Los Angeles County
Midway through a phone interview in late August, Judge Shelly B. Torrealba excused herself. Someone had walked into her downtown Los Angeles chambers. "We'll talk in a minute," Torrealba could be heard promising her visitor, before returning to the phone with an apology. Torrealba has an open-door policy, she explained -- a holdover from her days at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, where she worked for nearly two decades before taking ... (continued)