Tuesday, January 2, 2018
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Second 2018 Open Seat Is Confirmed; Judge Carol H. Rehm to Retire
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carol Henry “C.H.” Rehm Jr. has left the bench and is using up his vacation days, in preparation for a March 8 retirement, the MetNews has learned, meaning that his seat—No. 16 on the June 5 ballot—will be up for grabs.
That’s the second Los Angeles Superior Court open seat definitively identified in the current election cycle. The first was that of Judge Roy Paul—seat No. 4—who has set a Feb. 16 retirement.
Judge William Willett is generally not expected to run owing to ill health, but he has not responded to request for confirmation.
Rehm, 74, was a deputy attorney general when Gov. Pete Wilson appointed him to the Los Angeles Municipal Court on March 7. 1997. He joined the Attorney General’s Office in 1979; left there in 1983 to become a deputy Los Angeles district attorney; then returned in 1985.
He received an undergraduate degree from USC in 1966. A law degree from Southwestern in 1974, and an LLM degree from the London School of Economics in 1988.
Finds Factual Innocence
On Nov. 6, 2015, Rehm granted a motion that rarely succeeds in finding a man factually innocent of crimes for which he was arrested. Sheriffs’ deputies had accused Gabriel Carrillo of assaulting a deputy at the jail, but charges were dropped by prosecutors before trial and Carrillo received a $1.2 million settlement from the county in connection with a beating he received.
Rehm found that “no reasonable cause exists to believe that the petitioner committed the offenses for which he was arrested.”
On Sept. 7, 2016, he dismissed a perjury case against a deputy sheriff after jurors announced they were deadlocked. Prosecutors said that Deputy Gregory Rodriguez lied when he alleged that a man, Christopher Gray, attempted to free two persons who were in custody.
Gray spent five days in jail, charges were dropped, and he received a $549,000 settlement from the county.
Feb. 7 Deadline
If an incumbent who is up for election next year does not file a declaration of intent to run between Monday, Jan. 9 and Wednesday, Feb. 7, there will be a five-day extension for eligible candidates (10 years of membership in the State Bar) to file such a declaration.
Nominating papers must be filed between Feb. 12 and March 9.
Copyright 2018, Metropolitan News Company