Deukmejian Appoints 5 to New Judgeships in San Diego County

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. George Deukmejian on Friday filled five newly created judicial posts in San Diego County--three on the Municipal Court and two on the Superior Court--naming four prosecutors to the bench and transfering one judge from Los Angeles County.

The five--three men and two women--include three deputy district attorneys, a deputy attorney general and a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge.

Deukmejian appointed Deputy Atty. Gen. Jeffrey Miller, 44, of Leucadia and Superior Court Judge Terry O’Rourke, 39, of Los Angeles to seats on the San Diego Superior Court.

He appointed Deputy Dist. Atty. Christine Goldsmith, 35, of Poway to the El Cajon Municipal Court.

Appointed to the San Diego Municipal Court were former San Diego County Bar Assn. President Melinda J. Lasater, 38, and Louis E. Boyle, 47. Both of the new judges live in Poway and both are deputy district attorneys.

Miller, head of the tort and condemnation section of the attorney general’s office in San Diego, has been a deputy attorney general since 1968. He was graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in 1964 and earned his law degree at the same school in 1967.

O’Rourke was appointed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court by Deukmejian in 1983.

From 1978 to 1983, O’Rourke was in private practice with the Los Angeles law firm of Baker, Ancel, Morris, Spencer and Frye.

O’Rourke, who was raised in San Diego, was a partner and associate in several San Diego and Los Angeles firms from 1972 until 1978. He received his bachelor’s degree from Claremont McKenna College in 1969 and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1972.

The appointment of O’Rourke and Miller leaves three openings still to be filled on the Superior Court bench.

Lasater has been a deputy district attorney since 1974 and has been chief of the office’s juvenile division for the last five years.

She said Friday that she had been seeking a judicial nomination for about a year.

“I have had an opportunity to do a variety of things in my legal career--to try the cases, to supervise other trial attorneys,” she said. “I was president of the County Bar Assn., so I had an opportunity to get a feel for what was going on in the legal profession as a whole. It seemed to me as if being a judge, who is the decision-maker in the courtroom, would be the next logical step.”

Lasater, who was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1970 and earned her law degree from the University of San Diego in 1973, served as president of the county bar in 1985.

Goldsmith has been a deputy district attorney since 1984. Before that, she was in private practice in the El Cajon area for five years. She was a criminal defense lawyer for Defenders Inc. in 1977 and 1978.

“I like the idea of moderating disputes that occur in the courtroom,” she said Friday.

Goldsmith received her bachelor’s degree from the University of the Americas in Mexico in 1973 and her law degree from the University of San Diego in 1976.

Boyle has been a deputy district attorney since 1973 and is currently chief of the office’s East County division in El Cajon.

He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut in 1961 and his law degree from the University of San Diego in 1972.

Superior Court judges are paid $81,505 a year; Municipal Court judges are paid $74,432.

Times staff writer Jim Schachter in San Diego contributed to this report.