2 Lawyers Vying to Succeed Judge

Longtime prosecutor Don Coleman will compete with Cathleen Drury, a Thousand Oaks family law attorney, in the upcoming March election to replace retiring Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch.

Theirs is the only contested judicial race in Ventura County next year, because none of the sitting judges up for reelection had drawn a challenger by the filing deadline.

Coleman, a 16-year veteran prosecutor, has risen through the ranks to be one of the five top deputies to Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

A Ventura resident, the 45-year-old Coleman is a chief deputy district attorney overseeing the Child Support Division. He has been endorsed by the county’s most powerful elected law enforcement officials: Bradbury and Sheriff Larry Carpenter.

Drury, a 44-year-old Thousand Oaks resident, has had a civil law practice with a specialty in divorce and child custody matters for a dozen years. Her office is in the Westlake section of Thousand Oaks.

Drury said she wants to run for judge to bring more balance to the county’s Superior Court bench. She said the local bench has a shortage of lawyers with extensive civil law practice, a shortage of women and a shortage of east county residents.

She said she would welcome presiding over family law cases--a judicial assignment loathed by many of the judges. Unlike a number of current judges, she said she would also love to sit as a judge in the East County Courthouse in Simi Valley.

Eleven of the county’s judges will be automatically elected next year to a six-year term, unless challenged by a valid write-in candidate. The Superior Court judges are Melinda A. Johnson, Charles R. McGrath, Steven Z. Perren, Allan L. Steele, Barbara A. Lane, James P. Cloninger and Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. The Municipal Court judges are Bruce A. Clark, Steven Hintz, Thomas J. Hutchins and Rebecca Riley.