Judge’s Retirement Opens Superior Court Spot : The Law: Ross G. Tharp says he won’t be seeking reelection. San Diego Municipal Court Judge Frederic L. Link announces he will run for the position.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Ross G. Tharp will not run for reelection, opening a spot on the bench that San Diego Municipal Court Judge Frederic L. Link will run for, both judges confirmed Thursday.

Tharp, 61, said he delivered a letter Thursday to Judge Judith McConnell, the San Diego Superior Court’s presiding judge, announcing that he will retire to write and travel “before heading for that big courthouse in the sky.”

Eligible for retirement in late July after 20 years on the bench, Tharp’s decision not to file for reelection means there could be a contested campaign for his seat on the 71-member court. Link, 46, a criminal law specialist with nearly nine years on the bench, said he offers the community a “known commodity.”

Because a backlog of criminal cases frequently plagues Superior Court, selected Municipal Court judges routinely are allowed to sit as Superior Court judges at the downtown San Diego courthouse, and Link said he has “handled thousands of felony cases” as well as three murder jury trials since taking the bench in 1981.

“Most people running for the bench are not judges, and you don’t know what their record is,” Link said. “I have something they can look at.”

The developments Thursday marked the informal opening of campaign season for the 31 spots on the Superior Court bench up for confirmation. McConnell, the presiding judge, said she understands that the 30 other incumbents are all planning to file for reelection.

On Monday, the county’s registrar of voters begins accepting formal papers from incumbent judges or challengers announcing an intent to run. The filing deadline is Feb. 7, said Barbara Walther, a senior clerk at the registrar’s office.

The filing period is the same for the county’s Municipal Court, where 24 spots will be up this year for confirmation, Walther said. Of the 24 seats, 10 are at the San Diego court, six at Vista, four at El Cajon and four at Chula Vista.

The county’s Municipal Court is administratively split into four districts, unlike the Superior Court, which takes in the entire county.

Tharp’s decision not to pursue reelection makes him the second judge within a month to announce a departure from the San Diego Superior Court.

Unlike Louis E. Boyle, however, who left the bench at the end of December to return to the district attorney’s office in a move prompted largely by the shortage of courtrooms and physical shortcomings at the downtown San Diego courthouse, Tharp said he will miss being a judge.

The San Diego court, Tharp said, is the “finest in the state, if not the country.”

Tharp said he does not plan to immediately endorse Link for his spot because he wants “to see who else is in the race before making a commitment.”

“I have only the greatest respect for (Link), but I’m not sure if a retiring judge, or any retiring officer, can exert any pressure on the electorate,” Tharp said. “And, besides, I don’t know if that’s appropriate.”

Link said he hopes to receive “significant backing” from police groups, lawyers and judges. Late Thursday, Link said, he was endorsed by the San Diego Police Officers Assn.

“I plan to continue to seek ways to improve the system for the citizens, witnesses and victims who come into the courthouse,” Link said. “The old ways cannot be followed any longer. We must find and seek out innovative solutions to the problems that the citizens demand be solved.”

Link was appointed to the Municipal Court in June, 1981, elected to his post in 1982 and reelected in 1988. He served as the court’s presiding judge in 1985 and 1986 and has a lengthy record of involvement in bench, bar and community affairs.

Before taking the bench, Link was a deputy district attorney and a San Diego lawyer specializing in criminal defense. He attended college at UC Santa Barbara and law school at the University of San Diego.

Tharp served two years on the San Diego Municipal Court, from 1969 to 1971, before then-Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Superior Court. He was elected in 1972 and reelected in 1978 and 1984.

Tharp, a Republican, ran for the state Assembly’s 78th District seat in 1980 but lost to incumbent Lawrence Kapiloff--who, like Tharp, is now a San Diego Superior Court judge.

From 1957 to 1961, Tharp served on the San Diego City Council. In private practice for 14 years before moving to the bench in 1969, he went to college and law school at Loyola University in Los Angeles.