Governor Names Superior Court Judge, 2 Municipal Jurists

Gov. George Deukmejian filled three judicial posts in Orange County on Wednesday.

The Republican governor named Santa Ana attorney Thomas N. Thrasher of Villa Park to the Orange County Superior Court. He replaces Judge Henry T. Moore Jr., who was named earlier to the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana.

Deukmejian also appointed Ronald P. Kreber of Laguna Beach and David C. Velasquez of Mission Viejo to the Orange County Municipal Court.

Kreber, 51, a Newport Beach attorney, was named to the bench in the North Orange County Judicial District, replacing the late Judge Sidney Maleck.

Velasquez, 37, an Orange County deputy district attorney, succeeds retired Judge Richard D. Hamilton and will serve in the South Orange County Judicial District.

Thrasher, 51, a graduate of the Hastings School of Law, has practiced with various private firms in Santa Ana since 1965. He also was an adjunct professor of real property for the Western State College of the Law in Fullerton from 1967 through 1987.

Kreber was a Los Angeles police officer from 1963 to 1972, when he joined the Orange County district attorney’s office as a deputy district attorney. He has been a private attorney since 1979.

Velasquez received his law degree from Loyola University in 1978 and was an attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles from 1978 to 1981, when he joined the Los Angeles County district attorney’s staff.

He has been an Orange County deputy district attorney since 1986.

Municipal Court judges are paid $77,409 a year. The salary for a Superior Court judge is $84,765 a year.