2 Lancaster Judges Transferred : Superior Court: One-year assignments end for Charles L. Peven and Charles E. Horan. Veteran jurist Haig Kehiayan is named to fill one opening.

Both Lancaster Superior Court judges are nearing the end of one-year assignments in the Antelope Valley and will be replaced, Ricardo A. Torres, presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, said this week.

Judge Charles L. Peven is being transferred Thursday to San Fernando Superior Court. He will replace Judge Haig Kehiayan, who in turn is being assigned to Lancaster to replace Peven.

Judge Charles E. Horan is to be transferred to downtown Los Angeles after Gov. Pete Wilson appoints judges to fill 14 vacant judgeships in the county sometime in the next few weeks, Torres said. Peven and Horan were told at the time of their assignments that they would be transferred after a year, Torres said.

Horan, who has commuted 64 miles from his home in Glendale, said he will welcome the transfer.

“I don’t get to see my kids,” he said. “When I leave the house in the morning they’re in bed and when I come home they are up for about 20 minutes.” Horan was appointed to the Superior Court in 1990.

Peven, who was elevated to the Superior Court bench in 1989, commutes from Northridge.

Torres said the appointment of Kehiayan, who lives in Santa Clarita, is permanent and will give the Antelope Valley a legal veteran. Kehiayan was appointed to Superior Court in 1988 after 32 years in private practice that specialized in real estate, small business and probate cases.

Kehiayan said he won’t mind commuting the 40 miles to Lancaster and will spend the time listening to Spanish language training tapes, news radio and thinking. “I’m going to hit the deck with both feet running,” he said. Kehiayan has a daughter and grandchildren who live in the Antelope Valley.

Kehiayan and the as-yet unnamed second judge will encounter an extraordinarily busy court. Steve Cooley, head of the district attorney’s office in Lancaster, said county studies of judicial workloads show Horan and Peven combined did the work of three to four judges.

Torres said he could “put two more judges there full time if I had the space.”

He also said he is going to try to have state legislation introduced next year to create a separate judicial district for Lancaster, which now is administered from San Fernando.

Plans are in the works to build a new courthouse between Lancaster and Palmdale, with construction to begin in 1995 or 1996.