The June 7 Primary Election : Judge Should Be Judged Impartially
* I’m responding to your article on Judge Claude E. Whitney (“O.C. Municipal Judge Facing State Charges,” May 18).
The public defender’s office is a notoriously liberal, tax-supported entity whose sole job is to see that indigent individuals accused of a crime are defended in court in a manner resulting in a not-guilty verdict or freeing them through plea-bargaining, diversionary programs or clouding the facts to the extent that juries are confused and uncertain.
In my opinion, this group is the last one to sit in judgment on a judge whose decisions may have gone against them.
I would pay more attention to defense lawyers who are not from the public defender’s office and determine if they feel that the judge was over-harsh and his rulings “faulty,” as well as to his peers in Municipal Court, who are well aware of what goes on in other courtrooms.
T. MORAN
Newport Beach
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