Boxer Backs L.A. Judge, Attorney for Federal Bench : Courts: Richard Paez and Samuel Paz are recommended. They would be the first Mexican-Americans to serve on the local District Court.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer announced Thursday that she has recommended to President Clinton that he nominate a liberal Los Angeles Municipal Court judge and an Alhambra lawyer who has frequently represented victims of police abuse to highly coveted federal District Court judgeships.

Boxer tapped Municipal Judge Richard A. Paez and Alhambra attorney Samuel Paz for the judgeships, which carry lifetime tenure.

If Clinton nominates the two, which is regarded as likely, and they are confirmed by the Senate, Paz and Paez would become the first Mexican-Americans to serve on the District Court in Los Angeles.

Legal observers said the choices were in sharp contrast to the appointees of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, who favored former prosecutors or business litigation specialists on the federal bench. The last two presidents also were frequently criticized by public interest groups for appointing few minorities.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had these kind of appointments to the federal court,” said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

“I think it’s a welcome change after all the pro-law enforcement people we’ve seen appointed to the state and federal courts,” she said.

Among those lauding Paez’s nomination was Century City lawyer Charles F. Palmer, the former director of Public Counsel, a public interest law organization, who has known the judge since his days as a legal aid lawyer.

“I can hardly think of a better appointment,” Palmer said. “He is extremely bright, decisive and remarkably wise.”

Boxer said in a statement: “I couldn’t be more pleased with the outstanding individuals who have come forward to serve their country in these important positions.”

More than 75 people applied to Boxer. They were screened by a committee of Southern California lawyers headed by attorney Angela Oh.

Oh said the committee sent the names of about half a dozen people it considered best qualified and that Boxer made the selections from that group.

“We were concerned about the perspective people had on the rights of litigants, access to the courts, their commitment to basic principles of dignity for everyone who comes into the courthouse,” Oh said. “For myself, a sense of compassion was an important quality.”

Paez, 46, whose voice cracked during a brief interview, said he was very honored by the nomination but declined further comment. “I know it’s a long process to confirmation.”

Paz, 50, said he made a “very difficult decision to give up a successful (law) practice. But for me it’s a chance to serve in a capacity that I think will benefit the bench and the community.”

Paz, who has handled numerous police brutality lawsuits, said he believed that the fact that his background is different from most District Court judges “was part of the reason the senator wanted to consider my nomination. . . . I think she sees it’s necessary to have some balance on the court.”

Paz grew up in Lincoln Heights and graduated from Franklin High School. After serving in the Navy, he graduated from UCLA and received his law degree from USC in 1974.

He has frequently been honored for his work in the community by a wide range of organizations, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Justice Department.

Paz said about a third of his practice is cases against law enforcement officers who have allegedly violated someone’s civil rights. In 1991, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded one of his clients--a Los Angeles groundskeeper--$8.9 million stemming from an illegal shooting by a Los Angeles police officer that left the man a paraplegic.

That is one of the largest verdicts ever rendered by a jury in such a case. The City Council settled the case for $5.5 million.

That same year, Paz negotiated a settlement in the mid-six figures for the widow of a man who died of an embolism in the Los Angeles County Jail infirmary after being strapped to a cot for six days.

Paez was born and raised in Utah and attended Brigham Young University. He was raised a Mormon and said in an interview some time ago that although he is a political liberal, he conducts his personal life conservatively.

He graduated from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 1972. He then began nearly a decade of work as a public interest lawyer, starting with a two-year stint with California Rural Legal Assistance in Delano.

Paez moved to Los Angeles, where he spent two years at the Western Center on Law and Poverty and 3 1/2 years at the Legal Aid Foundation, where he became director of litigation.

In 1981, Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. appointed him a Municipal Court judge. Paez has presided over several high-profile trials, including one where Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry was convicted of trespassing during an anti-abortion protest.

Earlier this year, Boxer and her colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, agreed that each would recommend two people to Clinton for the four vacancies on the District Court bench in Los Angeles.

The district judges hear cases stemming from disputes in seven Southern California counties--Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

Although Paez and Paz would be the first Mexican-Americans to serve as District Court judges in Los Angeles, there are two others of Latino descent--Manuel Real, whose parents emigrated from Spain, and Lourdes G. Baird, who was born in Ecuador.