Brown elevates two judges to the appellate bench while adding 33 superior court judges

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Jerry Brown appointed two new appeals court justices and 33 superior court judges on Friday.

The picks include the staffer to a state Supreme Court justice, the deputy attorney general who prosecuted singer Michael's Jackson's doctor, the daughter of Brown's college roommate, and the judge who barred the Orange County district attorney's office from participating in a notorious murder trial.

Brown did not address the judicial appointment the state's legal community has been waiting for: A replacement for state Supreme Court Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar, who retired in August.

The latest batch of judges does make progress on Brown's pledge to fill nearly every judicial vacancy before he leaves office in a year. He named three appeals court justices and 34 superior court judges at the beginning of November.

Not counting new vacancies that could appear in coming weeks, the new appointments will leave seven appeals court vacancies and 39 superior court positions. Overall, this will mark the lowest number of judicial vacancies since 2011.

Nine of the picks have spent time in public defender offices. The average age of Brown's superior court choices is just under 50.

Overall, 17 of the picks are women. At least five are Latino.

The most controversial pick is Thomas M. Goethals, 65, who will leave Orange County Superior Court to become a justice on the 4th District Court of Appeal's Division 3.

Goethals is at the center of Orange County's jail informant controversy. He presided over a months-long hearing that resulted in him dismissing the death penalty against Orange County's deadliest mass murderer, Seal Beach killer Scott Dekraai, in August.

As the controversy brewed, the Orange County district attorney's office sought to disqualify him from so many cases that the superior court eventually refused, causing prosecutors to file a writ petition with the 4th District Court of Appeal.

Erwin Chemerinsky, now dean of UC Berkeley School of Law, represented Orange County Superior Court in its defense against that petition. He told a gathering of Orange County judges and lawyers in October that the case is his proudest.

Assistant Public Defender Scott L. Sanders, who represented Dekraai, said he has "mixed feelings" about Goethals' appointment.

"Judge Goethals' commitment to fairness makes this a devastating loss to the superior court, which is the same reason this a brilliant choice by our governor," Sanders said.

The firm where Goethals was a partner from 1990 to 2002, Pohlson, Moorhead and Goethals, has been a pipeline to the judiciary: name partners Gary J. Moorhead and Gary M. Pohlson are now Orange County Superior Court judges, and Kathleen E. O'Leary, presiding justice of the 4th District Court of Appeal, was a partner there in 1981.

While it's losing Goethals, Orange County will gain Jeremy D. Dolnick, 45, and David J. Hesseltine, 47. Dolnick has served in the county's alternate public defender's office since 2004. Hesseltine was a research attorney with the court from 2004 to 2010 before working as a senior appellate attorney in the 4th District Court of Appeal.

Brown also named Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Mary J. Greenwood to the 6th District Court of Appeal.

Greenwood, 60, was the county's public defender from 2005 until Brown appointed her to the bench in 2012. Prior to that, she served in various roles in the public defender's office and spent a brief period in private practice. Greenwood is married to U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila of San Jose.

Victor A. Rodriguez, 42, will join Alameda County Superior Court. Rodriguez said he was "very gratified" that his Mexican immigrant parents are able to see him take the bench -- especially since they both used to work in a courthouse.

"Thirty-five years later after helping my parents clean the Livermore Municipal Court, to receive this appointment feels very humbling and special to come full circle," Rodriguez said.

He started his career as a Skadden fellow at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and clerked for U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall.

Rodriguez spent nearly 12 years working in the California Supreme Court, serving Justices Carlos R. Moreno, Goodwin H. Liu and Carol A. Corrigan. Since 2015, he has served as supervising staff attorney to Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar. Among other jobs, he was active in an effort to improve the accessibility of state courts to non-English speakers.

"Victor Rodriguez will be an enduring asset to Alameda County Superior Court, the state courts, and the people of California," Cuellar said in a statement. "As my Chief of Staff and someone who ably served three other justices, Victor has made important contributions to the Supreme Court of California, and to the California courts through his work on the Language Access Implementation Task Force."

A trio of new Sacramento County judges will include Lauri A. Damrell. The 39-year-old will leave Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe LLP, where she was an associate from 2006 until being named partner last year. She is the daughter-in-law of Frank C. Damrell Jr., who served as an Eastern District judge from 1987 to 2001. The elder Damrell attended St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco with Brown, and then roomed with the governor for stints at Santa Clara University and UC Berkeley.

Lauri Damrell will fill a seat vacated by another member of a prominent legal family, Michael G. Virga, who retired last year. He is the son of the late Michael J. Virga, who spent two decades on the bench in Sacramento.

