Crowded Judgeship Race Shatters Judicial Restraint

By and large, campaigns for open seats on the local judicial bench are not engrossing events.

Unlike most political candidates, judicial hopefuls are expected to conduct themselves with the decorum and solemnity befitting one who wears a robe and dispenses justice from an elevated platform.

Surprisingly, the race to replace retiring San Diego Municipal Judge Joseph Davis is something of a humdinger.

For starters, there’s a crowded field of eight vying for votes in the June 7 primary, making a runoff between the two top finishers highly probable. Campaign strategies have included some decidedly unorthodox approaches, with one candidate slipping pleas for voter support into 2,100 tasty fortune cookies.

Although each would-be judge is an attorney, several candidates plastered the city with thousands of signs posted illegally, prompting a city code enforcement official to call the violations perhaps the most flagrant she’s ever seen.

And some candidates--probably sensing the anti-crime mood that led the public to dump former state California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird--have made cracking down on violent criminals their battle cry.

Finally, one contender successfully sued two others early in the campaign, forcing them to reword allegedly misleading ballot descriptions of their qualifications.

Some observers in the legal community see the stiffest competition for the seat--which pays $77,409 a year--between Robert C. Baxley, a civil attorney who has handled high-profile cases, and Frank A. Brown, a prosecutor with the district attorney’s office.

Both were born and raised here and are well known among lawyers and judges. Both were rated “well-qualified” for the judgeship by the San Diego County Bar Assn., the highest rating attainable.

Another contender whose name is likely to ring a bell is Michael Schaefer, a former San Diego City Council member indicted and later acquitted in the Yellow Cab Co. scandal of the 1970s. More recently, Schaefer lost a class-action suit filed by tenants of a Los Angeles apartment building he owned. Jurors in that 1986 case concluded Schaefer allowed the building to become overrun with rats and cockroaches and awarded the tenants $1.83 million.

Hold on Assets

In April, a federal bankruptcy judge appointed a trustee to oversee Schaefer’s estate. The move was designed to keep Schaefer from spending assets due the tenants if the former landlord fails to win his appeal.

Also running are Mary Franklin, who was in a runoff for a Municipal Court seat in 1984; Ronald F. Bird, a business and real estate lawyer; Eugene J. Gorrow, an attorney and former City Council member in Ohio; Frank V. Puglia, a civil and criminal lawyer, and Donna Woodley, an attorney specializing in traffic arraignments under contract with the county.

According to financial statements filed with the county registrar of voters late last month, two candidates have invested substantially in the race. Brown raised $27,051, of which $25,876 was drawn from personal accounts, and as of the May 26 filing had spent $22,496.

Woodley has pumped $26,186 of her own money into her campaign and has raised a total of $31,786, the reports show.

Schaefer at first filed reports listing funds of $736,100, money he said is contained in a political action committee called “Friends of Schaefer” that he uses for charitable and political purposes. But there is little chance such a sum will be invested. Schaefer’s bankruptcy trustee, noting that political expenditures do not further the interests of the tenants owed money by Schaefer, has ordered him to spend no more on the campaign.

Schaefer listed expenditures of $21,531 through May, but he said those covered bills accrued before the trustee was appointed.

A glimpse of the candidates:

- Puglia, 38, is a Vietnam veteran who has practiced law in San Diego for 12 years. A Rancho San Diego resident, Puglia is running a low-budget campaign staffed with volunteers and relying on fliers and posters. He had raised about $7,000 through May and spent $9,272.

Rated “qualified” by the Bar Assn., Puglia said running for the bench is the next logical step in his legal career, which began when he graduated from Western State University. Puglia believes plea bargaining has been wrongly used as a way to unclog the court calendar and argues that the legal system should be more sympathetic to crime victims.

His activities outside the legal arena include serving as president of Children’s Hunger Relief, a group he founded three years ago to feed homeless families on holidays.

- Baxley, 58, is a lifelong San Diegan whose cases include representing Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis in the lawsuit filed against him by former Chargers owner Gene Klein. During the campaign, he has emphasized his 24 years as a lawyer and endorsements by prominent citizens and judges. Baxley also has been endorsed by the local chapter of the American College of Trial Advocates.

He has taught courses at the University of San Diego School of Law, from which he graduated, and has sat as a judicial arbitrator and voluntary judge pro tem.

Baxley filed a successful lawsuit against Woodley and Brown, challenging the wording of their ballot statements. Woodley had described herself as a “Judge, Pro Tem,” and Brown claimed that Police Chief Bill Kolender had endorsed his candidacy. (The chief in fact had written a letter supporting Brown when the candidate was seeking an appointment to the bench.)

