New Superior Court Judge Is Sworn In, Lawyer Appointed to Municipal Bench

Gov. George Deukmejian appointed two Orange County judges Friday, promoting a Municipal Court jurist and filling that vacancy with a Newport Beach lawyer, a spokesman said.

Judge William R. Froeberg , 39, was sworn in as a Superior Court judge after having served 3 years as a Municipal Court judge in Santa Ana. He will be replaced on the Municipal Court bench by attorney Claude E. Whitney, 58.

Froeberg said Friday that he is looking forward to the challenges of Superior Court.

“Obviously the complexity of the cases will be greater and the penalties will be greater” than Municipal Court, he said. “There will be more zeroes behind the numbers.”

Fairness will be of utmost importance, he said.

“The ideal of every judge is to make sure everyone gets a fair hearing,” he said. “That’s the only preconceived notion I have.”

Superior Court judges earn $84,765 a year.

Whitney, who was told Friday of his appointment to the $77,409 Municipal Court position, said he was “very excited” and “very surprised.” He had applied for a judgeship 2 years ago and did not know he was being considered, he said.

“I hope I can contribute in a meaningful way in speeding up the (legal) process so that people can have justice in a meaningful manner,” Whitney said.

Froeberg’s Superior Court position was created by a trial court funding bill, AB 1197, which was signed by the governor Sept. 17, 1988, Deukmejian spokesman Kevin Brett said. The bill created 109 new judgeships throughout the state to ease the burden of an overworked court system. In Orange County, Froeberg’s appointment fills the fourth of five judgeships created by the bill.

Froeberg was selected because “he has 3 years’ experience as a Municipal Court judge and has lengthy experience as an attorney in private practice,” Brett said. “He is certainly more than qualified in the governor’s mind to serve.”

Senior public defender Jim Spellman, who has appeared several hundred times before Froeberg in court, said the appointment was well deserved.

“He was professional, he knew the law and he was fair to all sides,” Spellman said.

Before being appointed to the bench, Froeberg practiced family law from 1975 to 1986 in San Clemente, where he lives with his wife, Rosanne, a deputy district attorney in Santa Ana.

Froeberg, born in Chicago and raised in Claremont, attended UC Riverside, where he graduated in 1971 with an undergraduate degree in political science. He went on to earn a law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.

Whitney worked as a building materials salesman for about 10 years after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1956. After returning to school and earning a law degree in 1971 from San Fernando Valley College of Law in Los Angeles, he began a family law and general practice in Beverly Hills before moving to Newport Beach in 1978.