Meet your Judges--Lloyd von der Mehden and Cerena Wong

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to live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies. Sonoma County's 340,000 residents are a harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in

the nineties with your host, Rich McGlinchey. Hello ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad you could join us for this special edition of Sonoma County in the nineties we're gonna be talking about a judicial project that's coming up next month and it's one in which we hope that

all of you will learn a little bit more about your judges and your judicial system. Now, the two persons with us here on the program are on the right of your screen is Judge Serena Wong Municipal Court Judge for Sonoma County. The lefty screen is Judge

Lloyd Bonder Medan and he is a Superior Court judge for Sonoma County. Before I get into the questioning and answering and incidentally when I ask either of you a question if the other one has anything you'd like to say in response or add to that by

all means just jump right in. But what I was going to say, ladies and gentlemen is that I hear this constantly in my role as an information officer with the county. The people do not understand their court. So they do not understand the judge. They don't

understand why the judge does what he does. They don't understand the delays in getting a case to trial. Well, we hope that the program that they're going to tell you about it will take place next month will allow all of you to know a little bit

more about your judicial system and certainly about the efforts on the part of your judges. It's nice to have you both here. I'm glad you could be there. We're going to bridge the older ladies first and go to the gentleman first. There is a scheduled public

forum. I believe it's going to be called meet the judges and it's in Sonoma County and I understand it's sponsored by the Sonoma County Judges. Now, if I'm right about that so far, tell us something about it. You are quite correct. Rich. It's really a special

program more than that, A unique and special program because for the first time in the history of the Sonoma County courts, the Judges themselves are sponsoring a public forum and the title of the forum is meet your judges. Now, this event is set for the evening

of March 5th monday night. Uh, starting at seven o'clock P. M. At the vet's Memorial Main Auditorium and it is a historical event. As, as we will be explaining further in this program. Any thoughts you have about that open the opening? Um no, nothing else to

add other than that, we don't believe that in Sonoma County, this has ever happened before. And we really hope that the community will come out and and take this opportunity to meet the judges and ask questions Well serena that at least the next question to you

is this forum part of a statewide organization in California. Yes, it is. Tell us about that last year SAn Francisco and Sacramento hosted very similar public forums called Meet your Judges also and they were so successful that the California Judges Association, which is the association that

all the judges in California belong to, decided to sponsor this and they are giving assistance to us and many other courts in putting on programs that are going to be very, very similar to the one that um, Lloyd and I are putting together. All right now,

you just mentioned that businesses sponsors and as you know, everything has to have sponsors to take place. But are there statewide sponsors for the program and repeat if you said that who they are. Oh yes! Um this program is endorsed by Governor George Deukmejian. It's sponsored

by the superintendent of public instruction. Bill Honig. It's also sponsored by Attorney General john van de Kamp. We have many statewide sponsors of the program that are endorsing it and urging that the public to go out and meet their local judges and whatever community that they're

in and hopefully in Sonoma County that the Sonoma County residents will come, well now this is not the very first you said earlier there, but will there be similar public forums offered throughout the state of California during any particular period? Yeah, it's it's focused in a

week's period from March the fourth through March the 10th. All the different counties have picked a particular day here in Sonoma County. Our forum at the vets memorial will be on monday the fifth of March. What would you say is the intent the judges in sponsoring

this type of form or this particular form? Good question. Rich, there there are probably two possible answers. The first is a very brief answer and that is to perhaps demystify the role of judges and the court procedure in this case in Sonoma County. The second possible

answer is much more explanatory and that would be to give the judges an opportunity in response to questions from the community to explain what they do, how they do it and why they do certain things in the courtroom. We have a complex legal system in the

state of California including of course the county of Sonoma and uh from time to time there, there are questions that are raised and there is a need to inform the public so that they have a better understanding of what judges do. And so I think that's

the fundamental intention of the, of the sponsors and the co sponsors for this program. Oh, I'd say also that sometimes when I was a lawyer and as a judge, I'd read stories in the newspaper or watch movies and television shows and a lot of what people

think goes on in court is what they see on the television and what they read in the paper and they may have very, um, let's say erroneous or exaggerated beliefs and opinions about the court system and hopefully this is our chance to tell our side of

the story about what actually happens to help and demystifying what judges do. I like that phrase that you both use demystifying because really, as I said earlier on, I have heard this so many times that people do not understand the different actions in court and as

you said a moment ago, seeing the, the, you know, the judge portrayed on television in one fashion, which is really dramatic license taking literary license with the facts. You see a picture that in many cases really is dramatic and all that, that's simply not true, correct.

