Pioneering Judge Sets Her Sights on New Job

In her lengthy legal career, Judge Melinda A. Johnson hasn’t been held back by glass ceilings.

She shattered one in 1982, when she became the first female judge in Ventura County. And she broke through another a few years back when she was elected the first female presiding judge.

Now, the 51-year-old jurist has her sights set on a vacant seat on the male-dominated appellate court district that covers San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

For Johnson, going across town to the more scholarly and slower-paced Court of Appeal in downtown Ventura represents a logical career move and a change of pace from the divorce and child-custody cases she has handled for the last year in family court.

“It’s not that the work I do now isn’t hard, but a lot of the challenge is gone because it isn’t new anymore,” Johnson said during a recent interview at a Ventura restaurant.

Dressed in a cherry red blouse and wool sweater, her soft brown curls framing her face, Johnson explained that the idea of poring over court cases and issuing written opinions appeals to her bookish nature.

“I’ve always been an intellectual; I’ve always been a reader and a thinker,” she said. “People laugh at me, but for years and years my family would say I didn’t have a face because it was in a book.”

Johnson has earned a reputation as a smart, compassionate and hard-working judge who has handled every assignment during her tenure on the bench.

“She has one of the finest legal minds I’ve ever encountered,” said Judge Steven Z. Perren, a close friend who also has expressed interest in the appellate seat vacated this month by Justice Steven J. Stone.

“She would be a great justice,” said family law attorney Cathleen Drury, who frequently appears in Johnson’s court. “Selfishly, however, I would very much like for her to remain a family law judge.”

Johnson isn’t a shoo-in, however. Lawyers say Perren is a strong candidate. And some question whether Gov. Gray Davis may look to the Santa Barbara bench to balance the court’s configuration.

One Seat Vacant

Of the four seats in this division of the Court of Appeal, one is vacant and the other three are filled by judges from Ventura, Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo counties. The governor is expected to fill the vacant seat in the next several months.

Those who know her say that Johnson’s legal skills and work ethic make her an ideal choice for the appellate court, where justices review cases appealed from Superior Court and decide whether they were tried properly.

“The job requires somebody who really can sit back and reflect,” said attorney Louis B. Samonsky, also a close friend, who often sees Johnson carry home stacks of court files. “I think she’d be just terrific.”

But the judge isn’t all books and brains.

She’s a die-hard Dodger fan who hasn’t missed a game on the radio since age 12. She wanted to marry Sandy Koufax. Once she sneaked a tiny radio into a production of “Les Miserables” and ended up cheering during a big play.

*

Her typical day begins at 5 a.m. with a quick workout on the Nordic Track, followed by breakfast with her husband, Jay, a local defense attorney. She usually begins preparing a gourmet dinner before heading to work so they can unwind in the kitchen at the end of the day.

She rarely watches television but secretly loves “Jeopardy.” She takes weekly lessons to train her soprano voice. Despite holding court before strangers all day, she was paralyzed with fright before her first recital.

“It was the most nerve-wracked I’ve been since my first jury trial,” she said.

With her two sons away at college, Johnson devotes her free time to reading. It’s a passion that has been with her since childhood. One book won’t suffice, so she reads several at a time.

“Right now, I’m working through the complete works of Mark Twain and Charles Dickens,” she said. “When I go on vacation, I read a book a day.”

*

Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1950s, Johnson was surrounded by writers. Her father, Richard Mathison, was an accomplished journalist and bureau chief for Newsweek. Their home constantly buzzed with talk of politics and current events--all of which influenced a young Melinda.

“I was never asked to leave the room,” she recalls. “By the time I was 7, I was discussing the Suez Canal with the reporter for the New York Times. The joke around my family was that I would be the first woman president.”

After graduating from high school, Johnson went to Stanford University and earned a degree in political science. It was at a college party that she met her husband.

“I went home and woke up my best friend and told her I’d met the man I was going to marry,” she recalled. “It took him two years to figure it out.”

She graduated from Stanford in 1969 and briefly attended Hastings School of Law in San Francisco. It was there that Johnson first noticed the gender inequities in her profession.

Of the 450 students in her class, 90% were men. She transferred to the USC Law Center and found, again, that women made up only 10% of the law school class.

After earning her law degree in 1972, Johnson joined her husband in the Ventura County district attorney’s office, which at the time employed only a few female attorneys.

Over the next four years, she worked her way up the ranks, handling small misdemeanor cases and later felony child abuse and sexual assault trials.

In 1976, she left her job and gave birth to her first son, Brett, and four years later a second son, Tyler. Gradually, Johnson began to work part time in private practice while raising the boys.

*

But in 1981, she was encouraged to apply for a vacancy on the Municipal Court, since then-Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. had made it known that he wanted to appoint a woman.

Johnson submitted her name to the pool of candidates, and Brown pulled it out. At 34, Johnson was sworn in as the county’s first female judge. Within a year, she moved up to Superior Court.

Since then, three other women have been appointed and elected to the bench.

Johnson was challenged in an election her first year but won easily with 70% of the vote. She hasn’t been challenged since. Her current term expires in 2002.

Over the years, Johnson has presided over criminal trials, complex civil litigation and served five tours as a juvenile dependency judge. She has handled the yearlong family law calendar three times.

“I believe she has done just about every assignment in the court, which demonstrates her tremendous breadth of experience,” said Presiding Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. “Any day you could have her come in and do any assignment--that is unique. There are not many judges who can do that.”

Explains Rulings

As a Democrat married to a defense attorney, Johnson doesn’t expect to win many popularity contests among the county’s law-and-order establishment. Nor do her family law decisions awarding custody and settling contentious divorce proceedings please all parties.

But attorney Drury says the judge goes the distance to explain her rulings and the reasoning behind them. As a result, the people affected may not like a decision, Drury said, but they at least understand it.

Despite her successes over the years, Johnson remains one of the more low-profile members of her family.

Both of her sisters are screenwriters. One brother is a freelance journalist and the other a musician. Sister Melissa Mathison, who is married to actor Harrison Ford, is best known for her films “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” and “The Black Stallion.”

Next month, Johnson will celebrate her 17th year on the bench. Even if she doesn’t receive an appointment in the coming months, she says she has no intention of retiring or even slowing down.

“Basically, I still enjoy going to work every day,” she said. “Even if I won the lottery, I don’t think I’d quit.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Profile of Melinda Johnson

Age: 51

Profession: Superior Court judge.

Education: Political science degree from Stanford University, 1969. Law degree from the USC Law Center, 1972.

Experience: Appointed to the Ventura County Municipal Court in 1981 by Gov. Jerry Brown. Within a year, moved up to the Superior Court bench. Presided over criminal trials, civil court, served five terms as a juvenile dependency judge, and handled yearlong assignments in family law court three times.