Judge Larry Knupp Not Running for Re-Election

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

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Judge Larry Knupp Not Running for Re-Election

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry S. Knupp will not run for re-election and will retire by the end of the year after more than 30 years as a judicial officer, the MetNews has learned.

Knupp, who turns 66 in April, has been a judge since January 1989. He was elected to an open seat on the Whittier Municipal Court in June 1988 after having served more than 13 years as a commissioner, and became a Superior Court judge through unification in 2000.

He is a graduate of Pomona College and Boalt Hall. He was in private practice in Whittier with the firm of Knupp, Knupp & Smith from 1965 to 1975.

Knupp is a former president of the Whittier Bar Association and was voted Outstanding Jurist by the Southeast Bar Association and Trial Judge of the Year by the Whittier Bar Association in 1998.

In other election-related developments:

•Deputy District Attorney Judith Levey Meyer, who narrowly lost a runoff election two years ago, became the first candidate to take out papers to run for the seat being vacated by Judge Stephen Petersen, who is retiring in the spring.

•Deputy District Attorney Hayden Zacky took out nominating documents to run for the seat of Judge Marion Johnson, who is on sick leave and not expected to run. Attorney George C. Montgomery, who practices in Santa Monica, has also paid the filing fee and taken out the paperwork to run for that seat.

•Deputy Public Defender C. Edward Mack and Los Angeles attorney/author Robert Davenport both said they are weighing options with regard to where they will run after having previously taken out papers to seek the seat of retired Judge Richard G. Kolostian. That election was cancelled after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Stephen Pfahler to the seat; the new judge does not have to run until 2008.

•Deputy District Attorney Thomas Gowen, who took out papers to run for the seat from which Judge Thomas Petersen is retiring before the governor announced his intent to appoint former San Fernando Valley Bar Association President Thomas T. Lewis to the post, told the MetNews he is not going to run this year.