2 Judges Appointed to Superior Court

Two Van Nuys Municipal Court judges, including one in whose courtroom a mentally deranged chiropractor fought a deadly gun battle with a bailiff, have been appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian to the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Michael B. Harwin, 42, of Hidden Hills, a former deputy Los Angeles County district attorney, was appointed a judicial commissioner in 1982 by Gov. Jerry Brown. He was appointed by Deukmejian to the Municipal Court bench four years later, said a spokesman for the governor, Susan Trowbridge.

It was in Harwin’s courtroom in March, 1988, that a Woodland Hills chiropractor with a history of mental illness, Jeremy Sigmond, 35, took hostage the deputy city attorney who had successfully prosecuted him on misdemeanor charges the day before.

Sigmond was shot dead by a bailiff after wounding the bailiff in a gun battle.

Harwin received his law degree from New York University in 1971 after receiving an undergraduate degree from Rutgers University.

Michael Nash, 41, of Studio City was a deputy state attorney general before being appointed by Deukmejian to the bench in Van Nuys in early 1985, Trowbridge said.

Nash was a co-prosecutor in the trial of Hillside Strangler Angelo Buono.

Nash received his bachelor’s degree from USC in 1970 and his law degree from Loyola University four years later. His younger brother, Lloyd, is a Van Nuys Municipal Court judge.