Amen. Okay, how about local involvement. Um, by that, I mean, are there local co sponsors for the property? Indeed, there are, there are some substantial co sponsors for this event in Sonoma County. The League of Women voters are our co sponsor the santa rosa Chamber of

Commerce, the Sonoma County Bar Association, the uh, Sonoma County office of instruction of Education santa rosa City Schools, the Sonoma County Farm Bureau and there's a related organization, if I remember the name correctly, it is the North Coast livestock protectors Association and there are, there are

others of course, but those are very valued co sponsors for this program and several of the sponsors when it comes to mind is the League of Women voters are really statewide sponsors, not just in Sonoma County but of the statewide project. Not only that, the fact

that sponsors you just mentioned, which is a several large groups uh, I would hope would assure that much of the public will attend and take this opportunity to learn about to meet your judges and learn about the court procedures. Um, serena, let's ask you this who

will be participating as panelists on the public forum. Okay, um, as the title of the program says, meet your judges, we are going to be having virtually all the judges in Sonoma County on the stage that would be Superior Court, Judge john Gallagher there'd be um,

Judge Angelini um, Judge Bill Bettinelli, Judge Larry Sawyer um, practically all the municipal court judges, um, myself, um, judge know Owen bob dale. Um we'll also have a couple of commissioners that do the traffic to answer questions. Judge Gail going up um, you're literally going to

be meeting the public will be meeting literally all the judges here in the county at that that forum. You know, that's a good thing to the fact that they are going to actually see you, all of you people. One of the things that I won't put

either of you on the spot by saying this, but one of the things I've never agreed with was electing judges, I think the judges ought to be made to pass whatever test you have to pass to be a good judgment and appointed and left their uh

this election business for judges uh has always struck me as an abrogation of democracy rather than furthering it, but that just happened to be a personal thought. Uh I do think that both of you here, the fact that you will be there, the judges will be

there and they can meet you and see you. Uh they'll know you next time you run for election to for that sake. But I hate to say that. Uh let me ask the question, let's go with that serena, will there be a moderator at the panel,

who will that be? We are very, very excited about having retired Justice joseph Rattigan as our moderator. He's a wonderful speaker, he's very learned and we're just thrilled that he's going to be our moderator, joe brannigan goes way back here with our District Attorney's office and

then was a state senator too, wasn't and he's now is he still an appellate, whatever it is, you know, he's retired, he's retired, he was an appellate court of appeals in san Francisco. Okay, that was it for many years. Okay, let's get back to you for

a minute, what will the principal focus of the forum? B alright, let me kind of answer that question and go back just a little bit. The event will will be a panel of approximately 14 or 15 judges from both the Superior Court in municipal Court benches

without their black robes and on the stage as members of this panel and their principal role will be to respond orally to questions from the audience. And there will be a procedure that that has been established by the state wide meteor judges type of organization whereby

the public will have an opportunity to ask these questions in writing and then the judges as well as the moderator will have these questions and of course the moderator will announce and state the question and then a particular judge will answer that question depending on whether

it's a question ordinarily reserved for Municipal Court Judge or Superior Court Judge and perhaps in an area where his calendar or assignment happens to be. And but it basically the principal focus is to Have the judges respond in public to the public's questions uh dealing with

uh the Sonoma County Court system and the role of the judges. But you're gonna have 14 or 15 judges uh sands robe on the on the main stage at the vet's memorial judge Rattigan will be up there? Yes, he'll be the moderator, moderator and he'll take

the question and then feed it to whomever. Well how will he decide that just whoever, whatever judge works with that particular type of events at the time? Well, yes. And also based upon experience, in other words, certain calendars within, just speaking for the spirit court, such

as a probate calendar and a judge works on that calendar. Criminal law and motion calendar, Civil law and motion calendar and just taking those calendars as an example, if the question from the public falls in that particular area, generally that will be assigned to a judge

that has experience and is actually is actually acting on that calendar at this time or in the recent past. Uh, so he, you know, he's more experienced with the question and more accustomed to it and I think can give a a very quick, straightforward answer much

quicker. Okay, we're gonna pause right here. We're talking to Judge Lloyd Vonda Maiden and Judge Serena Wong. We're talking about an upcoming program called meet your Judges, which will take place at the santa rosa Veterans Memorial Auditorium, March 5th starting at seven p.m. On monday night,

we'll be back. We're gonna talk a lot more about this particular subject. But first this message from the McGruff files, the philadelphia story in certain parts of philadelphia. Things were rough areas were run down crime and drugs were out of hand and honest folks felt like

