ELECTIONS / THE COURTS : Judges Make Cases With Clashing Styles

For the first time in six years, Ventura County voters will elect judges in three contested races in the June 2 primary--including an increasingly hostile battle between two Municipal Court judges running for Superior Court.

The two judges--John J. Hunter and Ken W. Riley--have established dramatically different styles on the bench. And they have begun to point out their differences in unusually harsh tones.

Riley’s campaign launched the first volley last week with a press release that dredged up a 3-year-old article in now-defunct California magazine, which labeled Hunter one of the “10 worst judges in California.”

The article faulted Hunter for being capricious in his courtroom management and “almost sadistic” in sentencing.

“Oh, brother,” Hunter said last week when told that Riley was using the article in his campaign. “I’m surprised that he’s doing that, because he knows that article is unfair. Ken has told me personally that he thinks I’m a fine judge.”

In response, Riley said the article is fair game. “John is claiming that he is more experienced. Experience is a two-edged sword. You have to take the good with the bad, and the conduct described in that article is part of the bad.”

Hunter did not stay on the defensive for long. While Riley was trying to paint the race as a choice between good and bad judicial temperaments, Hunter said the issues are experience and courtroom efficiency.

“If they want somebody that’s slow and has a lot of absenteeism, then they do have a choice with Riley, because that’s what he is--slow and gone a lot.

“He’s certainly the slowest judge in the courthouse,” Hunter said. “I think it’s inexperience.”

But Riley insisted that Hunter is absent from the Hall of Justice more than he is, and that Hunter has caused problems by trying to move cases too quickly.

Hunter, 55, is the longest-serving judge in Ventura County. When he was appointed by former Gov. Ronald Reagan 22 years ago, he was the youngest judge in the state. Before that, he was a deputy district attorney with Ventura County and worked in private practice.

Riley, 47, was appointed four years ago by former Gov. George Deukmejian, after serving as a deputy district attorney with the county for 12 years.

“I have more civil experience than any judge in the court, both municipal and superior,” Hunter said, adding that he teaches courses in civil law to new judges at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall law school.

“I’ve also got him on leadership,” Hunter said. Three times in his career, his fellow judges have elected him the Municipal Court’s presiding judge. “He hasn’t done any of that,” Hunter said, adding that Riley rarely speaks up when judges hold policy meetings.

Riley concedes that Hunter has more experience on the bench, but says his own background as a veteran prosecutor as well as a judge gives him a better perspective on how a courtroom should be operated.

“I have never really approved of the way he has treated people in court,” Riley said, adding that as a lawyer he has seen Hunter be callous and abrupt with both attorneys and defendants representing themselves. On many occasions, Riley said, Hunter has found people in contempt of court for crossing him.

As an example, Riley cited the case of Brice Traynor, an 83-year-old Ojai man whom Hunter jailed for five days earlier this month after finding him in contempt.

“That kind of stuff is embarrassing and harmful” to public respect for the courts, Riley said, adding that none of the other Municipal Court judges would have acted so harshly.

Hunter makes no apologies for keeping firm control over his courtroom.

“Any time you run your own courtroom, which I plead guilty to, you’re going to offend people that don’t want to have it be managed,” Hunter said. “That’s maybe displeasing to an attorney that wants to do his own thing. . . . When attorneys don’t show up--and they do that on a consistent basis--I make them explain it.”

He also acknowledged that he will cut off attorneys during presentation of a case “if they’re way out in left field, or beating a dead horse.”

As for Riley, Hunter said, “I’m sure his style is just the opposite. The result of that wishy-washiness is, it takes longer to do a trial.”

Riley said he is decisive but lets attorneys do their jobs thoroughly. “I’m keenly aware of the pressure an attorney is under,” he said. “I’ve spent too many sleepless nights as a deputy D.A.”

Riley said he also has far more experience in the Superior Court, where the winner will preside.

A Superior Court judge handles felony cases, probate and civil suits involving more than $25,000. A Municipal Court judge oversees preliminary hearings in felony cases, misdemeanor trials and civil cases in which less than $25,000 is at stake.

Several attorneys--all of whom requested anonymity--said they agree with each candidate’s assessment of the other’s weaknesses.

“Riley is a very nice man, a gentleman, a beauty to work with,” a deputy public defender said, echoing a widely expressed sentiment. “Hunter is demeaning. He’s impatient. He’s flip.

“But Hunter is pretty sharp,” he said. “He knows the law pretty well . . . and he’s in charge.”

Riley, on the other hand, “doesn’t like to take the bull by the horns and make hard decisions,” the defense attorney said. “Which would you rather have? A fairly intelligent and in-charge bully, or a manipulable guy who’s close to the D.A.’s office, a go-along, get-along guy?”

