Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

 

Page 1

 

Two Take Out Papers to Join Race for Superior Court

 

By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer

 

SUSAN JERICH

Attorney

NASER KHOURY

Attorney

 

 

Two prospective candidates for the Los Angeles Superior Court seat being vacated by Judge Elden Fox have taken out nominating papers.

Susan Jerich, of the Santa Monica firm Silver, Hadden, Silver & Levine, and Naser Khoury, a criminal defense attorney from the San Fernando Valley, both paid the filing fee of nearly $1,900 upon issuance of the papers on Saturday. They have until 5 p.m. tomorrow to return them and become official candidates, joining Deputy District Attorney David Berger and Deputy Attorney General Kim Nguyen, both of whom returned papers on Friday.

Where an incumbent has taken out but not filed nominating papers, there is a five-day extension within which new candidates may enter the race.

Jerich told the MetNews yesterday she has not made a final decision as to whether to run. She is one of a number of potential candidates who retained consultants and began fundraising and/or soliciting of endorsements in anticipation that there would be open seats to run for, but who did not return declarations of intent after only four such seats opened up.

Jerich had retained David Gould as her consultant, but his services are unavailable to her because he had a prior commitment to Berger. She said she has spoken to other consultants, but has made no decision as to who she will retain if she runs.

Deputy District Attorneys Alfred Coletta and Jeffrey Stodel, who were also on Gould’s list of possible clients, and Deputy District Attorney Fred Mesropi, who had hired Cerrell Associates and filed to run for Judge Ray Santana’s seat, but dropped out after Santana filed his DOI just before the deadline, all said they will not run for the Fox seat.

All three cited timing issues and said they would run in 2018 instead.

Khoury, who had earlier filed declarations of intent to run for several other seats, waited at the registrar of voters’ public counter until nearly 6 p.m. Friday waiting for official confirmation that Fox was not running.

Khoury had earlier told the MetNews that he would run for the seat if Fox didn’t, and that he would otherwise run for the seat being vacated by Judge Michelle Rosenblatt. Four other candidates, including three prosecutors, had earlier returned papers to run for that seat.

 

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