Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Page 1
Services Friday for Retired Judge William E. McGinley
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Funeral services will be held Friday for retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William E. McGinley, who died Saturday at age 81.
Friday’s services will be held at 10:30 a.m. at Beatitudes of Our Lord Catholic Church, 13010 Santa Gertrudes Ave. in La Mirada.
McGinley became a judge in 1969, when then-Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed him to a seat on the Downey Municipal Court. Reagan elevated McGinley to the Superior Court in 1972, where was assigned to the Southeast District.
He retired from the Superior Court in 1989.
A graduate of Huntington Park High School, McGinley attended Compton Junior College and then served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II before completing his undergraduate education at USC in 1949. He graduated from USC School of Law in 1952, where he served on the USC Law Review and was a member of the Phi Delta Phi law fraternity.
McGinley joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in 1953, immediately after he was admitted to the State Bar. He served in the office for 16 years as a deputy district attorney before his appointment to the bench.
Focusing on prosecution in felony trials, McGinley rose to the level of chief trial deputy in the Central District Trials Division. He also took on a three-year assignment to prosecute defendants in obscenity cases.
After his initial appointment, McGinley served as presiding judge of the Downey Municipal Court for two consecutive years.
He was a member of the USC Law Alumni Association, Legion Lex, the Conference of California Judges and the Knights of Columbus. He had also been a member of the Legal Ethics Committee of the Criminal Courts Bar Association and the Court Rules Committee of the Municipal Court Judges Association; served as a first vice president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys; and was a featured panelist at the 1967 State Bar convention.
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