MURRIETA - Superior Court Judge James T. Warren sees himself as a fly-under-the-radar kind of guy. But there's a flip side to the Riverside County jurist, as shown by his history of bold stands on controversial issues.
In 2000, Warren resigned his position as presiding judge of the county's juvenile court - a job he said he "absolutely loved" - because of his anger over the passage of Proposition 21, a measure that stripped judges of the power to decide whether someone should be tried as an adult or a child.
Three years ago, his public stand against the district attorney's promotion of a prosecutor got him in hot water with the office. District Attorney Grover Trask threatened to call for an ethics investigation into Warren after the judge lambasted Trask's promotion of a prosecutor who had come under fire for knocking blacks and Latinos off jury panels.
Warren's longtime colleagues and lawyers who know him well say he's a passionate person who refuses to back down when he feels he's right.
"He takes a stand and does what he feels is appropriate," said Superior Court Judge Jean P. Leonard, who has known Warren for more than 20 years. "He also accepts the consequences if there are consequences."
Warren, a 21-year veteran of the Riverside County bench, agreed.
"Actually, I think I'm pretty much an introvert most of the time," he said. "But I'm pretty strong about some of my beliefs. I'm a decisive individual, and I don't think anyone will say that I'm wishy-washy."
In court, lawyers who appear on Warren's preliminary hearing and felony settlement conference calendars say his experience shows. He has a solid knowledge of the law, they say, and runs a fairly relaxed courtroom. He said he doesn't penalize attorneys for being late if they have a good reason.
Attorneys also credit Warren with making positive changes at the county's Murrieta-based Southwest Justice Center, where he sits as supervising judge.
"He's a very straightforward, intelligent judge," said Nic Cocis, a Murrieta criminal defense attorney. "He's willing to listen to each side's position, and his decisions are in line with the law and not his own opinions. He has great common sense."
Jay P. Grossman, a longtime Riverside criminal defense attorney, said Warren doesn't tolerate unprepared attorneys.
"He doesn't like nonsense," said Grossman, a sole practitioner. "He lets you say what you want to say, and he's very smart on the law. But don't go in [his courtroom] and make a spectacle of yourself or wing it.
"If you go in there and act like a lawyer and just do your job, you'll have a terrific experience in front of him."
Ron E. Coffee, a supervising deputy district attorney who appears daily before Warren, also gave the judge high marks.
"I think he maintains the ultimate decorum, and he's very thorough about taking pleas and listening to preliminary examinations," Coffee said. "He treats attorneys and victims and witnesses and the public with great respect and deference."
As supervising judge at Southwest, Coffee said, Warren has pushed to improve operations, including meeting monthly with other judges and lawyers on both sides of the bar to upgrade the justice center's calendaring system. He also lobbied successfully to persuade the state and county to build a juvenile hall next to the Southwest Justice Center to serve that region.
"He takes suggestions and tries to implement those," Coffee said. "He's willing to change things if they can be worked out better."
Warren has launched other major court improvements during his 21-year tenure on the bench. As supervising judge of the county's juvenile court, Warren in the early 1990s started the Riverside County Assessment Team, a program to reduce trauma of child assault victims by interviewing them once instead of numerous times by various agencies.
He also started the county's first juvenile drug court in the mid-1990s, modeled after Tulare and a handful of other counties statewide that had such programs at the time. For his work in the field, the Juvenile Court Judges of California in 1998 gave Warren its Juvenile Court Judge of the Year Award.
Warren said juvenile court was his favorite assignment.
"Without a question - it absolutely was my favorite," he said. "I loved it so much because it's an area where a judge can have so much impact and help these children out as much as possible."
However, outraged over the passage of Proposition 21, he left juvenile in 2000. The measure removed discretion of judges to decide whether a youth is fit to be tried as a child, instead letting prosecutors make that call.
"I think we've done irreparable harm to the delinquency side with Prop. 21," Warren said. "I don't think it's necessary to treat some of these kids as adults. They can be rehabilitated if they are still in juvenile court."
The judge garnered headlines for another aggressive stand in 2002. Late that year, he e-mailed Trask and the court's presiding and assistant presiding judges, criticizing the district attorney's promotion of Deputy District Attorney Michael J. Rushton.
