Appointment of Glen Reiser

Re “Reiser Appointed to Superior Court Bench,” Dec. 31.

Attorney Glen Reiser must have been joking when he said, “It’s always a mystery how” he came to be given a common end-of-term court appointment by outgoing Gov. Pete Wilson.

Most court watchers here in Ventura County are acutely aware that for the past 16 years of GOP governors, appointments to Ventura County courts have been controlled by Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury and his closed cabal of local Republican elites. Neither the Ventura County Bar Assn. nor private attorneys in this county can criticize this practice for fear of retribution.

The best way to get to the bench in Ventura County has been to slavishly serve Bradbury in the district attorney’s office. This has caused an imbalance of former prosecutors in our courts, with these jurists continuing to prosecute from the bench.

Reiser’s appointment is no mystery, either, as he has served Bradbury faithfully for years as an ex officio member of his office. Reiser has executed the district attorney’s political agenda both by representing him and his office in the courts and by getting favored judicial treatment for some of his clients, who also are the district attorney’s political supporters.

The California courts system remains the last unregulated political domain rife with political cronyism and abuse. Is it any wonder that governors dispense judicial appointments like so many holiday bonbons?

As New Year’s resolutions for all Californians, the state Legislature should enact at least two immediate judicial reforms:

First, a law should be passed to allow for judicial appointments to be made only during the period when the Legislature is in regular session. This would stop these politically motivated end-of-term court appointments.

Second, a law should require all former prosecutors appointed to the bench to recuse themselves from all cases brought before them by their former offices for a period equal to their prior tenure in the district attorney’s (or state attorney general’s) office. This would bolt shut the revolving door allowing career prosecutors to continue to prosecute from the bench.

Mr. Reiser can elevate his Superior Court appointment to an uncommon level by pledging to recuse himself from all cases brought before him by the district attorney’s office, as he would for all cases involving former clients and (hopefully) their opponents.

NEIL A. MOYER, Ventura