Riley has been endorsed by several law-enforcement organizations, and Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury is co-chairman of his campaign.

But Bradbury said he has “nothing but positive things to say” about Hunter. “He certainly has rubbed some people the wrong way, but by no stretch of the imagination was he deserving of inclusion in the 10 worst judges in the state.”

He called Riley “the best of two good choices.”

Hunter questioned the propriety of the district attorney’s heading up the campaign of a sitting judge.

“I think it’s inappropriate,” Hunter said. “I would think that a defendant that appears before him and knows his campaign chairman is the district attorney would have a problem with that.”

Riley denied that Bradbury’s support raises a fairness issue. He said he also has the endorsement of one of the county’s most prominent defense lawyers, James Matthew Farley.

“People consider that almost a miracle, that they have agreed on anything,” Riley said.

The Superior Court opening was created when Judge Bruce A. Thompson decided not to seek reelection. By serving out his term rather than retiring, Thompson gave voters--rather than Gov. Pete Wilson--the job of choosing his replacement.

In Ventura County, that hasn’t happened since 1986, when John E. Dobroth defeated fellow Deputy Dist. Atty. Terence M. Kilbride in an open race for the Municipal Court.

Compared to the Riley-Hunter face-off, the two other judicial contests on the ballot this year have generated little controversy so far.

Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. is being challenged by Lee A. Hess, a Westlake attorney. But Hess conceded that he faces an uphill battle in trying to topple a sitting judge, especially one who, he said, seems qualified.

Hess, 41, said he decided to run before Wilson named Campbell, then a Municipal Court judge, to the Superior Court in January. Hess stuck with his decision, he said, at the urging of his children.

“I tell my kids to follow their dreams,” Hess said. “When I was thinking of backing out, my kids asked me why, and I didn’t have a good comeback.”

He said his campaign will give voters a choice. “I think I would do a good job,” Hess said. “I’ll probably catch flak for running against a sitting judge, but I believe in accountability. I think people should have a choice.”

Campbell, 45, who also lives in the Thousand Oaks area, has said that he doesn’t mind campaigning for his job.

“I’m willing to let my performance and record be scrutinized by the public,” he said. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Boalt Hall, Campbell was a deputy district attorney for nine years before Deukmejian appointed him to the Municipal Court in 1988. Wilson chose him over three other Municipal Court judges for elevation to the Superior Court.

The third contested race is a three-man battle for the Municipal Court seat being vacated by Hunter, and their campaigns are just getting under way.

Edward F. Brodie, 46, of Ventura is emphasizing his law-enforcement background. A former California Highway Patrol sergeant who got his law degree in 1980, Brodie is the misdemeanor supervisor in the district attorney’s office. He has been endorsed by Bradbury and Sheriff John V. Gillespie.

Brodie said he is running because he is concerned about increases in violent crime in the county.

“I can and will ensure that victims’ rights are protected and that criminals feel the full impact of their actions,” Brodie said.

But one of his opponents--Larry DeSha, 52, of Camarillo--says the Municipal Court bench is already overloaded with former prosecutors. Of the 11 judges, eight are former deputy district attorneys.

“Most campaigns are two guys from the D.A.’s office arguing about who’s going to bury them the deepest,” DeSha said. While criminals deserve tough sentences, DeSha said, he also promises to fight “crimes that are taking place in the courtroom.”

“The civil cases are where the big trouble is,” said DeSha, an attorney who does defense work for an insurance company, primarily in Los Angeles County. He said too many expert witnesses get away with lying, and too many judges lack a broad background of life experiences that might help them recognize perjury.

DeSha is a graduate of the Naval Academy who spent 24 years in the service before retiring. He then entered UCLA Law School and passed the bar seven years ago.

The third candidate, Gary L. Windom, 41, has practiced law longer than either of his opponents, and has experience in both criminal and civil law. A Camarillo resident, Windom got his law degree at Marquette University in 1975 and was in civil practice for 11 years, after which he joined the Ventura County public defender’s office.

Windom acknowledged that as a senior deputy public defender, he faces “an uphill battle” in Ventura County, given its law-and-order reputation.

“You counter that by showing that I am more than a public defender. I’m an attorney,” Windom said. He said he handled 26 felony trials last year--more than any other public defender--and won 59% of them. In 1990, his success rate was 70%, he said.

Windom teaches criminal law at the Ventura College of Law and is active in a number of educational organizations. In past years, he was on the board of the United Way and the American Cancer Society in Ventura County.

Though he has endorsed Brodie, Bradbury described Windom as “a fine attorney” and acknowledged that he has tried to hire him away from the public defender’s office.

If none of the three candidates gets a majority in the primary, the race will be decided in a runoff in November.