Civil Attorney Appointed to Superior Court

A longtime civil attorney and court commissioner was appointed Friday to the Ventura County Superior Court by Gov. Gray Davis.

Kent M. Kellegrew, 46, of Thousand Oaks, was among six men and three women appointed to trial courts across the state. The appointments came a day after Davis named three judges, including one from Ventura County, to the appellate court system.

For the last two years, Kellegrew has served as a full-time court commissioner presiding over misdemeanor criminal cases and the county’s night court. He began his career as a legal research attorney for former appellate Justice Steven Stone and aspired to one day sit on the Superior Court.

“I am very, very happy,” Kellegrew said Friday. “For me, this is just a dream come true.”

Some local attorneys had hoped that Davis’ first appointment to the Ventura County Superior Court would bring greater diversity to a court dominated by white males, most of whom are former career prosecutors.

But sources said that only two people--Kellegrew and Oxnard attorney Richard Tentler--were far enough along in the screening process to be considered for an appointment at this time.

Oscar C. Gonzalez, an Oxnard-based attorney and member of the Mexican-American Bar Assn., said he supports Kellegrew’s appointment because he has shown a sensitivity to issues concerning both minorities and women.

But Gonzalez believes that the governor must make more minority appointments.

“There is an incredible lack of diversity on the Ventura County bench,” he said. “What you have is a slew of 55-year-old white male former prosecutors. That’s dangerous and a very real concern.”

And the lack of diversity among racial and gender lines isn’t only a concern in Ventura County, Gonzalez said.

“It’s a problem that has been acknowledged statewide, but it all ends up in the hands of the governor,” he said. “It is my hope, my expectation, that we do receive some minority appointments to the local bench.”

Superior Court Judge Steven Perren’s nomination to the 2nd District Court of Appeals this week leaves two additional vacancies on the bench.

Sources say a likely candidate for one of those positions may be Commissioner Manuel Covarrubias, who has applied for a judgeship but has not been reviewed by the state’s Commission on Judicial Nominations.

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Currently, there are only two Latinos--Superior Court Judge Art Gutierrez and Covarrubias--among the county’s 27 judges and four court commissioners. There are also only one African American man and four women.

Commissioners are appointed to the bench by the county’s judges to hear certain cases, such as traffic, small claims and drunk driving matters.

Kellegrew was selected from a pool of 23 applicants in October 1997 and has since handled a calendar of 150 to 200 misdemeanor cases a day.

“By my estimation, I’ve arraigned 150,000 people in two years,” he said. “It’s been a very special assignment for me.”

Superior Court Judge David Long said Friday that Kellegrew has handled the load with grace, patience and a sense of humor. He described Kellegrew as hardworking and eager to learn and called him a welcome addition to the Superior Court.

“He has much to contribute and will do so with style and class,” Long said. “He is very well thought of in the legal community.”

Kellegrew first applied for a judgeship in June 1998. A Democrat, he was approved by the Commission on Judicial Nominations and interviewed with former Gov. Pete Wilson’s appointments secretary. Although he was passed over by Wilson, Kellegrew resubmitted his name when Davis took office.

Before he was commissioner, Kellegrew spent 12 years handling business litigation with the Oxnard firm of Nordman, Cormany, Hair and Compton, where he was a senior partner.

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Kellegrew spent two years as a prosecutor in the Ventura County district attorney’s office in the mid-1980s and prior to that was a research attorney with the 2nd District Court of Appeals--where his desire to serve on the bench was born.

“I got to wrestle with a lot of issues judges deal with, but I got to do it as a ghostwriter,” he said. “It’s fabulous. There is no other job like it.”

Kellegrew grew up in the San Fernando Valley and earned an undergraduate degree in political science from Cal State Northridge. He earned a law degree from Southwestern University School of Law.

He and his wife, an occupational therapy professor at USC, have two sons, ages 12 and 15. The couple have lived in Thousand Oaks for 20 years.

Times staff writer Anna Gorman contributed to this story.