Earlier that year, Rushton's jury-selection tactics had came under fire. A trial judge dismissed a jury panel in a case based on defense motions claiming the prosecutor filed peremptory challenges against certain jurors because they were black or Latino. People v. Smith, RIF077491 (Riverside Super. Ct., filed 1996).
In another case, the 4th District Court of Appeal said that Rushton may have excluded black and Latino jurors because of "group bias." People v. Sweeney, RIF5795 (Riverside Super. Ct., filed 1997).
Trask promoted Rushton from the homicide division to supervising deputy of the office's narcotics section in October 2002. Warren said at the time that his e-mail expressed his personal opinion that Rushton should have been "disciplined, not promoted."
At the time, Trask said Rushton was considering suing Warren for libel over comments the district attorney characterized as "reprehensible." Trask also said that he planned to file a complaint against Warren with the Commission on Judicial Performance based on the "unrestrained nature" of the judge's comments.
Trask's spokeswoman, Ingrid Wyatt, said the district attorney can't remember whether he filed the complaint. Rushton did not respond to a request for comment.
Judicial performance commission officials declined to comment.
Warren said he hasn't been disciplined over the incident. He also said Rushton didn't sue him.
Wyatt said her office now has a good working relationship with Warren.
"He's doing a great job on the bench, and he's a good administrator at southwest court," she said. "Things certainly have taken a turn for the better in terms of our relationship with him.
"Tensions were running high for a while, but we're fine now."
Warren said he felt fallout from his e-mail, including strained relationships with prosecutors and backlash from some of his bench colleagues.
"In retrospect, it wasn't one of my better actions," Warren said. "I think some of my colleagues were offended by my actions, and I think it interfered for a while with my relationship with the district attorney's office.
"I think it's important that I do maintain a relationship with both sides, particularly if I'm going to be sitting in a criminal department."
Warren, 65, grew up in the small agricultural town of Dixon, near Sacramento. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics at UC Davis in 1964. Three years later, he received his law degree from Hastings College of the Law.
Rather than jumping right into casework, Warren briefly worked for the state Department of Water Resources and then enlisted in the Army in 1968. A captain, he was assigned to military intelligence at the Pentagon - a position he described as a "glorified messenger boy."
After his discharge in 1970, he was looking for trial experience when he joined the Riverside County public defender's office. He did trial work for the office until 1974, when he went into private practice in Hemet with several partners.
He concentrated on probate, family, corporate and bankruptcy law until Gov. George Deukmejian appointed him to the county's Mount San Jacinto Municipal Court in 1985. Two years later, Deukmejian elevated him to the Superior Court.
Warren served as juvenile court presiding judge in the late 1980s. He served as Superior Court presiding judge in 1991 and 1992, simultaneously handling a criminal calendar.
In April 1993, Warren went back to juvenile court and supervised that division until 2000. Since then, he's been supervising judge of the midcounty region, which includes Perris, Temecula, Murrieta and Hemet. He's sat at Southwest Justice Center since the state-of-the-art facility opened three years ago.
The judge lives in Hemet with his wife, Katherine Warren. They have three adult sons and six grandchildren, two of whom live with Warren and his wife.
Despite his history of taking bold stands on issues, Warren said he's "mellowed" in recent years.
"I think some people might say I'm too decisive and that I judge too quickly, but I don't think so," he said. "I do see both sides of an issue pretty clearly."
Here are some of Judge Warren's recent cases and the lawyers involved:
People v. Delvaccio, SWF010995 - embezzlement
For the prosecution: Robert D. Harton, district attorney's office
For the defense: John S. Pozza, Temecula
People v. Flores, SWF013748 - driving under the influence with a firearm
For the prosecution: Valerie J. Zucker, district attorney's office
For the defense: Richard L. Briones-Colman, public defender's office
People v. Green-Vargas, SWF011987 - statutory rape
For the prosecution: Lorie M. Ronce, district attorney's office
For the defense: Sharon J. Cosgrove, Murrieta
People v. Guntherberg, SWF005287 - lewd act
For the prosecution: Timothy F. Freer, district attorney's office
For the defense: Frank S. Peasley, Riverside
People v. Smith, SWF012388 - vehicular manslaughter
For the prosecution: Daniel W. DeTienne, district attorney's office
For the defense: John S. Pozza, Temecula
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