Monday, December 10, 2001
Page 3
Mitchell Beckloff Elected Superior Court Commissioner
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Referee Mitchell Beckloff has been elected a commissioner, a court spokesman said Friday.
Beckloff defeated Deputy District Attorney Scott Gordon in runoff balloting that ended Thursday, Kyle Christopherson said.
The runoff was necessary because none of the 32 eligible candidates received a majority in the original voting last month. Christopherson and Gordon were the two highest vote-getters, as well as the candidates highest ranked by the court’s Commissioner Examination Committee.
Beckloff, currently an as-needed referee, primarily in Eastlake Juvenile Court, was not working Friday and could not be reached for comment.
Gordon, who works in the district attorney’s central trials unit and also teaches evidence, criminal procedure, and trial advocacy at Southwestern University School of Law, may not have to wait long before donning the robes. Christopherson said ballots would go out today to select a replacement for S. Robert Ambrose, an as-needed referee who declined the commissioner’s position.
Presiding Judge James Bascue was unavailable Friday to explain why Ambrose, who could not be reached for comment, declined. But another bench officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the retired deputy county counsel learned that he could not accept the salaried position without endangering his county pension.
Gordon will be the highest-ranked candidate in the new round of balloting, followed by Los Angeles attorneys Robert Kawahara and Melissa Widdiefield, Deputy District Attorney Diana Summerhayes, Superior Court research attorney William Dodson, newly appointed State Bar Court Judge Stanford Reichert, Referee Jane Godfrey, Santa Monica lawyer Michael Levanas, Deputy Federal Public Defender Richard Novak, and Sherman Oaks practitioner Michael Convey.
Copyright 2001, Metropolitan News Company