Hugo E. Hill; Former Presiding Judge in Compton
Hugo E. Hill, 75, former presiding judge of the Compton Municipal Court, died Friday at his Westchester home.
Hill began serving the court as an appointed commissioner in 1978 and was elevated to judge the following year by then Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown. Hill served as presiding judge from 1979 to 1982, when the busy court had six judges and four commissioners handling each week about 60 jury trials, 100 preliminary hearings, 600 misdemeanor arraignments, 400 small-claims cases and 900 traffic cases. He retired in 1994, becoming a private judge who sat by special arrangement.
Born Dec. 24, 1925, Hill graduated from UCLA and, along with his twin brother, Kenneth, became a probation officer. Hugo Hill later graduated from Beverly College of Law in 1970, the year it became Whittier College School of Law.
He served on the board and was vice president of the Langston Bar Assn. and was active in the Urban League and NAACP.
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