District May Seek Legal Advice After School Official Is Jailed in Shooting

An Oxnard school official Sunday said the district will likely seek an attorney’s opinion before deciding what, if any, action should be taken against Fred Judy, a high school board member arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

“We’re not sure what to do because we’ve never faced anything like this,” said Nancy Koch, a trustee on the Oxnard Union High School District board.

Koch said she spoke Sunday with school board President Jean Daily-Underwood, who agreed that the district would have to look into the legal ramifications. Daily-Underwood could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Oxnard police arrested Judy early Saturday after he allegedly shot 56-year-old Donald Jones outside an Oxnard bar. Jones, an Oxnard police officer in the early 1960s and a licensed private investigator, was released from St. John’s Regional Medical Center on Saturday afternoon after being treated for a gunshot wound to the neck, officials said.

Police were tight-lipped Sunday about a motive for the shooting. Authorities said Saturday that Judy and Jones got into an argument inside The Shores restaurant and bar around 2 a.m.

When the Harbor Boulevard lounge closed, the confrontation spilled out into the parking lot, police said. Judy pulled out a handgun and fired several shots at Jones, police said.

Police on Sunday did not release any other details of the incident.

Judy, 54, a longtime Oxnard resident and well-known advocate for the area’s homeless, remained in Ventura County Jail late Sunday on $250,000 bail. He was moved Sunday morning from a holding room to a private jail cell, Sheriff’s Deputy Ross Bonfiglio said.

Judy was given his own cell because deputies did not want other inmates to taunt or harm him because of his prominence in the community, Bonfiglio said. Judy’s arraignment is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Courtroom 12, the deputy said.

Koch said she did not know if the Education Code contains provisions that would bar a suspect from holding a seat on the board of trustees. A lawyer will likely look into that question this week, she said.

The district’s superintendent, William Studt, was home recovering from minor surgery and could not come to the phone, a family member said.

But Koch and others who know Judy continued to express shock and dismay over his alleged involvement in the shooting.

Martin Soto, 16, the student representative on the high school board, said his impression of Judy was of a calm, somewhat reserved man. On a recent three-hour trip to San Diego, Judy cracked jokes and seemed calm, said Martin, a sophomore at Channel Islands High School.

“I never thought he’d be involved in something like that,” Martin said, adding that he will reserve judgment about Judy until he has learned more about the shooting.

Times correspondent Jeff McDonald contributed to this report.