Blog note: this article references candidate comments about the civil grand jury.
MIDDLETOWN— The two candidates running for Lake County Superior Court Judge, Department 4, Shanda Harry and Don Anderson squared off in a debate hosted by the Middletown Area Town Hall (MATH) on Thursday where they fielded questions about their experience, their motives for running for the position, how they felt about new laws, and how they would expect their time when not on the bench, among others for more than an hour.
Speaking about her background, Harry said her amily has been in Lake County for years. The candidate said her great grandparents owned a resort in the 60s and 70s in Clearlake and she used to spend all her summers with her relatives. Harry said she used to joke that she swam in the lake she was three months old and addressed her motivation for running.
“I love Lake County, about 15 years ago basically my entire family moved up here,” she said, “I decided to make this my home. I have been an attorney for 18 years. I went to law school at UCLA. I’ve done a lot of civil, criminal work, I have honestly always wanted to be a judge and I thought that this was the right time to run.”
“One thing that I decided when I wanted to run for judge was that I wanted to get out and meet everyone. I’ve done my best to go out and meet everyone that I can,” she said during her opening remarks.
Anderson said he has been in the county for 49 years, having moved here when he was a junior in High School
“When I was 20 years old I joined the Sheriff’s Office as a reserve before being hired full time,” he said, adding that he spent 15 years as a deputy sheriff. Anderson said in the early years working in the Sheriff’s office he was kind of a rebel. “Back then Middletown was a place nobody wanted to be in. Whenever I did something to upset my administrator, I was sent to Middletown as a punishment.”
He joked that every time his superiors would ask him how things were going, he would ask if he could home to Lakeport.
“In reality that was the best time I ever had in patrol,” he said. “Great people, great times. I made a lot of good friends.”
According to Anderson, he had a tough choice to make. He went to law school while he worked patrol and worked undercover narcotics. “I got my law degree and had to make a decision (whether) to become a lawyer. “10 years ago I ran for district attorney now it’s time for me to move to something new and to new challenges,” he said.
Anderson lists under his accomplishments his tenure as Lake County District Attorney for eight years, the creation of the country’s first perjury unit, and having raised $250,000 for charities while also managing $3 million budgets. He also helped to establish the Veteran’s Court while being an administrative law judge and judicial arbitrator.
For her part, Harry said she was very proud of her endorsements including U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, and Lakeport Mayor Mireya Turner, to name a few.
She added that she went out and got local endorsements from attorneys, correctional officers and others. “I have been very proud of those endorsements,” she said. “It’s the individuals that I sat down and talked to and they said ‘yea we are going to tell our friends’ that I really appreciate.”
When asked about the recent controversy regarding the Grand Jury report and whether they read it and are influenced by the report, Harry’s position was in sharp contrast to the position taken by some members of the Lake County Board of Supervisors, some who have gone on record as calling it “garbage.”
“We assist departments in answering the questions that the Grand Jury has when they make a report,” she said. “I think it’s very important to us to pay attention to what the direct Grand Jury has to say… to clearly explain what’s going on.” She added that a lot of the issues the Grand Jury touches upon are very sensitive issues to the community.
Anderson responded, “Just because you are Superior Court judge does not mean you are ostrich and you stick your head in the sand and you don’t look to other things around you. I think a judge has to be well aware of what’s happening in the community because he is a representative of the community and he has to know a lot about it. However, when he makes decisions and decides on a case, he doesn’t decide (based on) what he’s read in the newspaper, or the Grand Jury report, or anything else he decides only upon the evidence as presented to him, and that’s something very difficult sometimes for any human being to do.”
October 12, 2018
Lake County Record-Bee
By Ariel Carmona
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