Judge Young finally to retire

Two years after injury, state OKs retirement; governor to name successor

By DAVID RYAN
Register Staff Writer

Napa County Superior Court Judge Ronald Young’s bid for a disability retirement — 15 months after Young applied for it — has been accepted by state officials.

The decision ends a long period in limbo for Young, 58, and for the court, which has been without Young’s services for two years and now officially has a vacancy that can be filled by an appointment from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Young suffered serious injuries in a 2003 car accident, injuries that have yet to mend. The complicated injuries, which the Register decided not to detail out of respect for Young’s privacy, have prevented him from serving on the bench since the spring of 2005.

The Administrative Office of the Courts made a decision about Young’s retirement on Thursday.

Young is known for helping to create a drug rehabilitation program and an advocacy group for foster children. He is beginning his retirement this week, after more than 22 years of judicial service.

“I’m very sorry that my career ended in this fashion rather than the way I hoped,” Young said. “I enjoyed the work that I did in the law, but the opportunity to be a judge was such an honor. I appreciated every day that I had and I felt the community has been so kind to me just giving me a chance to serve.”

Napa County Public Defender Terri Davis said Young is “very methodical, very careful, very thoughtful and is always trying to be fair.”

Early in his career, Young served as a deputy district attorney in San Diego and Napa counties. In the late 1970s he joined the Napa firm of Coombs & Dunlap. While at the firm, he worked as a city attorney for the town of Yountville and the city of Napa.

He was elected to the Napa County Municipal Court in 1984.

By 1990, he was involved with the merger of the municipal court and the superior court. Napa was the first county to unify its courts as part of a  statewide streamlining effort.

Young also took on the responsibility of helping to form the Napa County Drug Court, a program that is often successful in turning the lives of drug addicts around.

“We were able to look at people in less of an adversarial role and look at what we could do to keep this person from getting in the court system again,” Young said.

Davis said the district attorney’s office at the time was leery of the program, as was the public defender’s office, because the program would be run by the district attorney.

“If he hadn’t insisted on dragging us to all these other counties to see how they did the drug court, it would have taken more time,” Davis said.

Likewise, Young worked with other members of the community and the Napa County Health and Human Services agency to establish the Court Appointed Special Advocates. The group trains volunteers to go into homes and establish an independent assessment of the treatment of children, providing a better source of information to the courts about the status of foster children. It also advocates for foster children throughout the juvenile court process.

“Ron Young was the first judge that chaired our advisory committee that developed all the rules and the protocols and the memorandum of understanding,” Davis said.

Napa Superior Court Executive Officer Steve Bouch said when this latest vacancy is filled, the court will have a full staff of judges for the first time in two-and-a-half years. He estimated it could take six to nine months to fill Young’s position.

“Gov. Schwarzenegger hasn’t taken as long (as former Gov. Gray Davis), but he has 50 vacancies to fill,” Bouch said.

Visiting Judge Michael Byrne and Visiting Judge Philip Champlin have stepped in during the past couple of years to help the court keep pace after two retirements and a promotion created vacancies.

Since 2005, former Napa Superior Court Judges Scott Snowden and Richard Bennett have retired.

The governor appointed Commissioner Rodney Stone to replace Snowden and Diane Price to replace Bennett. Court officials made former Napa County prosecutor Monique Langhorne-Johnson a commissioner to fill Stone’s old post.

Typically, past judicial candidates have said, Schwarzenegger’s office looks for lawyers with strong local references who will swear by the state’s capital punishment laws, regardless of political affiliation.

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