Bar Assn. Won’t Rate Judge in Sex Case

The Orange County Bar Assn. took a stand against two candidates for state judgeships, but decided not to evaluate Superior Court Judge Ronald C. Kline or any of the write-in challengers vying for his post.

Kline, who is facing pornography and child molestation charges, holds one of five Orange County Superior Court seats that will be up for grabs in the March 5 election.

Richard Millar, bar president, said the group decided it would be better to allow justice to take its course than rate Kline, who has been under house arrest since November.

“On the one hand, the charges against him are simply charges and have not been proven,” he said. “On the other hand, if they are true, they would disqualify him from serving time on the bench.”

As for Kline’s 11 challengers, Millar said the association evaluates only candidates whose names appear on the ballot.

In the four other races, all triggered by retirements , the association found that Mark E. Farrar, a Cosa Mesa trial attorney specializing in insurance fraud, and Vickie Ann Bridgman, a deputy district attorney specializing in white-collar crime, are “not recommended.”

Farrar is running for Office No. 27 against Deputy Dist. Atty. David Brent of Irvine and Glenda Sanders, a Newport Beach attorney and professor who once defended black men accused of crimes under the apartheid system in her native South Africa. Brent was found to be “qualified” and Sanders “highly qualified.”

Bridgman’s challengers for Office No. 22 are fellow Deputy Dist. Atty. Kelly MacEachern, who was deemed “qualified,” and Michelle L. Palmer, who did not submit to the bar’s rating process.

Farrar and Bridgman were miffed by their low marks.

“I wouldn’t have undertaken this project if I didn’t think I was qualified and I didn’t think I could do an excellent job,” Bridgman said.

Farrar, who did not participate in the rating process when he ran unsuccessfully in March 2000, said jokingly that aside from his picture he has no idea why he received the association’s poorest rating. “I’m befuddled and so are all of my endorsers,” he said. “I’ve got 26 years of trial experience.... What more do they want?”