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is available from I. R. S. Trained volunteers find them by calling 1 804 24 10 40. They'll make your taxes less taxing. Welcome back to this special edition of Sonoma County in the nineties were talking to two of our local judges, Judge Lloyd Vandermade in the

Superior Court Judge for Sonoma County and Judge Serena Wong and mr Court judge. We're talking about a program that is going to be coming up in March. It's going to be March 5th right I told you earlier, I'd say before I was Mark Smith, which is

a monday night at seven p.m. It's going to take place in the Veterans Memorial Auditorium here in santa rosa. And the judges have told you earlier in our program, there will be fortunate 15 judges up on the stage and the moderator will be former judge joseph

Rattigan and he will pass the questions that come from the audience to these judges. Now let's go into another question, will there be any presentation or speeches by the judges on this patrol? Yes, there will be this question, what goes hand in glove with your last

question. As I mentioned earlier, the principal focus of the program will be the question and answer period from the public to the judges acting as panelists. There will be I think it is five brief presentations and let me emphasize the word brief by by various judges

and by brief I mean approximately three minutes in length and the particular presentations of the judges will focus on certain issues that the judges perceived to be particularly interesting to the public. Uh it may involve I mean not may but will involve a presentation as far

as traffic tickets are concerned and the procedure there will involve small claims court. It will involve family law in the Superior Court involving not only dissolution proceedings but custody questions and such. There will also be a presentation uh under an act called the 1986 trial court

delay act. The Superior Court which is probably a little known to the public and it's in response to a very constant question that that is asked and that is why do the wheels of justice grind so slowly. Well, there is a response to that question and

there is an act in place since 1986 that affects cases in the Superior Court that Sonoma County judges have responded to. So that needs an explanation. And finally, and and by by the word finally, I don't mean the least important. These are all of equal importance.

Issues will be a brief talk or presentation on the impact of drugs on the court system in Sonoma County affecting both criminal and civil cases. What I was thinking of asking, you're kind of answering right now the issues of current interest affecting county residents as perceived

by the judges, that's what they will be addressing in this segment. Each other answers Yeah, they're the ones that you've mentioned thus far are certainly ones that I hear people expressing curiosity and interest in knowing more about. Let's see serena back to you dear, will there

be an opportunity for the public to informally meet the judges during the program? It will be like before and after. Well during the question and answer period um the audience will be in the audience and then the judges will be up in the stage but we're

really excited about the opportunity that after this is completed, the question and answer period, there will be an informal gathering right there at the vets memorial, we will have coffee and tea and cookies and we would be welcoming the audience the people that come to meet

one on one with the judges and if there are any follow up questions or just to say hello, that sort of thing. We're very much um excited about that, that the just to give the people an opportunity to think that well, you know, the judges is

just a human being and not so scary. Well that's right because they see you up there in the dark robes and black robes, not dark black the bench, you know, and you're an ominous figure to many, many people especially, I'm sure those who are there for

for culpable of something, but even the person who sits in the courtroom just to observe is somewhat impressed by the omnipresent presence of the judge up there on the bench. Uh Lloyd, let me jump back to you for this question. What's the importance of the program

in your opinion to the citizens of Sonoma County? Now, this is the one thing we want to make clear to them, probably in one sentence to be better informed of the court system to serve the public in Sonoma County and the role of the judges in

Sonoma County. Uh from time to time there, you know, there are questions asked of judges very often on an informal basis as to why this procedure was used. You know, why is there a delay in this case getting to trial? Why why has my neighbor never

served on jury duty? And I've been called three or four times this year already. You know that I'm just taking a random selection of questions, but there are a number of questions, you know that as judges we hear about either directly or indirectly And uh, many

of these questions, members of the public simply do not have an opportunity to ask the judge. You know, if during the course of a busy calendar, a judge has 50 more cases to handle that day as much as he or she would like to respond to

some of these questions and explain for the benefit of the public. There's simply no opportunity to do so. So this gives the public an opportunity to ask those questions, whether it's a burning question or a lingering questions from the past and to be better informed and

to have a better understanding of the court system, Both the municipal Court and Superior Court that serves the public in the county Rich. I wanted to interject also that to me it's also important because the public needs to have confidence in what is happening. Um, very

much a lot of the business that goes on in the courts, people don't hear about because what's happening is very important. Business that goes well, the only hear about the problems or the things that blow up, uh, the infamous and scandalous, they don't hear about the

day to day work that's going on, that they should have confidence about. We're hoping that in them coming to the forum, they hear what it is that we do. Some of it unfortunately is kind of boring, but they ought to at least have confidence that this

