3 Attorneys in Race for Superior Court Judge

They are all Democrats, all attorneys, all contenders.

That is where the similarities end for Cathleen Drury, Kevin McGee and Gary Windom. The three are vying for the Ventura County Superior Court’s only contested seat--a position that opened up dramatically when Judge Robert Bradley was removed for his alcohol problems.

As in most races for judge, the campaign is comparatively sedate. Citing judicial ethics, the candidates shy away from comment on the three-strikes law, capital punishment and other hot-button issues that could come before them in court. Pitching their resumes and their temperament, they cite in impassioned detail how their particular experience suits them to the bench better than the others.

The candidates’ backgrounds could hardly be more different.

A prosecutor since 1982, McGee is an avowed law-and-order candidate backed by the heads of nearly every law enforcement agency in Ventura County and by nine of the 26 sitting Superior Court judges. Such endorsements have been persuasive to voters in past judicial contests and McGee makes the most of them.

“These are people who know us as lawyers,” McGee, second in command at the district attorney’s office, tells prospective supporters at coffees and candidate forums. “They know our work, and they know who’s best.”

A 13-year public defender, Windom also has garnered an impressive array of endorsements from lawyers, unions and political figures, including Supervisor John Flynn and the entire Oxnard City Council. His job, however, will never earn him a spot in a police popularity contest or a hearty embrace from Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury, whom he has referred to as “the potentate.”

“In this county, when the potentate says, ‘This is the judge,’ that’s it,” Windom says. “I told the people in my campaign to call me David: I have five smooth stones and I will slay Goliath!”

Cathleen Drury also criticizes the makeup of the Superior Court, where about 80% of the judges are alumni of the D.A.’s office. A family law attorney, she contends lawyers who have thrived for years on a diet of cops and robbers are ill-equipped to hear complex divorce and custody matters. When she ran for Superior Court two years ago, 43% of the voters evidently agreed with her.

“In criminal law, it’s a yes-no, guilty-not guilty mind-set,” she says. “It’s that cut-and-dried. But in family law, it’s mostly shades of gray. When you have bench officers ready to find these people either right or wrong, you have judgments made that often aren’t appropriate.”

Cathleen Drury

It was the first of her two divorces that drove Cathleen Drury, at the time a preschool teacher, to the law.

“My whole life was crashing down,” she said. “I looked around at the system and said this is no good--I don’t feel served by it.”

The single mother of a young girl, she worked three jobs, and in 1983 graduated second in her class from the San Fernando Valley College of Law, now part of the University of LaVerne.

She started at an Encino law firm, working “everything from misdemeanors to second chair on a murder.” Later, she opened a family law practice in Thousand Oaks and has served occasionally as a temporary judge hearing overflow cases from the Municipal and Superior courts.

But her rise wasn’t always smooth. In 1990, she filed for bankruptcy. She said she was overwhelmed by a plummeting economy, her second divorce and the pressures of caring for her 2-year-old son.

“It was a horrible thing for me to have to do but it had to happen,” she said. “But if my experience wasn’t as bad as it was, I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did. I’m thankful.”

Drury lives with her two children, now 11 and 24. In her spare time, she has had a bent for the theatrical, performing with the Conejo Players. For about six months in 1994, she played straight woman to flamboyant radio host Dick Wittington.

While she feels qualified to rule on criminal and civil cases, Drury said she would volunteer to opt out of the judges’ customary rotation for a permanent assignment in family law.

Some family lawyers are eager to see one of their own on the bench.

“I’ve always found her willing to roll up her sleeves and work to get families back on their feet,” said Denise Houghton, a family law attorney in Westlake Village. “She’s a single mother, she’s a business owner, and she’s gone through divorce herself. She has a lot of real-life experiences that would be helpful to her as a judge.”

But others in the field don’t see a family law background as crucial.

“I don’t know if it’s an absolute requirement that to be a good family law judge, you have to be a good family law attorney,” said Susan Witting, president of the 104-member family law section of the Ventura County Bar Assn.

