Deukmejian Fills 5 S.D. Judgeships

The last three vacant spots on the 71-member San Diego County Superior Court bench were filled Wednesday with the appointments of a deputy district attorney, an assistant city attorney and a family law specialist.

Gov. George Deukmejian, who made the appointments, also filled two Municipal Court slots--one in San Diego and one in El Cajon--with two deputy district attorneys.

The three Superior Court appointments completed the 18-judge expansion of the court announced last year and delighted Judith McConnell, its presiding judge, who said Wednesday that she was “in heaven” with visions of the bench at full strength.

The three new Superior Court judges--Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Whelan, Asst. City Atty. Ronald L. Johnson and family lawyer Wesley R. Mason III--are scheduled to be sworn in next week.

Both Johnson and Mason will fill new positions. Whelan, the chief of the district attorney’s El Cajon office, will replace Judge Louis E. Boyle, who abruptly stepped down from the bench late last month to return to the district attorney’s office.

Boyle’s departure was prompted, in part, by the shortage of courtrooms and physical shortcomings at the downtown county courthouse. McConnell said that, although she has lined up temporary courtrooms for the three new judges’ first days, she isn’t sure where they will be hearing cases after that.

Whelan, 49, has been with the district attorney’s office since 1969. He went to both college and law school at the University of San Diego.

Johnson, 52, has been the assistant city attorney since 1988. For 17 years before that, he was a deputy city attorney specializing in civil cases.

Before he joined the city attorney’s office, Johnson practiced law with a San Diego law firm, the state Department of Transportation, a Riverside law firm and the state Public Utilities Commission. He is a 1963 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, law school.

Mason, 50, who said he expects to work at the family court, has been a partner since 1986 in the San Diego-area law firm of Mason & Cannon.

He was a partner or had worked at other area firms since 1971. Mason served a one-year stint, in 1970, with the San Diego city attorney’s office, after graduating the year before from California Western law school.

The two deputy district attorneys Deukmejian picked for the Municipal Court were Charles G. Rogers and Lantz Lewis.

Rogers, 39, tabbed for the San Diego Municipal Court, had been assigned to the San Diego Metropolitan Task Force, known primarily for its investigation of a series of prostitute killings.

Except for two years with an area law firm, Rogers has been with the district attorney’s office since 1976. He is a 1974 graduate of the University of Denver law school.

Lewis, 45, picked for the El Cajon Municipal Court, has been a deputy district attorney since 1976. His prior work included four years as a coordinator with the county’s Law and Justice Agency and three years as an analyst with the San Diego city manager’s office.

He is a 1974 University of San Diego law school graduate.

Rogers fills a new position. Lewis replaces Ronald S. Prager, who moved to the San Diego Superior Court.

Superior Court judges earn $94,344 and Municipal Court judges $86,157 annually.