Monday, January 26, 2015
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Deputy D.A. Archuleta Says She Will Run for Judge
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Debra Archuleta said Friday she intends to run for Los Angeles Superior Court judge next year.
The 24-year prosecutor said she applied for appointment last year, but intends to run for an open seat in the June 2016 primary if she isn’t selected. She said she has hired David Gould as her campaign treasurer and consultant.
Archuleta said she has been encouraged to seek a judicial post by a number of individuals, “including currently seated bench officers,” but that she had delayed doing so while raising two children. Now that one is in college and the other in high school, she said, the timing is right to run.
Archuleta is the former head of the office’s stalking section, and personally prosecuted the accused stalkers of Mel Gibson and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Other high-profile cases she handled including those of Amy Beck, a Burbank middle school teacher sentenced to two years in prison after admitting having sex with a 14-year-old pupil, and Clifton Cass, convicted of the shooting murder of his brother, whose body he dumped outside the Rose Bowl.
Her current assignment is to white-collar crime cases. After “15 years of sex, stalking, and violence,” she explained, she was looking to work at something else for awhile.
Archuleta is a graduate of UC Irvine and Western State University College of Law. She was admitted to the State Bar in June 1991 and joined the District Attorney’s Office soon thereafter.
She also worked as a legal secretary and paralegal while making her way through college and law school.
Her consultant, Gould, told the MetNews he has been retained by several other prosecutors who plan to run for open seats next year, but who are not yet ready to have their names made public. Gould worked for the majority of the 15 new Superior Court judges elected last year.
Another potential Superior Court candidate, Los Angeles civil practitioner Jeffrey Carter, filed papers with the state elections division to raise campaign funds, but did not report any actually fundraising. A phone call to his office Friday was not returned.
In addition, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Helen Kim, who raised more than $850,000 for her unsuccessful campaign last year, has expressed interest in running again.
Copyright 2015, Metropolitan News Company