Witting said she supports McGee for his experience and his integrity.

Kevin McGee

Over 16 years, Kevin McGee has risen to chief assistant district attorney--the highest nonelective position in the office. The job has been a springboard to the bench for several judges, including Bradley.

Despite his competitors’ worries about so many prosecutors winding up as local judges, McGee uses his law enforcement background as a selling point.

“The big issue is what matters most to people in Ventura County: That this county continue to be a safe place to live, work and raise their families,” he said. “I recognize that the judiciary has a legitimate role to play in public safety.”

At a forum, he recalled the satisfaction of putting away child molester Larry Decker, who became romantically involved with single mothers so he could prey on their children. He said his victory established a precedent allowing repeat child molesters to be dealt consecutive life terms.

That type of case offered rewards McGee could not find when he began in law as an attorney handling insurance cases for a firm in Los Angeles. After three years, he took a pay cut and joined the district attorney’s office without guarantee of a permanent job.

Still, McGee said he would leave his career as a prosecutor at the courtroom door.

“I’d hope to be judged by the content of my character,” he said.

His answer was much the same when asked whether he would be influenced by his close ties with Dist. Atty. Bradbury, who donated $1,000 to his campaign.

“That’s a view born out of cynicism with government in general,” he said. “People who know me and know the work I’ve done know that’s not true. The district attorney’s contribution merely bespeaks the fact that he believes I’m the best candidate. It would speak more volumes if he didn’t support me the way he did.”

McGee supervises about 90 attorneys and a staff of more than 400. Bradbury has called him “an outstanding example of all that is good in the legal profession.”

Known among his colleagues for his low-key manner and his even temperament, McGee seldom arrives at the office later than 7 a.m. He leaves 11 or 12 hours later to spend time with his family. His three children, ages 10 to 16, are involved in youth sports in Newbury Park, and McGee and his wife, Shelley, are avid supporters.

As an administrator, he no longer tries cases. But he ticks off a list of broader accomplishments at the district attorney’s office, including expansion of services for victims, improved procedures in domestic cases and “good success in achieving justice” in a flurry of recent death penalty cases.

McGee grew up in the then-scrubby town of Palm Desert, since overtaken with resorts and golf courses. His father was parts manager for an auto dealer and worked six days a week--an ethic McGee said he inherited, just as he did his family’s Democratic Party affiliation.

“I’m a historical Democrat,” he said. “I was raised in a blue-collar Irish Catholic family at a time when it was believed that JFK walked on water.”

Even so, McGee is quick to mention that many Democrats have moved a long way from the “Ask-not-what-your-country-can-do-for-you” sentiments that stirred him as a boy.

“Now I’m probably more conservative than a lot of Republicans,” he said.

For many voters in the nonpartisan judicial race, that could be a plus.

“The only real issue is how conservative someone is,” said one of McGee’s backers, Camarillo attorney Kevin Staker. “All the candidates have good qualifications but McGee will tend to be more strict with criminals.”

But not everyone is excited by the prospect of adding a prosecutor to a bench that for years has been dominated by them.

Gary Windom

Louis Samonsky, a Ventura criminal defense attorney, supports Gary Windom, citing his compassion and his open mind. But he also supports a change in the bench’s composition, contending some former prosecutors shade their rulings in favor of the district attorney’s office.

“You might have what you believe to be a legitimate argument on constitutional protection that could get your client off, but you won’t get it,” said Samonsky, a prosecutor for nine years. “There will be some interpretation that will be an artful way of getting around ruling the way it should be ruled.”

On the other hand, the few public defenders who have become judges “are not necessarily easy sentencers,” he said. “They are in the unique position of having seen some clients for what they are.”

For his part, Windom expresses a relentless confidence.

“I’m the best candidate, bar none, head and shoulders,” he said at a forum. “Some people think I’m cocky when I say that, but I’m not.”

Windom emphasizes the breadth of his experience.