He also criticized the illegal posting of signs by Woodley, Schaefer and Brown: “How can these candidates put on a robe and sentence other people when they’ve broken laws themselves?”

(Woodley and Brown had hired companies that erected the placards illegally and were embarrassed by the sign dispute. Schaefer, meanwhile, said he disagrees with the law preventing sign posting in the public right of way. He planned to seek a court injunction barring city employees from removing the signs but was dissuaded by the city attorney’s office, which provided him a copy of a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the matter.)

- Brown is a former San Diego police officer who has spent 15 years as a deputy district attorney. He has emphasized victims’ rights in the campaign, and his slogan reflects it: “Make Muni Court Seat No. 13 Unlucky for Criminals.”

With more than 100 felony jury trials under his belt, Brown stresses his criminal-law background. He said his experience working with victims of violent crime would make him “a sensitive judge.” Criticized for a lack of civil law experience, Brown responds that he has taught contract and real property law courses. He also notes that major civil litigation is not tried in Municipal Court.

Brown, 44, of Ocean Beach, said he applied for a judgeship in 1986 but decided to run for the open seat rather than wait for an appointment. He has been endorsed by the Police Officers Assn., the Deputy District Attorneys’ Assn. and other law-enforcement groups.

- Woodley is also a native of San Diego and the youngest candidate in the race at 33. She believes her experience handling large volumes of traffic arraignments in Municipal Court makes her well-qualified for the judgeship.

A lawyer for 10 years, Woodley is fluent in Spanish and believes her language skills would be an asset in Municipal Court. She has hired a campaign consultant and has unleashed a radio and television blitz this past week.

Issues of importance to Woodley include jail crowding, which she calls “a crisis.” She believes the county must examine alternative sentencing procedures to avoid “warehousing people.” Woodley was given a “not recommended” rating by the bar association. But she argues that the evaluation process was flawed because 180 of 220 people questioned by evaluators did not know her and the preponderance of those who did respond were prosecutors.

- A business and real estate lawyer for eight years, Bird is a Vietnam veteran who sees a judgeship as a logical extension of his extensive community service work. Bird, 43, said he is running for the bench because of dissatisfaction with judges who “try to implement social policy instead of following the law.”

If elected, Bird said, his philosophy would be to “rule on the law as written, not write my own law.” He has raised $8,345, of which $5,000 was loans. He said his campaign has been low-key, with members of the soccer team he coaches passing out flyers.

The county bar association gave him a “not recommended” rating, but Bird said he refused to participate in the process and did not complete a lengthy questionnaire given the candidates. Bird said he sees the bar as a lobbying group and objects to its role as evaluator of judicial contenders.

- Franklin is a trial lawyer with a diverse legal background, including work in the Los Angeles city attorney’s office. In 1984, she was in a runoff election for a Municipal Court seat but lost to William Mudd, now a Superior Court judge.

Her many community activities include her role in establishing the Battered Women’s Center. She has also been active in the Urban League, the YWCA, Lawyer’s Club of San Diego and other groups, and has been a community college instructor. Franklin, 42, is a graduate of the University of San Diego School of Law.

- Gorrow has a widely varied background. He has been a city councilman in Ohio, in the Peace Corpsman in Micronesia, a deputy director of a city community relations department and a hearing officer for a welfare agency. A lawyer in San Diego since 1980, Gorrow has handled landlord-tenant disputes and other civil cases.

Gorrow, who has been cited for service by the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, says his multiple “life experiences” make him well-suited for Municipal Court. Because he does not believe judicial candidates should accept financial contributions, Gorrow has run an inexpensive campaign, spending less than $1,000.

The 61-year-old candidate received a “not recommended” rating by the bar association. He objected and said bar leaders informed him the rating “had nothing to do with my integrity but was because I had never conducted a jury trial.”

- Schaefer, 50, is a business lawyer who put his campaign message inside fortune cookies to “demonstrate I have a sense of humor, which every judge should have.” Schaefer sees jail crowding as the biggest issue facing the courts.

Although he was given a not recommended rating by the bar association, he says he “can’t argue with them” for giving him that evaluation: “They said they don’t have problems with my qualifications but that, with all my baggage, it might bring a lack of respect to the courts,” he said.

Although he acknowledges that his legal troubles are “not something I’m very proud of,” Schaefer has attempted to put a positive spin on his past.

“You might say I’m the most experienced candidate,” he said. “I have been involved in the legal system as a prosecutor, a defense attorney, a courtroom clerk and yes, as a defendant. And yes, I have even spent six days in jail.”