Judicial Profile: Abby Abinanti
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ABBY ABINANTI Abinanti's goal: to help youth who come before her Dennis J. Opatrny The Recorder December 17, 2002 A 12-year-old accused of prostitution is almost swallowed up by the chair she is sitting in as San Francisco Superior Court Commissioner Abby Abinanti reads her probation report. The judge notes the child is from Alameda County, which means her case is probably going to become that county's problem. "You intend to send her back?" Abinanti asks the juvenile probation officer. "Have you found a place to send her?" The answer is, not yet. "Try to find a place," the commissioner says, ordering the child to remain in San Francisco custody while the two counties work out where to place her. Abinanti says she has just one goal: to help the kids who come before her. "Like today, we have a prostitute who's in the fifth grade," Abinanti said. "Where am I supposed to send this kid?" Abinanti is presiding over the detention calendar at the Youth Guidance Center, where she must decide what to do with youthful offenders, many of whom have nowhere to go. Her job is probably one of the most difficult for a judge, since she often deals with pre-teens whose families have turned their backs on them. She must punish the child for his or her crime, while looking into the future to decide how to keep the youngster from becoming a habitual criminal. Abinanti laments the limited resources available to her. "The most difficult part of being out here is that people really don't understand juvenile law that well," Abinanti says in an interview. "The city, the county, the state are allowed to neglect children, because they're so invisible. It's painful to watch." 1 Abinanti is a Yurok. (She says to call her a Yurok Indian is redundant.) And she uses Indian and Native American interchangeably. Although born in San Francisco, she was raised on a reservation in Humboldt County, and she began her judicial career as a tribal judge in that county. "I did a lot of Indian law," she said. "I did a lot of training in tribal courts all over the country, training judges from other tribes." When Abinanti sits on the bench, she seldom smiles and maintains a severe, no-nonsense expression. "I think her demeanor is austere and she runs a very procedure- and rule-oriented courtroom," said defense attorney David Simerly. "There's nothing wrong with that. It's just something you have to get used to." "There's none or little banter that goes on [in court,]" added Simerly. "It's OK as long as I know what I'm dealing with." George Lazarus is another defense attorney who practices at YGC and has watched Abinanti. He sees a stern but guiding hand. "She can be demanding at times," Lazarus said. "But she's done a tremendous job of holding people -- lawyers, probation officers, families -- accountable." When asked if she agreed that she possessed an "austere demeanor," Abinanti thought for a moment, then didn't deny it. "I don't let [lawyers] eat their oatmeal and drink coffee and that kind of stuff that they used to do [in the courtroom]," she responded. "It is my job to make [the courtroom] conform to what I've been taught is a court of law," she said. "That does not include a lot of behavior that went on previously. People had gotten too relaxed and too informal." Abinanti gives general high marks to the lawyers who practice before her, but she thinks some of their work is misdirected toward only proving innocence rather than seeking forward-looking solutions to delinquency. 2 "They pour all their resources into that, as opposed to pouring their resources into ... where this person should be sent to be rehabilitated," she said. Abinanti said more and more immigrant children are coming before her charged with selling drugs. She says she is often at a loss about what to do with them. "They're like road kill," she said, meaning they're forgotten and unwanted. "Clearly it's to make money to send home." She says there is no clear-cut sentence for them, since their families are fearful of coming to court to take them home because of their own immigration issues. "Often they'll just leave the kid here until I send the kid back to his country of origin," she said. Assistant District Attorney Franklin Yee has the difficult job of prosecuting young offenders for crimes before a judge who appears more interested in their welfare and future. "I think if there's a doubt, she'll resolve it in the favor of the defendant," Yee said, who conceded his office can sometimes clash with her. "It's usually if our office has taken one position, because we think the law supports our position, then she'll take an opposite position," he said. "That's frustrating," he added. "Then a couple of times I learned that her position was right, and we were wrong." Abinanti recalls the days when there were truancy officers tracking children who were not in the classroom but roamed the streets. "If children are not in school, they're in trouble," she said. "They're either in trouble immediately or in trouble tomorrow, because they have no education. It's heartbreaking." 3 RON ALBERS Commissioner gets top marks in bench quest Pam Smith The Recorder May 06, 2003 The misdemeanor offender in Department 30 is flustered. Commissioner Ron Albers tells him to calm down, but when the man claims confusion over what he was supposed to have done, Albers continues the case to give him another chance to prove he's enrolled in first-offender classes, and methodically explains what needs to be done next. "Sometimes things get confusing, but I think now we're all on the same page," Albers reassures him. Albers addresses everyone with courtesy titles, and explains the proceedings -- and his decisions -- in plain English. "Even though somebody has technically violated the law or the terms of their probation, Ron has worked with them to get them back on track, where another judge might think, 'After the third violation, send 'em to jail,'" said solo Douglas Rappaport. Albers said he frequently puts special conditions on a defendant's release. For instance, he may require a homeless person to provide a phone number where they can be called and reminded of court dates. Deputy Public Defender Stephanie Wargo said Albers "has a soft spot for clients" who show they're trying. But "he's very stern about it; he lets them know what will happen if they don't do what they're supposed to do," she added. "It seems to make [them] want to please him." Albers, who twice ran for judge and lost before being appointed commissioner last year, is getting strong marks from both prosecutors and defense attorneys for his courtroom conduct and knowledge of criminal law. "It's difficult to judge how he'll be in a courtroom where there's more substantive issues," Rappaport said. But "I think he has all the prerequisites for becoming a very fine judge." 4 He's perceived as even-handed by attorneys who have appeared before him, which some say is notable given he was a public defender for more than 20 years. In that job, he was characterized by former co-workers and trial opponents as an aggressive, dyed-in-the-wool advocate for his clients. Yet Assistant District Attorney Michael Menesini, who leads the DA's misdemeanor trial team, said, "I feel very confident that the people will get a fair hearing before Ron. I have no qualms." "A lot of times public defenders that become judges will overcompensate and become tougher, or even really tough, to show that they're not favoring a defendant," said solo Jeffrey Schwartz. "He's really right down the middle, just really objective." Albers' popularity among attorneys isn't universal, though. At least one lawyer he supervised in the public defender's office has some criticisms, while conceding that both of them are strong- willed people who disagreed on just about everything. "I think as a supervisor he played favorites," said Sheila O'Gara, now a civil attorney at Becherer, Kannett & Schweitzer in Emeryville. He "was, all in all, quite difficult to deal with if you challenged his control in any way." Managers have to make difficult decisions, and they don't usually receive unanimous approval, Albers said. "I have, I believe, always tried to be as fair and professional as I could be in dealing with my management responsibilities." Even O'Gara, though, echoes the compliments of former co-workers and trial opponents regarding Albers' work ethic. "He made me proud as a public defender," working hard for his clients amid maelstroms of office politics," O'Gara said. "I think among the judges he has a reputation as being extremely hard-working and very competent," said Judge Kay Tsenin, who ran against Albers for judge and now supervises the criminal master calendar. Albers has served on the State Bar's Board of Governors and served as chairman of its Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation. He was also a founding board member of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom and a co-founder of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association. 5 In addition to performing the duties of bail commissioner -- reviewing applications for own recognizance and special releases and determining probable cause for felonies -- Albers regularly presides in Department 30, where he ensures that misdemeanor offenders comply with conditions of probation.