Our Courts - Contra Costa County Bar Association

Year in Review
Criminal LAW
Hon. John Kennedy
Supervising Judge
We thought last year’s
budget cuts were brutal.
Hold onto your hats for
2013!
The major challenge we faced in
the last year was the arrival with little
advance notice of the Governor’s
realignment legislation. As most of
you know, the realignment legislation
(also known as “AB 109”) made
three fundamental changes to the
criminal justice system: Sentences
for many lower-level felonies are
now served in County Jail rather
than in State Prison; custody credits
for most crimes committed after
October 1, 2011 are calculated at 50%
(meaning day-for-day credit), and
most of the people released from
state prison are now being monitored
by our Probation Department
on post-release community supervision
rather than parole. The Courts
have been given the added responsibility
of presiding over hearings
on revocations of post-release community
supervision.
Our County fared well in light of
the massive changes brought about
by realignment. Due primarily to
the cooperation of our Criminal
Justice Partners, we were prepared
to implement the changes and survived
the transition smoothly. Our
District Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s
Office, Alternate Defender’s
Office, conflicts counsel and private
bar have worked to negotiate dispositions
that take full advantage
of the sentencing options under
realignment. We have also worked
carefully with our Sheriff’s Office
and Probation Office to implement
those sentences seamlessly. For example,
the legislation created the
option of a “split sentence,” in which
a defendant serves a portion of his
or her total sentence in county jail
and the remainder on mandatory
supervision, which is very similar
to probation. Our County stands out
as having a far higher percentage of
split sentences than most, if not all,
other Counties.
Our Criminal Trial Departments
have adapted to realignment and
managed the heavy volume of
cases with dwindling resources.
We are fortunate to have seasoned
trial judges and an extraordinary
support staff. Our felony trial departments
in Martinez include
Judges Barbara Zúñiga, Mary Ann
O’Malley, Thomas Maddock, Leslie
Landau, Susanne Fenstermacher,
Brian Haynes, and Lewis Davis.
Our County fared well in light of the massive changes brought about by
realignment. Due primarily to the cooperation of our Criminal Justice
Partners, we were prepared to implement the changes and survived the
transition smoothly.
These excellent and experienced
trial judges have applied their considerable
talents to try or otherwise
resolve the felony cases before them
within the speedy trial constraints.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude
to our support staff. Despite having
suffered substantial reductions in
their ranks, our staff members have
worked tirelessly with us to bring
these cases to trial.
During 2011, the District Attorney
filed 3,305 felony cases and 8,999
misdemeanors. We tried 100 jury
trials, including 11 homicides and
12 sexual assault cases.
Our Criminal Calendar Departments
have handled the crushing
workload of all of the pretrial matters
between indictment or information
and trial. Judge Clare Maier,
with her boundless energy and enthusiasm,
has conducted all of our
felony pretrial hearings, plus a multitude
of other pre- and post-trial
matters. She has applied her years
of experience and innate sense of
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION CONTRA COSTA LAWYER 15