Thursday, June 28, 2018
Page 1
Brown Appoints Four Democrats to Los Angeles Superior Court
Places Six Democrats on Trial Courts in Other Counties, Elevates Two Democrats to Fifth District Court of Appeal
By a MetNews Staff Writer
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ROBERT G. CHU Deputy Public Defender |
MARIA PUENTE-PORRAS Superior Court Commissioner |
GARY D. ROBERTS Attorney |
EMILY S. GARCIA UHRIG Attorney |
Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. yesterday appointed four persons—a deputy public defender, a court commissioner, a former entertainment company executive, and a law professor—to judgeships on the Los Angeles Superior Court, all Democrats.
On June 1, Brown named 10 persons to the county’s trial bench, also all Democrats. The Democratic governor yesterday made appointments to six other superior courts, placing one member of his party on each of those courts, and elevated two Superior Court judges, Democrats, to the Fifth District Court of Appeal.
Those chosen for judgeships in Los Angeles are:
• Robert G. Chu, 38. He has been a deputy Los Angeles public defender since 2006, and briefly worked before that as associate at Masry and Vititoe. His law degree is from Southwestern. Chu fills a seat created through conversion of a commissionership.
• Maria Puente-Porras, 49. She has been a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner since 2015, and was a sole practitioner from 1998-2015. A graduate of Western State College of Law, she replaces Judge William P. Barry, who retired.
• Gary D. Roberts, 59. From 1993 to 2017, he held various positions at Fox Entertainment Group, and was an associate at Munger, Tolles and Olson LLP from 1985 to 1993. Roberts currently lists a Los Angeles home address with the State Bar. His law degree is from the University of Texas. He fills a vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Michael M. Johnson.
• Emily S. Garcia Uhrig, 53. Uhrig has been a professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law since 2006, served a staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from 2001-06, and was a deputy federal public defender in the Central District of California from 1997 to 2001. She earned her law degree at Stanford. She assumes the seat held by Judge C. Edward Simpson, who retired.
Brown also elevated two judges to the Fifth District Court of Appeal. If confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, Kings Superior Court Judge Thomas DeSantos, 61, will replace Justice Gene M. Gomes, who died in March, and Fresno Superior Court Judge Mark W. Snauffer, 63, will fill the seat vacated by Justice Stephen J. Kane, who retired.
DeSantos, who received his law degree from USC, has been a judge since 2003. He was previously in private practice.
Snauffer, appointed to the bench in 2000, earned his law degree at UCLA, and was also a private practitioner.
Superior Court appointments were made in Calaveras, Orange, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties,
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