Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Page 3
David T. Bristow Takes Office as Magistrate Judge
By a MetNews Staff Writer
David T. Bristow is the newest magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Sworn in Monday to an eight-year term, Bristow, 46, will sit in the Central District’s Riverside courthouse and preside over matters in the court’s Eastern Division, court officials said.
Bristow fills the vacancy created last year by then-Magistrate Judge John C. Rayburn’s return to the U.S. Attorney’s office .
As one of the 23 full-time magistrate judges in the Central District—the nation’s largest federal district, comprised of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties—Bristow’s duties will include conducting preliminary proceedings in criminal cases, the trial and disposition of misdemeanor cases, and discovery in pretrial matters and relevant hearings in civil cases.
Prior to taking the bench, Bristow was a shareholder and president of the executive committee at the Inland Empire firm of Reid & Hellyer, focusing his practice on business litigation involving contracts, corporations, employment and real property.
He also served as a deputy district attorney for San Bernardino County from 1994 until 1996, then spent a year as a deputy public defender for the county.
A former president of the Riverside County Bar Association, Bristow attended California State University, San Bernardino and the McGeorge School of Law, where he received the Emil Gumpert Trial Advocacy Award for excellence in the school’s trial advocacy competition.
Copyright 2009, Metropolitan News Company