FULLERTON : Prosecutor Appointed to Bench

Gregg L. Prickett, a top prosecutor in the Orange County district attorney’s office, was appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday as a judge in North Orange County Municipal Court.

Prickett, 39, has been a senior deputy district attorney handling writs and appeals for many of Orange County’s important criminal cases. He has been in the district attorney’s office since 1983.

“I was very happy and yet very humbled that the governor chose to appoint me,” Prickett said.

Prickett had received praise for his appellate arguments and his work as a trial prosecutor.

“It’s good news for the court, and it’s bad news for us,” said Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, who predicted that Prickett will make “an outstanding judge.”

Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, who has worked with Prickett, said the governor “couldn’t have made a finer appointment.”

Prickett has had extensive trial experience and has won high-publicity cases, including the prosecution of several teachers and a minister for child molestation and two police officers for sexual misconduct. He also successfully prosecuted former baseball pitcher John (Blue Moon) Odom for sales of narcotics.

“I’ve been in court against him a number of times,” said Allan H. Stokke, one of the county’s top defense attorneys. “He was my law clerk before he became a deputy district attorney, and I’ve always been very impressed with his knowledge and his abilities both on appeals and at the trial level.”

Stokke said he believed that given Prickett’s knowledge of the law, he will have “perfect legal balance” as a judge who will have the “guts for telling prosecutors that their case may be lacking in some respects.”