Santa Cruz County judge remembered for hard work and a sense of humor

The Santa Cruz community will say goodbye to Superior Court Judge Jeffrey J. Almquist on Saturday with a memorial service at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.

Almquist died on Oct. 7 while on vacation with his wife in Lyon, France. He had recently turned 70 and was scheduled to retire in January. His survivors include two adult sons.

“It was a shock to everybody here,” said Ben Rice Jr., a Santa Cruz defense attorney who appeared many times in Almquist’s court. “He was a well-liked and respected judge. It was too young to die, especially when you’re just getting ready to enjoy life as a retired jurist and travel the world like he liked to do.”

A New Jersey native, Almquist attended Yale University in a class that also included National Security Adviser John Bolton and “Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau.

After University of Connecticut Law School, he worked at a civil law firm and as an aide to Gov. Tom Meskill. But he soon followed his wife of 41 years, Julie, back to her home state of California. After working on real estate litigation in San Jose, he ran his own civil practice in Scotts Valley for over a decade.

In 1996, he ran for county supervisor at the urging of local businessman and close friend Les Gardner, serving seven years. A former Republican who became a Democrat known as an environmentalist, Almquist was part of a flurry of judicial appointments made by Gov. Gray Davis in the weeks after his 2003 recall but before Arnold Schwarzenegger took office.

Re-elected twice, Almquist was best known for his felony criminal court though he later took a family law assignment. He also served as the court’s presiding judge from 2010 to 2011, guiding it through layoffs and a court closure at the height of the financial crisis.

“He brought maybe a little different perspective, having worked as an elected supervisor,” Gardner said. “His understanding of the government really served the courts well.”

Rice said he was one of the first judges to question harsh penalties for marijuana offenses. On one occasion, Almquist combined this attitude with his well-known sense of humor. Rice had a case where the main evidence — 2 pounds of marijuana — sat on the clerk’s table in plain view.

“As the jury was filing out during a break, he told the deputy, ‘Go ahead and stick that in my trunk,’” Rice said. “The jury laughed, everyone knew [he was joking].”

But the judge was also known for hard work and long nights, attorneys say.

“Jeff had friends on both sides of the bar,” said Santa Cruz defense attorney Stephen M. Laberge. “I think that was a good indicator of his openness and their respect.”

Probably his most famous case involved a 20-pound jumbo koi named Goldie, who was the de facto mascot of U.S. Santa Cruz’s Porter College. Two fraternity brothers cooked and ate Goldie as part of an ill-advised stunt for an MTV show. When one of them didn’t comply with court-ordered counseling, Almquist sentenced him to 45 days in jail.

Gardner said Almquist was once asked to perform a marriage for a couple he barely knew on less than a day’s notice. Rather than a standard ceremony, he said, the judge learned everything he could about them and wrote out a short speech.

“He made it a very special occasion for them,” Gardner said. “That was just the type of thing Jeff did.”

Appellate attorney Syda K. Cogliati won a June election to succeed Almquist. Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her to fill the seat early.

The memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday.