Judge Ann Jones Is Under Consideration for Court of Appeal

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

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Judge Ann Jones Is Under Consideration for Court of Appeal

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones is in contention for appointment to this district’s Court of Appeal, the MetNews learned yesterday.

Jones was appointed to the Superior Court in October 2001 by Gov. Gray Davis. For four year prior to that, she served as a United State magistrate judge for the Central District of California.

Ann I. Jones

Superior Court Judge

She was admitted to the State Bar in 1984. Her law degree is from the University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, and her undergraduate degree was earned at Brown University in Rhode Island.

Jones served as a clerk to then-U.S. District Court Judge Eugene Lynch of the Northern District of California (now a private judge). She was hired by the Los Angeles law firm of Blecher & Collins as an associate, and was promoted to partner.

The judge has been an adjunct law professor at Loyola Marymount University and Pepperdine University, teaching antitrust law.

She is on the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Law Library.

Writs and Receivers Department

In 2010, she was assigned to a Writs and Receivers Department.

A 2012 article in the Receivership News says that Jones “besides being a delightful conversationalist, has an amazingly varied intellectual, experiential and legal background.” It comments:

“The philosophy in Dept. 86 is a radical departure from prior years. When Judge Jones appoints a receiver, the receiver reports to the Judge, who is personally invested in the case. She considers that she and her receivers are in a way, partners, and she expects to be kept abreast of facts as they are discovered. She has a realistic perspective: a receiver doesn’t know the facts of the case until he or she has had time to investigate, often a 60 day period.”

On June 23, 2012, Jones ruled that the Los Angeles City Council had violated due process rights of Hollywood residents in approving, without “meaningful public participation,” construction of a 20-story tower and Hollywood and Gower.

A 2012 article in LA Weekly says that attorneys have described her as “very, very bright,” “extremely thorough,” “fair” and “gutsy.”

Recusal Sought

The article discusses a land development case in which her recusal was sought based on her having had a contact with environmentalists in a private matter.

Coming to her defense was the Los Angeles Times which said in an editorial:

“Jones has refused to step down, and that’s the right decision. A judge should be disqualified from a case only if an observer, knowing all the facts, would reasonably doubt the judge could be impartial. This situation doesn’t meet that standard. The connection between the judge and the Sierra Club is tenuous. Merely getting help on a private matter from a neighbor—who turns out to be a Sierra Club activist —is not enough to suggest the judge would be compromised in her judgment on the Newhall Ranch cases.”

Orange Superior Court Judge Glenda Sanders on Jan. 10, 2013 denied a challenge-for-cause.

Jones in 2012 issued a writ directing that the registrar recorder disallow then-Los Angeles City Attorney’s proposed ballot designations as “Los Angeles chief prosecutor” or “chief criminal prosecutor.” Trutanich was a candidate for district attorney in the June 5 primary election (losing that race and being denied reelection by voters in the following year’s city primary.)

Presently assigned to the San Fernando Courthouse, she testified on Thursday before the Commission on Judicial Appointments in favor of the confirmation of Luis Lavin as a member of the Court of Appeal. Jones had performed his marriage ceremony.

Los Angeles Superior Court judges who are also in contention for appointment to this district’s appeals court are Helen Bendix, Sanjay Kumar, Russell Kussman, Rita Miller, and Richard Rico. Others whose names have been sent out by the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation for comment are Los Angeles appellate attorney Kent Richland, Los Angeles attorney Bradley Phillips, Ventura Superior Court Judge Tari Cody, and Southwestern Law School Professor Christopher Cameron.

There are three vacancies in the district: in Divs. Three and Seven, in Los Angeles, and Div. Six, which serves Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties.