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Senior 9th Circuit judge and civil rights advocate Warren Ferguson dies at 87

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal judge Warren Ferguson died on Wednesday of heart failure, The Recorder reported. He was 87.

Ferguson was born in Nevada and moved to Los Angeles in 1946. He settled in Fullerton, went into private practice and then became Buena Park's first city attorney. He was also city attorney for Placentia, Baldwin Park, Santa Fe Springs, La Puente, Rosemead and Walnut.

Ferguson also was taught at Loyola Law School and psychiatry (law) at USC's medical school.

He was appointed to the Central District federal court in 1966 and elevated 13 years later to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal.

He presided over many noteworthy cases according to a press release by the appellate court. Ferguson ruled in USA v. Smith that warrantless electronic surveillance of a defendant accused of unlawful possession of firearms was unconstitutional even though the Attorney General authorized it as in the interest of national security.

He also ruled that video recorder manufacturers weren't contributorily liable for copyright infringements when people used them to recorder content on their televisions in the 1979 trial, Universal City Studios v. Sony Corp.

His son, Peter, also told The Recorder that his father got a late-night phone call from federal district court Judge John Sirica, asking for advice as he presided over the criminal cases of the Watergate burglars.

A private memorial service in being planned at Fort Rosecrans in San Diego.

Obituary in The Recorder
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals obituary

Retired L.A. judge Robert Einstein died at 83

Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Einstein died yesterday, the Metropolitan News-Enterprise reported.

He was 83. Einstein, a Chicago native, started a practice in East L.A. in 1953 and in 1981 was appointed to Los Angeles Superior Court by then-Gov. Jerry Brown.

He served two more terms and then joined Judicate West as a mediator and private judge, MetNews reported.

Services are today at 1 p.m. at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park. Donations are requested to go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Irvine attorney Mark Alan Wright dies in motorcycle crash at 53

Irvine attorney Mark Alan Wright died in a motorcycle crash on I-395 on Monday night, the Orange County Register reported. He was 53.

The motorcycle skidded onto its side, throwing off Wright and Deborah Robinson, a passenger riding on the back of the bike who is in critical condition.

Wright was the chief counsel and founder of The California Law Group, which focused on criminal defense, personal injury and wrongful death, and family law.

Wright taught CLE courses, was an associate legislative attorney and past governor of the Consumer Attorneys of California as well as a judge pro tem at O.C. Superior Courts, according his firm's bio page.

L.A. Judge David Mintz dies from lung cancer

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Mintz died from lung cancer on Monday, the Metropolitan News Enterprise reported.

Mintz was 40 years old when he was elected to the seat in 2000.

As a law professor at Pepperdine University, he taught legal seminars for prosecutors, lawyers and police officers and wrote about criminal law. Mintz also spent 15 years working at the District Attorney's Office, serving as deputy-in-charge of the Real Estate Fraud Unit.

Longtime California Judge, Joseph Lodge dies at 76

One of the longest serving judges in California history, Santa Barbara Judge Joseph Lodge died last Monday after a 10 year battle with  lymphoma, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 76.

Lodge, a Minnesota native, came to California to practice law. At age 26, fresh out of law school, he won an election against an incumbent judge, despite knowing few people, Santa Barbara University's Daily Nexus reported. He was the youngest judicial officer in the state, working mostly on preliminary hearings and misdemeanor trials, the Santa Barbara Independent reported.

The next year, 1959, he started what would be a long teaching career at U.C. Santa Barbara. Lodge went on to become a municipal court judge and superior court judge in Santa Barbara's South County.

After four years fighting cancer, he had a non-retirement party in 2002 which he decreed was in lieu of a memorial service. The Santa Barbara Independent reports that Lodge wrote his own obituary concluding “I do go gentle into that good night.”

Lodge willed his body to UCLA's medical school to help with a shortage in research cadavers for young medical students, the Santa Barbara Independent reported.

Civil litigation attorney Robert Chávez dies at 45

Los Angeles attorney and former professional volleyball player Robert Chávez  died unexpectedly last Thursday, the Metropolitan News-Enterprise reported.

Chávez was a civil litigation attorney at Wilkes & McHugh, representing dentists, police officers, lawyers, sheriff deputies and insurance companies. His profile on the firm claims that in 2005 he won the largest abuse award in L.A. County's history and second largest in the state - a $12.83 million verdict for a dependent adult.

Chávez is the founder of the Association of Volleyball Professionals, which he competed on for 16 years. He is also the son of former L.A. Superior Court Judge Victor Chávez and the brother of Court of Appeal Judge Victoria M. Chávez.

Memorial services are set for tonight at 7:00 pm at St. Anastasia's Church, 7390 West Manchester Avenue and a funeral mass is planned there for Wednesday at 10:00 am.

Retired Court of Appeal Justice Douglas McDaniel dies at 87

Retired Court of Appeal Justice F. Douglas McDaniel died on April 17, the Metropolitan News-Enterprise reported. He was 87.

McDaniel was a World War II Marine pilot who joined the California State Bar in 1949. He became deputy district attorney for Imperial County in 1951 and chief deputy in 1954.

In 1959, he joined Byrd Sturdevant as a partner until he was appointed to the 4th District Court of Appeal in 1974, where he sat until 1990. He continued to serve as an assigned judge until 1999.

A memorial for McDaniel is set for today at 11:30 a.m. at the Lake Arrowhead County Club on 250 Gold Course Road.

Retired L.A. Judge J. Kimball Walker dies at 83

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J. Kimball Walker died last Thursday of a heart attack, the Metropolitan New-Enterprise reported. He was 83.

Walker was born in Casper, Wyoming and came to California as a Justice Department lawyer and became chief trial attorney for the claims department at the U.S. Attorney's Office in what is now the Central District of California. He opened a solo practice in Bellflower in 1953 and was mayor of the city from 1964-65. Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the Los Cerritos Municipal Court in 1976 and promoted Walker to Los Angeles Superior Court in 1980, were he stayed before retiring in 1992.

Services will be held on Saturday at 2 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 205 N. Fowler St. in Bishop.

San Bernardino attorney Kirk Moore dies at 48

San Bernardino attorney Kirk Moore died on March 12 after a long fight with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, The Sun reported. He was 48.

Moore started his legal career at San Bernardino's Lubey & Lerner, which focuses on workers' compensation, personal injury and social-security disability.

"He was very fun-loving and flamboyant. He owned a Classic Rolls Royce and also a Porsche and enjoyed getting dressed up in a tuxedo and smoking a cigar," Larry Lerner, a name partner at the firm, told The Sun.

Moore, who eventually became a name partner at the firm, was a big supporter of the Boy Scouts, his alma mater USC, and Santa Claus Inc., a non-profit providing toys, clothing and books to local kids in need.

He reportedly kept working until February. Services were held on March 21.

Read The Sun's full obituary here

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie dies at 79

U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie died of cancer last Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 79.

Rafeedie called himself "the only carny to get to the federal courts," the Times reported. After fighting in the Korean War, Rafeedie followed a carnival friend who was studying law and applied to USC.

In 1971, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed Rafeedie to Los Angeles Superior Court, where he heard the celebrity cases of Groucho Marx, Rod Stewart and Evel Knievel, the Associated Press reported.

In 1982, President Reagan appointed Rafeedie to U.S. District Court, where he heard the torture-murder case of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent and controversially ruled that the kidnapping of a suspect violated a U.S.-Mexico extradition treaty.  He also presided over the plea agreement of a Beverly Hills doctor who's cooperation led to the criminal investigation of the firm now known as Milberg Weiss, according to the AP.

 Services are Thursday at 10 a.m. at St. Monica Catholic Church, 725 California Ave., Santa Monica. Send donations to the City of Hope, 1055 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90017.

Los Angeles Times Obituary
Associated Press Obituary