Thursday, May 5, 2011
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Superior Court Judge Horan Set to Retire Tomorrow
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles Horan said yesterday that he is planning to retire tomorrow.
“I hit 60 in February, and that was my goal, to make it to 60,” he said of his decision. After that, Horan explained, “it was just a matter of looking at the retirement papers and filling them out and getting them in.”
Horan said he had no immediate plans to return to the bench on assignment or enter private judging, but he anticipated continuing his work with the Alliance of California Judges.
“I’m going to continue to assist in every way possible,” he said, although he was not certain if he would remain in his position as a director of the group, which formed in 2009.
Horan said he “hope[d] that in the last couple of years, judges have learned that apathy and learned helplessness are very damaging to the judiciary, and judges need to take back their courts.”
To do this, he insists, “judges have to step forward and be involved,” but should that occur, “great changes are more than possible, they’re inevitable.”
While he has been a frequent and vocal critic of the judiciary’s leadership in recent years, Horan remarked that he was “sure the Los Angeles Superior Court is in good hands.”
He said “this is the greatest court in the state of California and I’m proud to have been one 141th of it.”
The judge predicted that he will “certainly miss the people, my interactions with my fellow judges and court employees,” in his retirement.
Looking back on his career, Horan said he took pride in having “carried my end of things” in terms of caseloads, and “helping others when I could,” especially the newest bench officers, “just like other judges did for me when I started.”
Horan was tapped for the Glendale Municipal Court in 1988 by then-Gov. George Deukmejian, and two years later, Deukmejian elevated him to the Los Angeles Superior Court.
He began his career as a deputy city attorney for Santa Monica, eventually becoming chief of the criminal division before moving to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office in 1981.
The North Carolina native is a 1976 graduate of USC’s law school and holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from UCLA.
Horan is also an accomplished guitarist, and said he is “going to get back to that” in his retirement, as well as “relax a little bit, spend a little more time with my wife if she will allow it [and] maybe fish a little bit more.”
Copyright 2011, Metropolitan News Company