efficiently.

In the final Superior Court race, three other candidates--two of them sitting Municipal Court judges and one a veteran senior deputy district attorney--are vying for the seat that comes open with the retirement of Judge Marvin G. Weeks.

*

Carla M. Singer, who was appointed to the North Orange County Municipal Court bench in 1990, said the time has come for more women to serve on the Superior Court bench, recalling how hard it was for her to break into law enforcement as a young woman in the 1960s.

A former county prosecutor, deputy state attorney general and investigator with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, she has received endorsements from numerous police chiefs and officers associations.

“They don’t want their work to go to waste,” said Singer, 48. “They want fair hearings. They want reasonable, tough sentences. They’ll get those things from me.”

Richard W. Stanford Jr., who was appointed to the Central Municipal Court bench 11 years ago, said he has a proven record as a firm but fair judge and is receiving support from law enforcement.

“I think I can do a pretty good job of effectively running things without making mistakes that will cost the taxpayers money,” said Stanford, 49.

A former county prosecutor, Stanford has also served twice as the branch’s presiding judge. He was perhaps best known at that time for leading the court’s fight with Sheriff Brad Gates over the practice of freeing inmates to avoid jail overcrowding.

Tom Dunn, an 11-year member of the district attorney’s office whose most recent work has involved handling complex issues in the appellate courts, said his “life-long goal” has been to become a judge.

“I can deal with the complex issues,” said Dunn, 41, who has been endorsed by legislators, including Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle.

Dunn said he had a 100% conviction rate in felony trials as a prosecutor. His first case before the California Supreme Court resulted in making it easier for single parents to collect child support, he said.