Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Page 3
Deputy District Attorney Laurie Trammell Castaneda to Run for Court
By STEVEN M. ELLIS, Staff Writer
Deputy District Attorney Laurie Trammell Castaneda said yesterday that she will be a candidate for an open seat on the Los Angeles Superior Court in next year’s elections.
Trammell Castaneda, 44, estimates that she has handled almost “every” assignment in her nearly 18 years with the office, and said she is ready for a new challenge.
Currently master calendar deputy at the Long Beach Courthouse, she told the MetNews she has hired campaign consultant David Gould, but said no budget for the campaign had been calculated.
Trammell Castaneda attended California State University, Fullerton and Western State University College of Law, and became a deputy district attorney after admission to the State Bar in 1992.
She started in misdemeanors and preliminary hearings, then had a felony assignment and served as a trial calendar deputy and master calendar deputy. She later served as supervising head of the preliminary hearing department, where she was responsible for training new deputies, and has also worked in Downey, Huntington Park and Bellflower, among other locations, in addition to being sent out to try cases “all over the county.”
She has not sought appointment to the bench, but said her background in the District Attorney’s Office gave her the right experience to be a judge.
A Long Beach native, Trammell Castaneda was recently married to a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy and her grandfather was the Long Beach City Attorney in the 1930s.
Her father, George Trammell, is a former deputy district attorney and Los Angeles Superior Court judge who in 2001 admitted to mail fraud in federal court and was sentenced to 27 months in prison. The case involved allegations that he gave preferential treatment to a criminal defendant with whom he had sexual relations.
Trammell Castaneda joins four of the eight candidates who have declared their intent to run for open seats on the Superior Court to retain Gould’s services. Gould previously told the MetNews that he is representing Deputy District Attorneys Alan K. Schneider and Lou Holtz Jr., as well as Beverly Hills attorney Mark K. Ameli.
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Garcia has retained Hal Dash of Cerrell & Associates as his campaign consultant and Gould as his treasurer, and Deputy Los Angeles City Attorney Thomas J. Griego has hired political consultant Parke Skelton.
Pasadena personal injury attorney Anthony de los Reyes and Los Angeles Superior Court Referee Randolph M. Hammock have retained consultant Jill Barad. West Los Angeles attorney and mediator Elizabeth A. Moreno has not publicly identified a campaign consultant.
Los Angeles attorney Douglas Weitzman, who has run twice before, is reportedly planning to make another attempt, but has not confirmed this to the MetNews.
The only confirmed open seat thus far is that of Judge William Pounders, who said this month that he will be leaving the court after more than 27 years of judicial service.
The 2010 judicial election calendar commences Jan. 4, the first day for candidates to circulate paperwork in order to obtain signatures of registered votes to be submitted in lieu of a filing fee.
The number of open seats in the June 8 primary election will not be fully determined until next spring, when sitting judges must decide whether to file re-election paperwork with the Registrar-Recorder’s Office.
Judicial candidates may file declarations of intent to run beginning Feb. 1, and must file final nomination documents between Feb. 16 and March 12.
Copyright 2009, Metropolitan News Company