Ex-Jurist Criticizes D.A. for Disqualifying Judge : Courts: Robert R. Willard, retired from bench, calls removal of Lawrence Storch from criminal cases ‘selfish and childish.’

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury “has gone too far” in disqualifying Ventura County’s longest-serving Superior Court judge from criminal cases, a retired judge charged Friday.

“It is a selfish and childish reaction,” retired Superior Court Judge Robert R. Willard said in a letter to The Times that accuses Bradbury of “judge shopping.”

The 82-year-old Willard, who served nearly 20 years on the bench before retiring in 1981, is one of the few judges--active or retired--to speak out against Bradbury for banning Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch from criminal cases.

Bradbury’s office on Tuesday ordered deputy prosecutors to use a rare legal challenge to systematically disqualify Storch from hearing new criminal cases.

As a result of the order, the 20-year jurist will probably be transferred to civil cases once his current criminal caseload is completed. Storch is one of six judges in the Superior Court’s criminal section.

The edict against Storch followed his decision to reduce a Newbury Park man’s first-degree murder conviction to second-degree murder and sentence the defendant to the lowest possible prison term. Storch said the evidence did not support the first-degree conviction, and later noted that Bradbury’s office had originally been willing to accept a guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

In an interview Friday, Willard said he went public on the issue because “Mike Bradbury is wrong that Storch is not completely competent and fair.”

“I have nothing to say in response to the letter,” the district attorney said. “We don’t intend to discuss the matter any further.”

But one of Bradbury’s deputy district attorneys said Willard was soft on crime as a judge and has no room to criticize the county’s top prosecutor.

“It was very unpleasant and painful to be a trial attorney in his courtroom,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard E. Holmes said of Willard.

In his letter, Willard, a 15-year city attorney for Ojai before then-Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown appointed him to the Superior Court in 1964, said in his letter that Bradbury “suffers from a glaring weakness.”

“He cannot stand to lose,” he said. “He flies into an emotional pique and seeks to disqualify a highly qualified judge for the sole reason that the judge, in all good conscience, does not agree with him.”

He accused Bradbury of “blackballing” judges who have not agreed with him in the past, a practice that Willard said interfered with the administration of justice.

“Twenty-five years ago, Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Bradbury was young, competent, eager, and a gentlemen,” Willard wrote. “It is regrettable that the power he achieved has changed him so much. Ventura County is no longer well served.”

In the interview, Willard said he believes many current Ventura County judges have not spoken out against the district attorney because a number of them are former prosecutors who used to work under Bradbury.

“I can see why the judges there would not want to antagonize the district attorney, or get into a battle with him, just as Judge Storch hasn’t,” Willard said. “Being retired, I don’t have any concerns. If I were trying cases regularly, I might. I might be disqualified for saying what I am saying.”

Under the law, either side in a case gets one chance to remove a judge when the case is first assigned, without stating a reason.

As a judge, Willard was disqualified several times on individual criminal cases. But he was never subjected to the systematic disqualification that the district attorney has initiated against Storch.

Prosecutor Holmes said he kept Willard off certain cases by filing an affidavit disqualifying him.

“I wish I had done it more often,” Holmes said.

Willard gave probation to a drunk-driving defendant who had been convicted of vehicular manslaughter in a crash that took the life of a young girl returning from a 4-H meeting, Holmes said.

“The jury even recommended that he go to state prison,” Holmes said. “But Willard placed him on probation.”

Willard was challenged for his judicial seat in 1978 by Deputy Dist. Atty. O. Guy Frick, who is now second-in-command of Bradbury’s child support unit. Frick campaigned on a law-and-order platform, accusing Willard of handing down light sentences.

But voters returned Willard to office.

Frick could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Storch will continue to hear criminal cases assigned to his court before Bradbury’s decision to disqualify him--cases that could take several months to resolve. On Monday, he is scheduled to sentence Christopher Sattiewhite of Oxnard for murdering a woman in 1992.

The jury ordered the death penalty, but Storch will consider a defense motion to reduce the sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole.

* LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: B11