kind of work is being done every day by conscientious people that are following the rules. So they don't have this feeling of jeez, what are they doing over there? Is everything going out of whack? Well it isn't. And we hope that this forum will give them

an opportunity to come away with that feeling well along this line. Will there be any written information distributed to the people that attend the forum? Yes. I don't think it's even been mentioned, but the forum is free of charge and that we are going to be

passing out not volumes or novels or anything, but there are some brochures that we'll be handing out um, about jury duty about small claims. Um, we will have little brochures that have been published by the California Judges Association explaining the court system. So yes, there will

be written materials to hopefully that they can take home and review and so that if it should happen that they need to file a small claims action, that they know how to do it because they've they've gotten this material beforehand. All right. Now, once again tell

me that there is no cost. That's correct. Absolutely no cost. It's free. Free. When will it take place? It'll be monday night March the fifth at seven p.m. At the vet's memorial. Okay. And don't we're not even going to mention that other date that I fouled

up with. I told you serena one more couple more questions here. One for each of you here. But uh in your opinion, what would would the average citizen you've said, you get to see the judges, you get to hear about what to do and that sort

of thing. Should they go back after that evening with a better understanding of the judicial system? Maybe as you said, more belief in it, more trust more faith in it. Do you feel that's what will happen? I know you hope it is. Do you feel that

that kind of uh indeed, I think with the focus of the program, with the brief presentations by the judges as to certain issues of community interest as as we've explained and also with a really a considerable opportunity to ask questions of the judges as a public

forum and uh I don't see how we can help but have a better informed public in Sonoma County. Of those that attend the program. Um there are a number of unanswered questions as to what judges do or why they do it the procedure of cases through

not only the county clerk's office, but the courts themselves and that's the actual day of hearing. That that is perhaps obvious to those that are close to the court system and attorneys that deal with the court system, but to the average person that does not have

a legal education. Sometimes it is mystifying and I think it's, it's important that the judges have an opportunity to respond to some of these questions and that the public have a better view of what actually takes place in the courthouse. So I would hope that first

of all there is a considerable attendance at this program and and secondly that we've reserved the main auditorium as I mentioned the best memorial building but also that the people that do attend will not only find this to be an interesting forum but also to answer

your question specifically will walk away as a better informed public. This is again to stress the point. This is a unique event in the history of Sonoma County courts and the first time there has ever been a situation where the judges themselves have sponsored to form

a moment or two left. There's something I wanted to point out here and I think that I wanted to do this for the audience. Uh Judges don't just spring full grown from the air someplace they are skilled people that have, where did you attend law school?

I went to U. C. Davis Law School then what did you do? I was nine years a deputy district attorney. I was a prosecutor for the county and then became were appointed to the judiciary. Right. All right. About the same thing about you. I want the

people to understand who we're talking to and what you people went through before you got up there and donned the Black Rose. Alright. I graduated from the university of san Francisco School of Law and then immediately went into private practice And I feel somewhat older by

the answer to this question, but was in private practice continuously in Sonoma County for 24 years before I was appointed by the governor to the Supreme Court pension. All right. We have about a minute and a half left to us. If you have any closing comments

either about our visit here or the upcoming meet your judges program, March the fifth at five p.m. I couldn't get that out right if I had two ladies and gentlemen, it takes place March the fifth at seven p.m. In the Veterans. We didn't mention the fact

that we want to especially invite school Children. Um it's designed also to have junior high and high school. There's going to be a push in the schools to give extra credit for students who attend because we want to emphasize the educational portion of this program. Right?

Just very briefly Rich, I want to make it would like to make it very clear to the viewing public that you are invited to this program. It is designed to provide information about the court system and the role of the judges in Sonoma County to you

and we hope that you will attend. All right, ladies and gentlemen, you have heard from Judge Lloyd Van a Maiden and Judge Serena Wong and you have been told by them that there will be 14 to 15 judges on the stage at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium

on monday March 5th, starting at seven p.m. If you want to know more about your judicial system, more about your judges or if you've always had a question you wanted to ask the judge for heaven's be present that night in the main room, the Veterans Memorial

Auditorium, remember once again, monday March 5th, starting at seven p.m. Judge Wong, Judge Vonda Maiden and all of their counterparts will be on stage or there you'll get a chance to meet them beforehand, hear what they say and you'll also have a chance to ask questions.

My name is Rich McGlinchey. This has been a very special edition of Sonoma County in the nineties. We hope that you've enjoyed it and that you will be present. March 5th Monday at seven PM veteran memorial auditorium. Until then. Good night, good luck and good health.

Each and every one of you.