Judge Michael Sauer to Retire After 36 Years on Bench

Subject: Judge Michael Sauer to Retire After 36 Years on Bench

Original Poster: parishiltonfan4life
Posted on 16-5-2008 at 08:06 PM

By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer is retiring after 36 years on the bench, the judge told the MetNews yesterday.

Sauer, one of the county’s longest-serving judicial officers, said he had no plans other than to “enjoy myself.” His planning on a Disney cruise with his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandchild this summer.

“I could clean out my garage,” the 70-year-old jurist chuckled. “It’ll take two years.”

His last day of work will be June 5, and his retirement will be official July 7, he explained.

Sauer was a Los Angeles deputy city attorney and assistant city attorney or seven years before he became a judge, and has been involved in numerous high-profile cases in both positions. He received worldwide publicity last year when he sentenced socialite Paris Hilton to 45 days in jail for violating probation and returned her to jail after Sheriff Lee Baca granted her an early release.

Sauer grew up in the Windsor Square area of Los Angeles, attended local Catholic schools, including Loyola High School, then went on to the University of Santa Clara and what was then Loyola University School of Law.

He was admitted to the State Bar in 1962 and joined the Superior Court as a law clerk the following year. He became a deputy city attorney in 1964, served as legal advisor to the Los Angeles Police Department in the late 1960s, and became head of the appellate division.

As an appellate lawyer for the city, he argued a number of cases in front of the California and U.S. high courts, the most famous of which was Cohen v. California (1971) 403 U.S. 15, in which the court held that the First Amendment protected an individual’s right to wear a jacket bearing an obscene reference to the military draft while in what is now the Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown.

While with the city, Sauer recalled yesterday, he also prosecuted the two men whose arrests provoked the Watts riots, and advised police on-scene as an estimated 10,000 demonstrators gathered outside the Century Plaza hotel to protest the Vietnam War as then-President Lyndon B. Johnson stayed at an event inside.

He was appointed to the old Los Angeles Municipal Court by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1972 and elevated to the Superior Court through unification in 2000, spending most of his career in misdemeanor, preliminary hearing, and arraignment courts.

He presided over one of the preliminary hearings for Richard Ford and Robert Von Villas, the so-called “Killer Cops”—former LAPD officers who were eventually convicted of a murder-for-hire and of conspiracy to commit murder and robbery.

Sauer has been thinking about retirement for a long time, he said—he has been eligible for maximum benefits for more than 10 years—but said he had not found anything else he was interested in doing.

Source:
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2008/saur051608.htm

Reply: Enkil
Posted on 16-5-2008 at 08:16 PM

He should've retired long time ago. Actually he should've been fired as a judge. That would've been an important step for justice. He abused his power and took advantage of the irrational hatred against Paris to give her a harsh sentence. It's a good reason for me to hate him, but I couldn't care less about him.

Reply: parishiltonfan4life
Posted on 16-5-2008 at 11:54 PM

I agree with you completely Enkil. I couldn't believe it when he gave her such a harsh punishment AND then when he was allowed to get away with abusing his power. He overstepped his position majorly when it came to her and her case. Cause in Los Angeles it's usually the sheriff (i.e. Baca) who handles people's jail sentences, determining if their's room, etc. But he with Paris took it upon himself to handle it and just ugh. I could go on but the past is the past and it's luckily and thankfully done and over with. And I believe it helped to make Paris into an even stronger women.

Reply: Django
Posted on 17-5-2008 at 07:37 AM

I agree with both of you.

This thing should be held up as an advert for birth control. My only regret (other than that he wasn't fired or widespread criticised for his appalling behaviour) is that I don't believe in a hell for him to burn in.

Reply: Princess
Posted on 17-5-2008 at 04:45 PM

I agree with ya!