BREAKING NEWS:

Former Newport Beach City Councilman and prominent attorney Gary Proctor was found dead Sunday afternoon in his San Jose home in an apparent suicide, police said Monday.

Police responded to a residence in the 700 block of Harry Road in San Jose shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday and found Proctor, 63, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Officer Jermaine Thomas of the San Jose Police Department. Police would not release more information on Proctor’s death because it appeared to be a suicide, Thomas said.

Proctor resigned from his for-profit law firm that represents low-income clients in Santa Clara County dependency court last month after a San Jose newspaper ran a series of investigative stories on the firm’s alleged shortcomings.

A series of stories in the San Jose Mercury News in February alleged that Proctor’s Santa Clara-county contracted firm, Juvenile Defenders, did not defend its low-income clients aggressively when it cost too much money to investigate cases.

Proctor was elected to the Newport Beach City Council in 2000 on a platform opposing expansion at John Wayne Airport, although he split his time between residences in Newport Beach and San Jose. Proctor stepped down from his 2nd District council seat in 2003. He said at the time that he felt the airport issues he ran for office on were no longer relevant to the city.

Proctor was a well-known and respected attorney in Orange County, said Orange County Superior Court Judge David Thompson, a friend of Proctor’s. The firm Juvenile Defenders also once had a contract with Orange County Superior Court, he said.

“I got the news on my way to work this morning and couldn’t believe it — I nearly ran off the road,” Thompson said. “He was very well respected — the best. Everyone in Orange County knew who Gary Proctor was.”

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.