1st Woman to Join O.C. Superior Court
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After overseeing several high-profile murder cases, Kathleen E. O’Leary has been named presiding judge of Orange County Superior Court, the first woman to hold the office.
She was selected to head the court by a panel of her peers Friday. The year term begins Jan. 1.
Appointed to the Superior Court bench in 1986, she has presided over the People vs. Thomas F. Maniscalco, the former head of the Hessians biker gang who was convicted of a 1994 triple homicide, and other well-known cases.
She also handled pretrial motions in the People vs. John Famalaro, who was sentenced to death last week for murdering Denise Huber who was kidnapped and in 1991 after her car broke down on the freeway.
O’Leary’s early judicial experience includes work from 1981-86 as a judge in West Orange County Municipal Court and as an Orange County public defender from 1975-86. She passed the bar in 1975 after attending Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles.
She replaces Theodore E. Millard, who was named presiding judge in 1995.
--BY JOHN CANALIS, MIMI KO CRUZ AND DEBRA CANO
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