After graduating from law school, he handled civil litigation for 10 years, representing clients as diverse as insurance companies, the Regional Transportation District in Los Angeles and the TV show “Soul Train.”

He contrasts that with McGee’s three years of work as a civil attorney.

“Kevin will go to the civil bench with no experience on civil cases,” he said. “I already know how to ride the bicycle.”

Realizing he would need criminal experience if he wanted to become a judge, Windom took a 56% pay cut and joined the public defender’s office in 1985.

“He was a terrific lawyer,” said his boss, Public Defender Ken Clayman. “When he was a private practitioner, I saw how he handled the case of a high school athlete accused of rape, and I thought this is a person we’d love to have in the office.”

Over the years, Clayman assigned Windom some of the office’s most complex cases. When he needed an attorney to work exclusively on cases involving career criminals, he chose Windom. For a time, Windom focused on sex offenders--one of the office’s most challenging areas.

Meanwhile, Windom’s personal life grew more complex. With his wife, Elizabeth, he was raising four daughters. The couple now have two grandchildren.

Community activities also kept Windom busy. He has been a deacon at his church and a prime mover in the Black Americans Political Action Committee. He organized a mentoring program for teenagers in Oxnard. For 10 years, he has taught at Ventura College of Law, driving home the fundamentals of procedure even as his job thrust him into high-profile cases.

Windom defended Silverio Ambriz, who was convicted in a rampage on California 118 that ended with the rape of a female driver in a lemon orchard. He also represented Spencer Brasure, awaiting trial on charges of torturing and killing a young man in a remote Ventura County campground. Another case pitted Windom against a controversial Los Angeles Police Department unit that has been dubbed “the death squad.”

Although he was trounced in his first run for a judgeship in 1992, Windom said his experience as a public defender will not work against him in conservative Ventura County. In fact, he contends, voters are so concerned about an imbalance on the bench that McGee has marshaled his endorsements from judges as a defensive strategy.

“My campaign is more viable than anyone ever thought it would be,” he said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ventura County Superior Court Judge

Three candidates are vying for the Superior Court judge’s position vacated by Judge Robert Bradley. The choices

involve a family law attorney, a prosecutor and a public defender.

Cathleen Drury

Age: 47

Residence: Thousand Oaks

Occupation: Attorney specializing in family law

Education: Attended UC Santa Barbara, University of LaVerne College of Law

Background: Drury has been in private practice since graduating from law school in 1983. She has volunteered occasionally as a substitute judge. She is a founder and president of the East County Bar Assn. and has been president of a local chapter of the American Heart Assn.

Issues: With most judges coming from careers focused on criminal law, Drury says complex cases involving divorce and custody issues sometimes get short shrift. She contends the bench would be balanced with more women and more family law attorneys--conclusions also reached in an extensive study of the California court system.

*

Kevin McGee

Age: 44

Residence: Newbury Park

Occupation: Chief assistant district attorney

Education: Loyola Marymount University, Loyola Law School

Background: After a three-year stint in civil litigation, McGee joined the district attorney’s office and worked his way through the ranks to second in command. In that position, he runs an office of more than 400 employees. Outside work, he has been active in his church, the United Way and other organizations.

Issues: McGee credits strong law enforcement with making Ventura County one of the safest places in the nation. Describing himself as a law-and-order candidate, he says judges also play an important role in keeping criminals off the streets. He vows fairness and courtesy to all who come before him.

*

Gary Windom

Age: 48

Residence: Camarillo

Occupation: Deputy public defender

Education: UC Santa Barbara, Marquette University Law School

Background: Raised in Oxnard, he was in the first graduating class at Channel Islands High School. He has served on several statewide criminal justice task forces and is involved in the local chapter of the Black Americans Political Action Committee. He helped start and run a mentoring program for teenagers in Oxnard.

Issues: Windom contends he is the candidate with the broadest experience--10 years in civil law and 13 years as a deputy public defender. He says the bench has more than its share of former prosecutors and would benefit from the fresh perspective of a defense attorney.