Hoffman Named County Superior Court Judge

Herbert B. Hoffman, a veteran federal prosecutor whose cases have involved industrial espionage, international smuggling and fraudulent defense contracts, was appointed a San Diego County Superior Court judge Tuesday by Gov. George Deukmejian.

Court officials said Hoffman, 43, would assume the new judicial post early next year.

An assistant U.S. attorney assigned to San Diego County since 1974, Hoffman is Deukmejian’s 13th appointment to the San Diego County Superior Court.

Court Administrator William Pierce said Hoffman will be assigned to a domestic law and motion court when he assumes the post Jan. 2.

Hoffman said Deukmejian’s appointments secretary informed him by telephone Monday that he had been selected by the governor. He said it was the realization of a long-held ambition.

“Judges have helped me tremendously throughout my career,” Hoffman said. “ . . . I’ve always wanted to be one.”

As a senior litigation counsel--one of the top federal prosecutors--Hoffman has been involved in special investigations and major criminal prosecutions throughout the United States, although he is permanently assigned to the San Diego office.

He won a special U.S. Justice Department commendation in 1978 for helping to bring about the fraud convictions of five officials of the now-defunct Ocean Market Consultants, a San Diego firm that was involved in sensitive research projects for the U.S. Navy.

Since 1984, Hoffman has been prosecuting Sears Roebuck & Co. in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for alleged illegal importation of television sets from Japan. The case involving the giant retailer is still pending.

Besides Sears, Hoffman has handled cases involving several major U.S. and foreign corporations, including the two-year trial that ended in 1983 in San Francisco in which officials of Hitachi Ltd. were convicted of stealing trade secrets from IBM.

But one of Hoffman’s most highly publicized cases involved the convictions in 1977 of four Northern Californians for conspiracy to smuggle the cancer “wonder drug” Laetrile into the United States from Mexico. Defendants in the emotionally charged case included national leaders in the movement to legalize the purported cancer cure.

Before being assigned to San Diego, Hoffman had worked in the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia from 1969 until 1973.

He was an associate in a private Washington law firm for a year before moving to San Diego.

Hoffman is a graduate of DePaul University law school and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa.

As a judge, he will earn $77,000 annually.