Thursday, February 28, 2013

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Superior Court Judge Richard Adler to Retire After 32 Years on Bench

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Adler, one of the county’s longest serving judges, is retiring.

A court spokesperson said yesterday that Adler’s last day on the bench was Feb. 5, and his retirement will officially take place April 1. He has been a trial judge for more than 32 years.

Adler, 66, was elected to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1980 and to the Superior Court in 1984.

A graduate of UCLA and Loyola Law School, he worked as an in-house lawyer for Glendale Federal Savings following admission to the State Bar in 1972. He later became a deputy district attorney, going from preliminary hearings to misdemeanor trials to juvenile court to felony trials to the Sexual Assault Program and back to juvenile court.

In 1980, he successfully challenged Los Angeles Municipal Court Judge David Perez following highly publicized allegations that the incumbent, in his previous post as head of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office Criminal Division, had authorized destruction of police files containing unproven citizen allegations of police brutality.

A judge had suggested that Perez may have perjured himself while testifying at a dismissal hearing. But no wrongdoing was proven, and Perez was later appointed an East Los Angeles Municipal Court judge and subsequently elevated to the Superior Court.

Adler was the first supervising judge of the Municipal Court’s Night Court program and, in 1984, won election to an open seat on the Superior Court, defeating fellow Municipal Court Judge Sherman W. Smith Jr. in a runoff.

He held a variety of judicial assignments, both civil and criminal, sitting most recently in Van Nuys. He also taught at the San Fernando Valley and California colleges of law and lectured on various subjects, including sexual assault investigations.

He has also been active in various Jewish community groups.