Keynote judge has controversial record

The keynote speaker at today’s Orange County Conference for Women has been the subject of criticism by other women’s groups for her decisions in the custody case involving O.J. Simpson’s children.

Orange County Superior Court Presiding Judge Nancy Wieben Stock, 55, has had a 30-year legal career that includes 17 years on the bench and eight months as the county courts’ presiding judge.

The second annual conference at the Balboa Bay Club was spearheaded by Newport Beach City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle and will cover topics including trends in women’s health and the judiciary in today’s society.

Stock said Wednesday that her speech will address “compassionate justice” and judges who use nontraditional methods to address problems such as mental illness, homelessness and domestic violence.

“Basically they involve intense judicial oversight, they involve judges calling back parties to court six or seven times more than they would be in court otherwise to hold them accountable” as they participate in programs to rehabilitate them and keep them out of court in the future, she said.

“This form of judging has not always been popular or even well understood,” Stock said.

In 1997 Stock was the subject of an unsuccessful recall effort led by the Los Angeles-based Women’s Progressive Alliance. The group was angry about the judge’s decision to grant O.J. Simpson custody of his children after he was acquitted of charges that he murdered their mother, Nicole Brown Simpson.

An e-mail from the Nicole Brown Foundation in Dana Point on Wednesday criticized Judge Stock for the custody decision.

Stock said she will not discuss those issues at today’s conference because “that really isn’t related to my topic.”

She declined to comment on the Nicole Brown Foundation’s allegations. Daigle did not return a call for comment Wednesday.