She will be joined on the Sacramento County Superior Court by Shama H. Mesiwala and Jill H. Talley. Mesiwala, 43, was named a commissioner by the court in February. She will become one of just a few Muslim judges in the state. She served as a judicial attorney with the 3rd District Court of Appeal from 2004 until this year.

Talley, 48, has served as chief counsel to the governor's Office of Emergency Services since 2014. She spent a dozen years with the California Department of Justice and is an adjunct professor at Lincoln Law School in Sacramento.

As is often the case, the most picks went to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. This includes Victoria B. Wilson, 48, who has been with the California Department of Justice since 1994, and was promoted to supervising deputy attorney general in 2001.

In 2011, Wilson won an involuntary manslaughter conviction against Dr. Conrad Murray. Murray was personal doctor to singer Michael Jackson, and prescribed the singer the anesthetic propofol which killed him in 2009.

Gia G. Bosley, 53, will join the court after serving in Los Angeles County as a deputy public defender since 2006. She also served a stint as deputy trial counsel with the State Bar after a two-decade career in private practice.

Susan J. DeWitt, 56, has served in the U.S. attorney's office in the Central District since 1997, where she worked on issues including civil rights and national security. Fellow Los Angeles appointee Kristin S. Escalante, 54, served most recently a senior trial counsel with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was a partner at Manatt, Phelps and Phillips LLP from 2011 to 2014.

Robert S. Wada, 62, has worked in Los Angeles County Superior Court since 1997, serving as both a court commissioner and supervising probate attorney. Prior to that, he spent 12 years in private practice.

Gregory J. Weingart, 52, joins the court from Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, where he became a partner in 2004. He also spent a decade in the U.S. attorney's office in the Central District.

Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which have been had the greatest shortage of judicial officers in recent years, received a total of three new judges. Emma C. Smith joins the Riverside County court after serving in the public defender's office since 2009. At 37, she is the youngest appointee.

Joel S. Agron, 49, joined San Bernardino Superior Court as a commissioner last year after serving 14 years in the public defender's office. Jay H. Robinson, 46, has been a deputy chief in the U.S. attorney's office in the Central District since 2014. He also spent time in both the Riverside and San Bernardino county district attorney's offices.

A trio of longtime sole practitioners will join the courts in rural Northern California: Jesus A. Rodriguez, 38, in Butte County; J. David Markham, 48, in Lake County; and Mark R. Nareau, 61, in Lassen County.

Humboldt County Superior Court will add Kelly L. Neel, 47. Over more than a decade, she has worked in the county for the district attorney, public defender and county counsel.

Virginia M. George, 58 and a partner with George, Schofield, McCormick LLP since 2011, will become a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge. San Mateo County gets Danny Y. Chou, 48, who has served stints in the county counsel's office and with the San Francisco city attorney.

Just to the south, Santa Clara County will add Hogan Lovells U.S. LLP Partner Robert B. Hawk, 59, and Amber S. Rosen, 50, deputy chief of the U.S. attorney's office in San Jose.

Valerie R. Chrissakis, 46, will join the Kings County Superior Court, where she has been a staff attorney since 2006. Rafael Vasquez, 42, will join Monterey County Superior Court from the Santa Cruz County district attorney's office.

Napa County Superior Court will get new judges in Cynthia P. Smith and Victoria D. Wood. Smith, 56, has been a partner with Coombs and Dunlap LLP for almost a decade. Victoria Wood, 44, has been a commissioner since 2013 after serving 10 years as court counsel.

Daniel Belsky, 65, will become a judge in San Diego County. He left his own firm earlier this year after 15 years. Richard C. Darwin, 50, was tapped in San Francisco County after a decade as a shareholder at Buchalter. He is the oldest superior court appointee.

Matthew G. Guerrero, 47, joins San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, leaving a solo practice he's run since 2002. Dora M. Rios, 47, will leave the Solano County alternate public defender's dffice after 17 years to become a judge there.

Kellee C. Westbrook, 44, was picked as a judge in Stanislaus County after a career that spanned private practice and time in three different public defender's offices. The Ventura County court will add Benjamin F. Coats, 57, who has been a partner at Engle Carobini and Coats LLP since 2007.

Five of the new judges will fill spots created by the conversion of court commissioner positions under AB 159, a bill passed in 2007. Five of Brown's superior court picks were promoted directly from serving as commissioners.

Breaking with several past batches of Brown appointees, this group included no Republicans. Twenty-five are Democrats and 10 don't list a party preference.

Daily Journal Staff Writer Meghann Cuniff contributed to this report.