Candidate for
Judge of the Municipal Court; Los Angeles Judicial District, Office No. 1

My parents strongly believed in and reinforced such human values as fairness, tolerance, honesty, social justice, respect for the rule of law and compassion. I was raised to cherish human and civil rights, to appreciate human diversity, and to believe that government should serve the public good. I grew up with an uncynical appreciation for the freedoms, democracy and opportunity at the center of the American experience.

I attended the University of California at Berkeley from 1964 to 1968 and graduated with Honors from Loyola University School of Law in 1973. I was admitted to the California Bar in 1973. From 1973-1977, I was an attorney in Washington, D.C. and New York with the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare which included tenure as a Special Assistant to the United States Attorney. From 1977-1979, I was a Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender representing adults in Municipal and Superior criminal court and minors in Juvenile Court. From 1979-1983, I was a sole practitioner in Los Angeles, specializing in criminal defense and representation of juveniles in Delinquency and Dependency Courts. As a trial lawyer I represented many clients who were indigent, disadvantaged or working poor. Consequently, I gained valuable insights into the real lives of individuals throughout the diverse communities of Los Angeles. That experience has also served me well in understanding and communicating with the many different individuals--victims, defendants, witnesses and litigants--who have come before my court in the more than 16 years that I have been a Court Commissioner.

Since 1983, as a Municipal Court Commissioner (and now, as the result of recent Court Unification, as a Superior Court Commissioner), I have been assigned to every type of Municipal courtroom, including jury trials, felony preliminary hearings, high volume arraignment and master calendar courts and civil litigation (including small claims and landlord/tenant courts). For two years I was the sole judicial officer for the Florence-Firestone district (a separate jurisdiction within the Los Angeles Municipal Court). I held a long-term assignment to the central felony arraignment and pre-trial motions court where first-degree murder, serious sex crimes, and major drug cases first appear. While assigned to the high-volume arraignment court that hears white collar crimes at a time when there had been some reluctance to hold individuals criminally liable for environmental crimes committed by business entities, I imposed for the first time in California history (in a series of landmark cases) jail sentences on individual corporate executives for toxic waste dumping.

Two and one-half years ago, I was chosen to preside in our unique Federally-funded criminal child support enforcement court--the only one of its kind in California. During my tenure this Court has been recognized as a very effective and successful component of Los Angeles County's beleaguered child support efforts. Using the court's probationary powers and jail sanctions, we have increased our child support collections threefold in the last two years and now secure millions of dollars a month that previous civil court and administrative efforts failed to collect. This specialized court is replete with complex social and economic issues and requires a constant, thoughtful balancing of the needs of children, the economic realities facing the working poor (who comprise the majority of the caseload) and the State's interest in reimbursing taxpayers for the cost of Welfare.

From my daily courtroom experiences I recognized a number of significant problems that might be effectively remedied through new legislation. I initiated a series of conferences with representatives of the District Attorney, public and private counsel, judges, advocacy groups and legislative staff. My concerns and suggestions (and subsequently some others) were discussed. Special legislative proposals were formulated and considered by the Legislature's Judiciary Committees before whom I appeared as a witness. The legislation--even after some modification and deletions--contains provisions substantially improving the measure of fairness in the child support process and was signed by Governor Davis as the Fairness in Child Support Act of 2000.

My non-legal interests center on the fine arts and participation in philanthropic human services activities such as helping establish a hospice for women and children with AIDS.